Friday, June 11, 2010

Miraculous Vegan Macaroni and Cheese



I'm spending the week in Calgary with my sister and love-of-my-life nephew, Matthew—and both have major milk allergies. We were looking for something quick and easy to make one night, and Jennie pulled out this recipe.

Now, mac 'n' cheese is probably tops on my most-favourite comfort foods list (see deluxe mac 'n cheese recipe, below), so I was a little doubtful about my sister's vegan take on things. But if you've got cheese-loathing people in your mix, this is a seriously great (and easy!) recipe—totally cheesy deliciousness, sans fromage. My mom's got a gluten allergy, so we used rice pasta here - and still just as delicious.


Miraculous Vegan Macaroni and Cheese recipe
Adapted from RecipeZaar

1 1/2 cups plain soymilk
1 cup water
1/3 cup tamari or soy sauce
1 1/2 cups nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon salt
3 ounces firm tofu
3/4 cup canola oil
1 1/2 lbs macaroni noodles
2 teaspoons mustard (optional)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F.

Cook pasta in salted boiling water until al dente.

Toss all of the ingredients (sans pasta) in a blender (liquid and powdered) and blend until smooth.

Once pasta is cooked, drain and put it in the baking pan pour the cheese sauce over the pasta.

Bake at 350°F until the top of the pasta looks slightly browned and crispy—about 15 minutes.

2 comments:

Anicka said...

Update from my sister, the originator of this recipe - superyum changes!:

OK - so I tweaked this recipe tonight and had great results. I used a tablespoon of seasoning salt instead of plain old salt, and I reduced the 1/3 cup of tamari by about half. I also used a tablespoon of yellow mustard rather than the 2 tsp that the recipe lists. The big changes were the addition of about 3 cups of chopped cauliflower (blanched), I reduced the pasta to 1 pound, and I stirred in about 1/4 cup of sundried tomatoes (packed in oil). Baked it for 15 minutes, then stirred the whole thing, then coated it in bread crumbs (probably about 1/2 cup) - then baked another 20 minutes. Amazing - the sauce really thickened, the cauliflower was really good in it, and the sundried tomatoes added some great flavour. The recipe is great on its own, but this was a pretty good variation!

Anicka said...

Update from my sister, the originator of this recipe - superyum changes!:

OK - so I tweaked this recipe tonight and had great results. I used a tablespoon of seasoning salt instead of plain old salt, and I reduced the 1/3 cup of tamari by about half. I also used a tablespoon of yellow mustard rather than the 2 tsp that the recipe lists. The big changes were the addition of about 3 cups of chopped cauliflower (blanched), I reduced the pasta to 1 pound, and I stirred in about 1/4 cup of sundried tomatoes (packed in oil). Baked it for 15 minutes, then stirred the whole thing, then coated it in bread crumbs (probably about 1/2 cup) - then baked another 20 minutes. Amazing - the sauce really thickened, the cauliflower was really good in it, and the sundried tomatoes added some great flavour. The recipe is great on its own, but this was a pretty good variation!