Vegan Mac ‘n Cheese

January 9th, 2008 · 6 Comments

Before I get to the vegan Mac ‘n Cheese, a quick shout-out for PS I LOVE YOU: I saw this yesterday, worried it would be corny. The premise — dead husband leaves widow a series of letters for her to open post-mortem — is kind of corny. The movie is NOT, and I’m worried it won’t find its audience because too many people will assume it’s some big dumb Hollywood weepfest. It’s beautifully adapted from a novel, with terrific acting, incredible dialog, and an honest, complex picture of what long-term love looks like.

BACK TO OUR REGULAR PROGRAMMING…

As regular readers know, I’m not vegan, but I do a lot of meatless eating. Two out of three of my daily meals tend to be vegetarian - and very occasionally, vegan.

Searching the 101 Cooking archives for something interesting, I found a recipe for Vegan Mac ‘n Cheese that looked tasty - not as a replacement for gooey cheesy noodles, but as a recipe unto itself. Let’s call it “Pasta in Cashew Cream Sauce.”

The recipe was yummy. I added broccoli. I probably won’t make it again, though, unless I have vegan company. Why? It cost three times what a nice casserole of real mac ‘n cheese would (thanks to requiring a ton of cashews and agar) and involved more work. I’m not convinced it was much healthier, at least as far as my waistline is concerned. It didn’t weigh me down like mac ‘n cheese can, but I think that may be because I added a ton of broccoli.

The recipe made twice as much Vegan Cashew Cheese as the actual dish required. So it’s now in my fridge, congealed in a tupperware. There’s lots of things I could melt it on - baked potato, cauliflower, broccoli - but will I? Low-fat cheese and sour cream are just so tasty…

Tags: Health News

6 responses so far ↓

1 Lorie E // Jan 10, 2008 at 11:38 pm

Interesting recipe! Isn’t it also interesting how eating healthier (vegan in this case) can cost more and involve so much more work! (BTW my co-worker came by my desk as I was writing this and said: Yuck. What is wrong with eating milk and cheese? But he is a guy. Does that say it all? Sorry for being sexist! LOL)

Ahem, but anyway, I also like how you point out that this recipe probably shouldn’t be called Mac N Cheese but enjoyed on its own merits (and a new name to emphasize that! :)) I definitely agree, just as with soy milk; I know I can’t enjoy it if I think of it as “milk” or a milk substitute; it is its own thang and should be enjoyed as such, because it isn’t really at all like milk (other than being liquid, creamy and sorta white. hmm…well you know what I mean!) :)
2 Sara // Jan 11, 2008 at 12:06 am

Hi Lorie! Yeah - the extra expense is crazy! I have to say, next time I’m going to spend the extra $$ on a nice French Petit Basque cheese instead of on agar. Why do I so often skip the expensive cheese but then make recipes like this one?! Still, this was a good experiment, and will be a good recipe for me to make for vegan visitors.

As for soymilk, I’m ok with it on cereal or in oatmeal, but ever tried soy milk in coffee? YUCK!
3 More Vegan Discussion // Jan 11, 2008 at 4:56 pm

[…] Vegan Mac ‘n Cheese […]
4 Lorie E // Jan 14, 2008 at 9:48 pm

Yes I agree; I am not too much of a fan of soymilk in coffee; it’s not great, but for me it’s “do-able” if I need to get soy in for whatever rason. Though apparently it’s very popular at Starbucks, right? Weird!!
5 Jackie M // Jan 23, 2008 at 3:55 pm

Hi Sara! I chatted with Melissa last night and she introduced me to your site. I love it!

Ok, I too am not vegan, but my boyfriend mostly is. So, I cook a lot of vegan things. I miss the cheese in our home cooked meals the most. So any cheese-ish meal that’ll satisfy us both is good.

Anyway, we tried that cashew mac recipe and loved it. But, totally felt the same way re: cost and time. Delicious as it was, not worth a spot on the “go to” meal roster.

However, I found another “cheeze” sauce recipe that works and it doesn’t take long to make AT ALL. I don’t know how healthy it is either, but maybe you can figure that out.

Whisk together in a heavy bottomed sauce pan:
1/2 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1/2 cup unbleached flour
1 tsp. salt

Place pan over medium high heat and whisk in:
2 cups cold water

Continue whisking as sauce thickens, bring to a rolling boil, reduce heat, cook 1 minute, remove from heat.

Whisk in :
1/4 cup margarine or oil
1 tsp. wet mustard

This can all be made while the pasta is boiling. I use Earth Balance and more mustard. I like using spelt or brown rice pasta. I also saute onions and garlic before putting all the dry ingredients in for the cheeze sauce. And with the pasta I throw in broccoli stems that I’ve cut up. The heads I put in the colander waiting for the hot pasta, stems and water to pour over. This makes the heads come out perfect. Sometimes I also add bell pepper and tofurkey sausages to the colander and heat in the same way. Oh, and I’ve been unsuccessful making this a baked mac ‘n’ cheeze. It always comes out too mushy. And I double the cheeze recipe for a pound of pasta. Although, I only did that the first time because I thought it would help with the baking part and then when I mixed it all together ready for it to go in the casserole pan it looked so good I ate some and decided I didn’t want to risk ruining it again. I’ve doubled the cheeze ever since.

Sorry, is this comment too long? I LOVE talking about food.
6 Jackie M // Jan 23, 2008 at 6:06 pm

Ooh, I forgot to add my two cents on soy milk. Did anyone try that Silk pumpkin spice soy milk? Regrettably, it’s a seasonal thing. Anyway, I made home made hot chocolate (two spoons of cocoa powder, one big spoon of honey, hot milk–per cup) with it! It was creamy and delicious!