On today’s episode of Cooking Nostalgia-Driven Classics Whilst Simultaneously Emptying My Pantry, we tackle the Hamburger Helper. Just like Mom used to make it. Except, not really.

As always, if you dig this recipe, tag me at @draggedthroughthegarden on instagram and we can talk about what that little glove is up to these days.

Vegan Hamburger Helper. You won’t need much help.

VEGAN HAMBURGER HELPER

prep time: 5 minutes
cook time: 20 minutes

The last few recipes haven’t been very visually appealing!

This recipe requires you to cook up some plant based meat, add broth and then pasta and then vegan cheese.

To start, you’re going to make them burger meats.

What you’ll need:

plant based meat
garlic
onion
salt
pepper
olive oil
garlic powder
onion powder
worcestershire
soy sauce
tomato paste
vegetable broth

The foundation to most of these recipes.

As pictured above, throw some oil in a pan and add half an onion. Then mince three cloves of garlic right in there too.

Take whatever your plant based meat may be and crumble it into the pan. Break it up a whole bunch and then add salt and pepper. Add in a tablespoon each of garlic powder, onion powder, worcestershire, soy sauce and tomato paste. Stir it up and let the plant meat stuff cook out for a few minutes until brown.

Add two cups of vegetable broth into your pan and bring the temperature up to a boil.

Next, you’re going to add pasta and cheese!

What you’ll need:

pasta
vegan cheese
salt
pepper
green onion (optional)

Whatever your pasta of choice may be, add an entire box of it to the pan. The pasta will soak up all of the broth, it’s cool. I used Banza’s cavatappi for this — but feel free to use whatever you want. I guess this recipe is gluten-free too.

Stir up your pasta so everything is as submerged as it can be. Add one entire bag of vegan cheese shreds. Yes, you read that correctly. Put a lid on it and bring it to a simmer. Let it cook for about 10 minutes. After that, take the lid off, give it a stir and let it cook topless for another five minutes.

Now if you want, dice up some green onion or parsley or something and throw that on top. Mom never did that, but this is going on instagram and people eat that up.