Vegan Mac and Cheese... Again!

I've had these mixed food cravings/aversions lately. One second, I really want this creamy pasta from the local restaurant (Chicken Capone from Auntie Pasta's!) and the next, I'm disgusted by the creamy, cheesy sauce. So I did what any crazy pregnant lady would do... I made my favorite vegan mac and cheese last night. OF COURSE! It worked perfect because I got that creamy sauce without cheese or cream. Now if only I could eat the whole batch in one sitting without getting sick or gaining five pounds. And if only I could make this work as well for pizza.

DISCLAIMER!!! You might be thinking this right now: "Ew. It's vegan!" To most people, this probably doesn't taste like "real" mac and cheese. It definitely doesn't taste like Kraft. But it does taste good. ALSO - last night, for the first time, I used brown rice pasta instead of wheat or enriched pasta. It was just as good, in fact, I think it was better than whole wheat noodles. It can be hard to try foods like this if you don't have a specific reason, like eating a vegan diet or having food allergies, but sometimes, they are just as good as the "real" thing. I will admit, sometimes they are horrible, but not in this case!

Vegan Mac and Cheese

Quick and Easy Vegan Comfort Food by Alicia Simpson (She has a blog too). I've made changes to the recipe to suit my tastes, but I think the original recipe is posted on her blog somewhere.

1 lb. Pasta 

2.5 to 3 cups water, depending on how long you cook the veggies

4 new potatoes, peeled

1 medium carrot, or 5 baby carrots, or 1/2 cup frozen sliced carrots

1 leek, or 1.5 cup chopped fresh or frozen leek 

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup cashews

1/3 cup macademia nuts

2 1/2 - 3 tbsp lemon juice (regular recipe calls for just 2 tbsp)

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp. sea salt

1/4 tsp dry mustard

1/4 tsp cayanne pepper

1/2 tsp white pepper

Bread crumbs, panko

Chop potatoes, carrot and leek, add to pan with water. Bring to boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer until tender (carrots can be cut with spatula). Meanwhile, cook noodles according to directions in seperate pot. Meanwhile, add to blender oil, nuts, garlic, lemon juice, pepper, cayanne, dry mustard. Blend until smooth (if your blender is not a super awesome high speed blender, the cookbook says to use 2/3 cup cashews and oimt the mac nuts). Add vegetables and cooking water to blender and blend until smooth. Add noodles and cheese sauce to baking dish, cover with breadcrumbs, bake for 30 minutes at 350 or until cheese is bubbly and absorbs into breadcrumbs.

Notes from my many attempts:

- this sauce may have killed my regular blender after the third time I made it, I had to buy a new super awesome one. So you have been warned.

- put leftovers in serving size dishes. If you leave in one big dish, sauce will go to the sides and the middle part of dish will be bland.

- cook noodles al dente before adding to dish

- DO NOT use sweet potatoes.  The original recipe calls for 2 regular potatoes, so that could be a substitute, but new potatoes have been in my best results.

- original recipe calls for only 2.5 cups water.  I use more because I cook the veggies for a long time, until I can cut the carrots with a spatula, so it loses more water.  You could try 2.5 cups for a thicker sauce maybe.

- to reheat in individual serving size containers, heat for 2.5 minutes, the sauce will be nice and gooey.

- I just found out that this mac and cheese is good for at least a week in the fridge!