Recipe: Vegan Mac N Cheese

Remember how I showed you  what I had been eating over the past 2 weeks. Time to share some recipes! With this new diet of mine, I have been eager to try some different recipes. Things I wouldn’t have made before. One of them would be this vegan macaroni and cheese. I first saw this on youtube, where Tara Stiles (the yoga lady) makes some delicious sounding, mostly vegan, recipes. It looked so good that I tracked down the recipe and tried making it myself.

And this is the result! It was so yummy that I ate nearly half the amount I made. I didn’t put in the mushrooms as I didn’t have those, but I did go with the roasted broccoli. I am actually liking as much and possibly even more as regular Mac N Cheese. The reason why this is good is because the cashew nuts combined with the nutritional yeast (edelgistvlokken in Dutch). The nutty creamy flavor combined with the crispy broccoli and then the great flavors with the garlic, mustard and yeast makes this a great dish with 100% flavor but without the guilt. Because ground up cashews are so much better than melted cheese with flour.

One note: this is best straight from the oven. I always freeze my meals as I always have too much, but then the nut sauce becomes a bit clumpy. The texture will change, but the flavor remains. Next time I make this I would make more sauce though as I think the pasta – sauce ratio was a bit too much pasta not enough sauce. Furthermore I would pack a whole lot more veggies in there. Apart from broccoli some red onion, peppers, mushrooms and courgette/ zucchini will make this even better.

Here’s the recipe I used (from Detoxinista.com):

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. (If you are adding roasted broccoli to your dish, this would be a good time to start preparing that, so it can roast in the oven while you work on the rest!) You should also start boiling some water to prepare your pasta.
2. If you have a Vita-Mix, or other high-powered blender, making this sauce is incredibly easy. Simply throw the first ten ingredients into the blender, and blend until smooth and creamy!
3. If you do not have a high-powered blender, don’t worry– you can easily use a food processor or blender to process the cashews first, until they are finely ground, or ideally, a nut-butter-like consistency. Once your cashews are thoroughly processed, add the rest of the ingredients and process until thick and smooth.
4. At this time, you should check your pasta. Once it’s cooked to your liking, drain and rinse it, then return the pasta to the pot to be mixed with the cheese sauce.
5. If you’re adding any roasted or sauteed veggies, this would be the time to do it. I highly recommend adding roasted broccoli to this dish!
6. Once you’ve mixed everything together, pour the mac n’ cheese into an 8 x 8 square dish and garnish with a sprinkle of paprika and black pepper. Bake at 350F for 20 minutes.
7. Let cool for about 5 minutes, then serve!

And here is the video from Tara Stiles, for those of you who are visible learners.

Enjoy your meal!