Vegan Mac n Cheese Round 2

The last time I posted about mac n cheese I swore it was probably the last time I would ever pursue a vegan mac n cheese. However, tonight I made mac n cheese from scratch, with a significantly more positive outcome!

My lovely friend Bridger, who is currently pursuing a mostly vegan diet (aside from eggs), decided it was time to whip up a batch and experience the novelty, and I just so happened to have a brand new bag of nutritional yeast on hand, so we teamed up for this culinary adventure. We used the recipe from Vegan Yumminess, which was the first thing that came up with a Google search. It has a 4.9 star rating, so it must be good right?

Vegan Mac n Cheese:

Ingredients

• 10 ounces dried macaroni (or about 2⅔ cups)
• 1 cup peeled/diced yellow potatoes (or russets)
• ¼ cup peeled/diced carrots
• ⅓ cup chopped onion
• ¾ cup water (preferably use liquid from pot of boiled veggies)
• ½ cup raw cashews
• ¼ cup coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• ¾ to 1 teaspoon salt (or more to taste)
• ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper (optional)
• 1 pinch paprika

Instructions

1. Cook macaroni al dente, according to package instructions (usually requires boiling for 6-8 minutes in salted water), drain, and set aside.
2. Bring several cups of water to boil in a small pot. Place chopped potatoes, carrots, and onion in the boiling water, and cook for about 10 minutes, or until vegetables are tender and soft enough to blend. Cooking time will vary slightly, based on how small you have chopped your veggies.
3. When veggies are soft enough to blend, use a slotted spoon to remove them from cooking water, and place them in your blender. Add ¾ cup of that cooking water to your blender, along with your remaining ingredients.
4. Blend until smooth.
5. Pour sauce over your cooked macaroni noodles in a dish of your choice, taste for salt, and serve immediately.

For our dish, we used whole wheat shell pasta. Also, it is important to note that we used the thick, fully creamy coconut milk, not the thin coconut milk that comes in cartons to put over your cereal.

At first, I was pretty skeptical of the whole thing. Who would blend up carrots to make a cheese-like sauce?? Yet, the final product was weirdly cheesy. I was almost scared to try it, since it didn’t make sense for those ingredients to be able to come together to make a cheese substitute, but it smelled so yummy that I was ultimately tempted. The mac n cheese, while not exactly a rich cheesy taste, was very pleasantly creamy and savory. It had the same comforting effect that normal mac and cheese used to have on me. Moral of the story? Skip the boxed mac n cheese! Make your own! Homemade vegan mac n cheese is a treat every vegan should experience.

Powder, Comfort Food, and Movie

Today was stupendous! Last night, 8 inches of beautiful Utah fluff FINALLY fell on the Wasatch mountains, including my lovely Snowbird ski area. This morning my parents and I jumped in the car, along with my two friends Seamus and Bridger, and we made a run for the mountains. Unfortunately, every other powder-starved person in the Salt Lake area also got in their car at the same time, because the normal 30 minute drive up turned into a good hour or more of bumper to bumper stop and go traffic. However, once we got up on the mountain, the poor traffic was completely wiped from our minds by the expanses of silky powder that awaited us. I think that was my best ski day this season by far. The turns were stellar. The pow delivered.

Around 1:20pm, we were doing a lap on the Road to Provo run, and Bridger, who is an exceptional skier, decided it was time to “ride the wave.” In other words, it was time to gain lots of speed going down so that he could jump a ridge in the middle of the slope and clear the top so he could land on the back side of the ridge. We all watched from the top, and it was really one of the greatest jumps I’ve seen in quite some time. We all shouted and whooped, because it was that awesome. However, we didn’t see his landing, since it was on the back side. Unfortunately, his landing resulted in a chin-to-knee collision where the impact split a nice gash in his chin, as well as a mild concussion. But, being a typical guy, we had to thoroughly convince him that he really did need to go to the medical clinic, as he dripped blood onto the snow. Here’s a shot of him looking smiley as ever, but a little dazed and oozing some gore out of his chin. And yes, it turned out the clinic was a good choice, since he got a few stitches.

After today’s adventures on the slopes, we went to yet another vegan place for dinner, this time the Vertical Diner. I’d heard of this diner a couple times before, but still had not experienced it. As opposed to our other vegan meals this weekend, the Vertical Diner is known as “vegan comfort food.” I ordered a California burger made with a black bean and corn patty, and it came with veggies and guacamole on top. Also, I chose the 7-grain bun which is a MUST: soooo yummy with all those crunchy seeds and grains in it. Mom got a burger too, but with a different patty and more of a french dressing on it, and dad went all out and got the American Diner meal which was fried “chicken” (seitan) on top of a heap of mashed potatoes and gravy. Talk about classic comfort food. We all decided that the Vertical Diner was a very interesting experience compared to Sage’s and Omar’s. The other two places seemed to be going for an independent vegan style, creating dishes that work well with plants and vegan ingredients, whereas the Vertical Diner is going for a vegan take on very un-vegan foods. I still liked the Vertical Diner quite a bit though, and the price is definitely right for the college crowd. It is truly amazing how normal you can make things taste, such as bean-based burgers and fried seitan “chicken.” Of course, we also indulged in dessert, this time a Peanut Butter Chocolate Brownie Sundae. Oh my, it was to die for.

On the left: a soy chai latte for starters     

On the right: our burgers and classic American fried chicken dish

Below: the peanut butter chocolate dessert heaven.

After our delicious meal, we went and saw the Imitation Game at the independent theater in downtown SLC. It was an extremely interesting movie, and I highly recommend it. The film was about Alan Turning, who was the main guy behind cracking German code during World War II, which saved the Allies a lot of lives and time, and helped determine the final outcome. However, Turning was gay, so he never really received the proper recognition for his brilliance until recent years. Go watch it, if you have a free night. It will be well worth your time.