Red Lentil and Asparagus Pasta with Tempeh Bacon

1. In a small bowl, pour boiling water over your cashews to soak them. Set aside.

2. Make the marinade. Combine with the tempeh in a container with a lid and put in the fridge.

2. Put a saucepan of salted water on to boil for the pasta, and pop it in when you have a rolling boil. Cook 1 min less than the packet suggests, and do not rinse the pasta when it’s cooked (5 mins for Tesco red fusilli). Keep one large mug of pasta water for later.

3. Heat some oil in a pot. Finely chop the onion/shallot and mince the garlic. Fry off the shallot/onion in olive oil with a pince of sea salt for 5 mins. Meanwhile, snap the woody ends off the asparagus and finely chop the stems, slice the tips in half. Add the chopped asparagus stems and fry 5 more mins. Add the garlic and sliced tips, and fry a further 2 mins.

4. In a non-stick frying pan, fry off the marinaded tempeh until it starts to char in places. Add one more tbsp of tamari for flavour and fry until the liquid has disappeared. Take off the heat and add 2/3 of it to the main pan, along with the cooked red lentil pasta and frozen peas. Stir to combine, heat gently.

5. Whizz up all the ingredients for the cashew sauce, or alternatively, use any cream of choice. You’ll need about 120ml, add some of that reserved pasta water in there, too.

6. Pour the cream over pasta, combine and divide into bowls, top with the remaining tempeh, fresh herbs, olive oil and black pepper.