Hello friends,
Today I have a recipe that was quite a leap of faith for me. I am such a mac-n-cheese fan that I was definitely worried about being disappointed by a vegan recipe. I am so glad to report that this recipe was the perfect choice for my first foray into vegan cheesy goodness.
This recipe is a truly creative recreation of the classic comfort of mac n cheese without any of the ingredients that usually make it taste so good. Surprisingly, we have Starbucks to thank for this recipe. Their "free app of the week" lead me to the "My New Roots" app, full of nutritious plant based recipes. All of her recipes sound fantastic and I definitely hope to make more of them. Some are a bit complex but this recipe is definitely manageable!
So here are the wholesome ingredients that make up this amazing creation.
The cheese sauce is mostly:
roasted butternut squash,
roasted garlic,
butter beans,
nutritional yeast,
and unsweetened almond milk (I used just 2 cups).
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| Other ingredients include: a little paprika, dijon mustard, and apple cider vinegar to balance the sauce |
Yes, you read that right...there are beans and yeast in this sauce. Don't freak out.
Beans really help provide some of the creaminess and thickness to the sauce, and also add some protein. I promise you it doesn't taste like beans.
Nutritional yeast is what really makes this dish. It is a vegan godsend. Somehow it adds the cheesy bite that this recipe needs. I will admit it took me a few bites to get used to it. But after that I was seriously chowing down.
The next unique aspect is the topping. No bread crumbs for us. This topping is made of:
sunflower seeds, coconut oil, more nutritional yeast, and seasonings.
It was so yummy! Nice and crunchy and salty. Seriously addicting.
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| Such a beautiful topping! |
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| Squash, topping, and nutritional yeast |
For the pasta, I used a brown rice quinoa fusilli from Trader Joes. One thing about gluten free pasta is that it tends to break down easily....which is exactly what happened to me. I honestly didn't care. It was delicious. You can see on the original recipe that her noodles stay more separate. I guess fusilli was flimsier than her rigatoni. So choose your pasta according to your textural preferences.
To recap:
Roast Squash
Blend Sauce
Cook Pasta
Make topping
Assemble and Bake
Enjoy!
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| Tada! |
Amazingly, this tasted even better the next day. The flavors melded together even more smoothly somehow. So while I'm all for sharing...make sure you have leftovers.
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| Bon apetit! |
Buy pre chopped fresh or frozen butternut squash to save time
Buy nutritional yeast for less in the bulk section of Whole Foods
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