Vegan mac'n'cheese?

Photo credit: Mattie Hagedorn

Well, considering my last post about dairy, and my reading about beta glucans, a phytochemical in nutritional yeast that is an amazing immune system builder, it's not going to be a surprise that I made vegan mac'n'cheese yesterday.

I read that nutritional yeast tastes a bit like cheese but I had no memory of that from my popcorn-eating days. And of course -- readers of this blog won't be surprised to hear -- Lindy hates nutritional yeast.

So here's what I started with: Nutritional Yeast Cheese Sauce.

I didn't use dried mustard; we always put Dijon in our mac and cheese so I mixed that in. Also I added black pepper and red pepper flakes. Later I added lemon juice. I think that was critical in eliminating the more unpleasant side of the taste of nutritional yeast.

It did taste cheesy, i have to say that. I liked it, but then, I like everything.

Earlier in the day I roasted 2 red peppers on the stove, a time-consuming but gratifying activity. I just held the peppers right on the gas jet until they were entirely black, then I scraped the black off. Run them under water to get the black scraps off and they look just like jarred red peppers only they aren't as well done. Really tasty though.

So I fried a chopped onion and some sliced garlic and some sliced mushrooms, sliced the red peppers and threw them in, added a whole bunch of spices like parsley, basil, oregano and thyme.

I sent the kids to the Brooks co-op to get some kind of veggie-based elbow pasta, and they came back with brown rice pasta. It said to boil it for 15 minutes, but that's ridiculous. It was way overdone. I'll watch more carefully next time.

The "cheese" sauce was a bit thick by then so I added some almond milk to thin it, then combined the veggies, the sauce and the pasta. I separated some out for Francie, the vegan, and added parmesan cheese on the top of the non-vegan one, just for some real-cheese vibes. On top of hers I put panko.

I forgot hers was in the oven. It was way overdone. I haven't heard yet if she found it palatable. Eli and I really liked it though (ours wasn't overdone.)

Lindy came home from his business trip late last night. After some equivocating, I ended up telling him the secret ingredient in the vegan mac'n'cheese. He has his doubts, but he hasn't tried it yet. Further bulletins as events warrant.

Lisa