Today’s vegan cookery was inspired by some of my favourite vegans – Dr. Michael Greger and Chris and Jon from the ‘Vegan Zombie’.
Dr. Michael Greger is probably my favourite celeb medical doctor. He doesn't pull punches and speaks entirely to the academic literature. He doesn't tell you what tastes good, he just tells you the stuff you need to put in your body if you want to be as healthy and disease free as possible. Thankfully, he released 'The How Not to Die Cookbook' in collaboration with Robin Robertson who turns healthy food into great tasting food. I definitely recommend this book.
Recently, I've been watching a lot of Chris' work on the Vegan Zombie. He's lately been doing lots of hauls and food tastings. Actually, it was the video below where the dastardly duo of Chris and Jon mukbang (taste-test) their way to vegan heaven that got me off my rear end to cook some mac and cheese of my own!
When you’re whipping up some mac ‘n’ chee, you want to hit the basics:
- It’s gotta be full of carbs.
- It’s gotta be cheesy (nutritional yeast, YO!).
- It’s got to have the creamy texture.
Life sometimes smacks you in the chops. You’re in luck. Today isn’t one of those days.
I have to be honest, I watched the Vegan Zombie’s version of mac and cheese and read through what Dr. Greger had to offer. The Vegan Zombie’s version had a few things I didn’t have on hand (Daiya cheese), and Dr. Greger’s had a few extras I really had no time for which included baking it with breadcrumbs of the top. Ain't got no time for dat!
What you’ll see here is a quick version of the two with items you’re likely to have on hand if you’re already a vegan. Nutritional yeast is something you’ll need. Get on that.
Foodstuffs you’ll need (EDIT: the sauce will make about four serves. The pasta I've recommended here is enough for one).
- A cup of macaroni elbows OR a handful of wholegrain wheat flour spaghetti – which is what I had to use!
- Half a sweet potato
- Half a brown onion
- ½ cup of nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp of garlic (fresh or bottled)
- 1 tsp of Dijon mustard
- 2 tsp white miso paste
- 1 tsp peanut butter
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- ¼ tsp hot paprika
- ¼ tsp turmeric
Doesn’t this look gorgeous? The paprika, turmeric and garlic powder sitting atop the mountain of nutritional yeast.
What the heck to do.
- Bring two pots of water to the boil. One for the pasta and the other for the veggies.
- Snap up the spaghetti into two cm (1 inch or so) pieces then throw into boiling water. Make sure you’ve got your green/purple smoothie in a pyrex jug in the background and swig on it as you cook. Essential.
- Peel and chop the onion and sweet potato and throw into the other pot and cook until soft. You might have to turn the heat down. Bubbling over isn’t advised.
- Drain and set aside the pasta when cooked.
- Drain the veggies (keep about 2 cups of the veggie water) and throw them into a blender with all the other ingredients (not the pasta. Der).
- Add about a cup of the water to the blender to begin with and blend on high until smooth. I used our Thermomix on Warp Speed 10. If you need to add more water, do so incrementally so as not to make it too thin.
- Once blended, you have your vegan cheese!
- Put your pasta in a bowl and pour over your vegan cheese. Stir through. You’ll probably need to heat it again if you like yours super-hot like I do. Microwave will suffice. Thirty seconds to a minute. Here’s a few snaps of the process!
My ‘cheese’ sauce could have been a bit thicker. Alas, I added too much water too soon!
Smash it down and get your carbs on!
I’ve been helping Hayley out today with some errands and took her across to the other campus for a meeting. I made the mac and cheese between helping her out and thought she’d really appreciate it. When I picked her up from main campus, I brought along a plastic container with some of this creamy, carby goodness. I wish I took a photo of the smile on her face. It was utter appreciation.
I forgot to mention earlier (I’ll just add an edit you’ll see above!) that this amount of vegan cheese sauce will get you up to four serves of mac and cheese, depending on how much you stuff down in each sitting. I definitely couldn’t eat the whole lot in one go.
Now, go and make some of the most delicious mac and cheese possible. It’s been my obligation to share this with you, now you gotta go make it for yourself and tell me what you think!
All the best,
Nick.
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