Vegan Mac and Cheese

I miss my mac and cheese. I love a challenge when I embarked on this journey
I had 3 questions.
Can I find a Fat free, fiber free, dairy free, MAC AND CHEESE? Can it be done?
Do I have to spell cheese different when not using dairy?

As with all great quests I consulted the internet first. I found a lot of recipes, some had ingredients that I didn’t feel the need in investing in, some just seemed lame… one simply told you to add yeast flakes to hot pasta and stir LAME. I found this site just in time. I was really impressed by the authors knowledge of yeast flakes, I had been curious for quite a while about what was involved in creating such a product. I was impressed to know that they are not simply chemicals! Yeye! Anyway, I took this recipes and added my own little spin. Was it the Mac attack I used to enjoy? Well, not really. Was it good and did I eat a lot of it. For sure. I would recommend this to any vegan. For my cheese loving friends it fell a little short. Don’t get me wrong, it was good and I enjoyed it, but it was not exactly the “no boil mac and cheese” that I used to make for parties… but really nothing could replace that recipe. I did however save some of the left over cheese sauce for crackers, it made a nice dip!

Posted by Kathy on 1/29/2010 originally from lunchboxburnch

http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2010/01/vegan-mac-n-cheese-two-dairy-free.html

Nutritional Yeast Quick Mac n Cheese
vegan

6-7 Tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
1 1/2 cups plain fat free soy milk
1 cup sweet potato, mashed
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1Tbsp mustard (I use homemade honey mustard)

1 drop of liquid smoke (be careful not to add too much!)
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
8 oz pasta

Directions:

1. Heat your sweet potato - about small to medium sized - in the microwave or oven. Heat until cooked through.
2. In a small medium sauce pan cook the onions. For low residue friends spray the pan in pam, cook for 2 mins. then add ¼ cup apple juice and continue to “braise” onions until translucent. Or Cook on medium heat with a tsp. of oil until translucent.
   After your onion is cooked add your nutritional yeast flakes, garlic powder, pepper, vinegar, soy milk, mustard and liquid smoke. Stir well.
3. When your sweet potato is ready, peel off the skin and mash it well. Scoop about 1 cup of the mashed sweet potato into your sauce pan. Mash it well into the liquid. Cook on low/med low for about 5 mins. You should get a nice thick creamy orange sauce. You can always add more liquid if you'd like a thinner sauce. And you can add more sweet potato if you'd like it super thick and a tad sweeter. You can even add in more nutri-yeast flakes for an extra strong nutty 'cheese' flavor.
4. Boil some salted water on the stove and drop your pasta for cooking as directed on box/bag.
5. While the pasta is cooking use a hand emersion blender Or in a food processor -puree the mixture.– (You can even a whisk the sauce if you don’t have anything fancy, but you will not have as smooth of a sauce.)
6. Drain your cooked pasta and drop it right into your sauce and fold in the sauce. However, you can keep the pasta warm in a 180 degree oven, or re-heat in oven or microwave as needed. I toped mine with panco breadcrumbs as an attempt at a crisp topping.

I hope you enjoy some easy vegan comfort pasta!