Macaroni and Cheese!!

I've mentioned before that I LOVE cheese. It's been a bit of an addiction throughout my childhood and adult life. Going vegan, and the decision to actually do so, was not something that was easy because of this fact. I knew that there was vegan cheese available, but I thought a lot of it (while melty and somewhat flavorful) just wouldn't stack up to the real thing. I was right, it doesn't, but I learned that I don't need to put cheese on freaking everything either (although Bragg's Nutritional Yeast is a pretty okay replacement!

So today, I collected some new ingredients from Woodman's Grocery (Miso Paste and more Nutritional Yeast to name a few...), and decided I'd try a new recipe for a cheese sauce. I've been missing my stand by Mac and Cheese, and can I say... this might just be better than the original. No cholesterol either! :)

All I really needed was a saucepan and a food processor to make this- it was actually easier than making regular cheese sauce to add to macaroni! The base is raw cashews... the result is phenomenal. Seriously!! Check it out:

Vegan "Cheese" Sauce
Prep time: 1-2 minutes
Cook time: 10-15 minutes
Yields: 4 cups (=LOTS of cheese!!)

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup raw cashews
1/2 cup Nutritional Yeast
2 tsp salt
2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp white pepper
3 1/2 cups plant based milk (I used 2 cups of plain, unsweetened soymilk and 1 1/2 cups of coconut milk. Try to stay away from Vanilla flavored milks for this one... might give you an interesting flavor!)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 Tbsp Guar gum (or 3 Tbsp Corn Starch)
1/2 cup miso paste (light! I used a brown rice variation by Eden foods)
2 Tbsp Lemon juice

Directions:
Pulse cashews in a food processor until very finely chopped- do not allow it to turn into a paste! Add the Yeast, salt, onion powder, salt, and white pepper. Pulse a few times until that's all mixed in. (Hint: start cooking your noodles now if you don't have some cooked on standby like we did! Use your favorite shape- anything from Elbow Macaroni to Spirals to Penne will be yummy!)

Combine the milk, oil, and guar gum in a sauce pan. Mix and simmer until it boils, then turn down the heat to low (Keep stirring!! It'll stick if you don't...). You'll want the sauce to thicken a bit- this will take about 10 minutes altogether.

Now, turn on the food processor, and (through the lid, of course..) gradually add the milk mixture to your cashew mixture. I used an 8 oz ladle for this and it worked quite well. Once the milk is all in, leave the processor on until the mixture is creamy (it will be pretty thick too!). Turn off the processor; add the Miso Paste and lemon juice. Blend until throughly mixed; about one minute.

All done! This could have extra thickener added to it and be formed into a block for slicing or grating... this is on our list of things to try!!

At this point, you'll have a creamy, cheesy looking and smelling, and wonderfully delicious concoction. I'm still amazed at how rich, creamy, and freaking filling this was!!! Add this to your favorite noodles (we used bow tie noodles!), mix, and enjoy.

Who needs (dairy) cheese?  :-D

(This is definitely one to try- if you do, let me know how it goes!!)

Happy Eating!

<3
Courtney