Creamy mac

I think it’s time I finally posted about my mac and cheese recipe. It’s a staple in my house – I’d say I make it a least once a week, maybe every other week. It’s that darn delicious! And it’s also completely plant-based, so it’s good for you too! If I lost you at plant-based, please DON’T STOP READING! I promise you, you will not be disappointed! You will be surprised how much you actually like, I mean love, this mac and cheese. If you have a problem with me calling it mac and “cheese,” then no worries, we can call it “creamy vegan mac.”

Even though I am not exactly a vegan, I LOVE plant-based food. Ninety percent of my diet is plant-based. The first time I had vegan mac and cheese was at my favorite restaurant, Great Sage (check out my post on carrot cake for an ode to Great Sage as well!). My husband, who at the time was still just my boyfriend, took me to Great Sage for the first time. We both ordered our own entrees, and then, because we are both big eaters, instead of dessert, we ordered an entrée of the vegan mac and cheese. It was so unbelievably rich and creamy! We were blown away at how luxurious it was and there was not a hint of dairy! If I had been in a blind taste-test, I would have never known there was not a lick of cheese in the dish.

Ever since that memorable evening, my husband and I had been on the quest to make our own vegan mac and cheese. We first experimented with combining a few recipes that called for raw cashews, Dijon mustard, raw garlic, and a few other ingredients. The dish was delicious, but halfway through our bowls, our stomachs were starting to hurt. The cashews gave the mac a wonderful richness and creaminess, but it was way too intense. It was like having a cup of peanut butter, or in this case cashew butter, stirred into your pasta….you get the picture, just a heaviness that was overpowering.

So, one rainy evening when we got home rather late, we needed something to eat for dinner. I had seen many recipes for vegan mac and cheese and I was craving something comforting, but something that would not kill my sensitive stomach. My hunger pangs were crippling so I just started pulling items out of the fridge and whipped up what turned out to be the most delicious spur-of-the-moment meal ever!

I use brown rice pasta in my recipe because I have to follow a gluten-free diet, but you can use any pasta you like. I prefer the Tinkyada brand over many other brown rice pasta brands. I find it is less starchy and cooks more evenly than other competitor brands.

The two key ingredients in this recipe are nutritional yeast and white miso paste. These two ingredients impart an unctuousness unparalleled to any other plant-based ingredient. Miso paste is the same base of the familiar miso soup. It’s incredibly salty, tangy, thick and full of gut-friendly probiotics. Nutritional yeast is actually a cultured by-product that is grown on molasses. Uncharacteristic of its name, however, it is not active and it will not make your bread rise if you try to substitute it in place of active yeast in a bread recipe. Nutritional yeast comes in the form of yellow powdery flakes and you can find it in bulk in most health-food stores.

1 lb. Tinkyada brown rice pasta (shape of your choice! Just not spaghetti!)

1 cup unsweetened, plain almond milk

¾ cup nutritional yeast

¼ cup white miso paste

1 can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

1 cup steamed and cooled cauliflower OR 1 cup canned pureed pumpkin***

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook the pasta according to the directions on the package, and drain and rinse thoroughly. While the pasta is cooking, prepare the “cheese” sauce. In a food processor, combine the almond milk, nutritional yeast, white miso paste, cannellini beans, and cauliflower (or pumpkin if using pumpkin). Puree until smooth and creamy with no lumps. Pour the sauce back into the pot in which the pasta was cooking and turn on low heat. Stir in the cooked pasta and heat through until just warmed. Enjoy with a side salad or freshly steamed broccoli.

***Either the cauliflower or the pureed pumpkin work wonderfully in this recipe. The first few times I made it, I used the pumpkin, which gave the dish a more Velveeta color; but then again, using cauliflower gives the dish a white cheddar spin. If you choose to use pumpkin, you may need to add more miso paste and a hint of salt because the pumpkin is naturally sweeter than cauliflower. Just taste as you go and adjust the seasoning accordingly.