The Best Cheese Sauce / Mac n' Cheese

 
I hated macaroni and cheese growing up (I also hated grilled cheese sandwiches and just about anything cheesy and gooey, so maybe there was something wrong with me). I've come to my senses now, but it can still be hard to get that gooey cheesiness in vegan food - especially with macaroni and cheese. I've had some bad vegan macaroni and cheese, and lots of mediocre macaroni and cheese. 

After having the amazing "mac and yease" at Plum Bistro in Seattle, I was determined to recreate it at home. I looked at other people's versions online, adjusted to my tastes and what I thought was in their sauce, and this is what I came up with - my family seemed to really like it and not really notice it was vegan - which is always my goal! You'll have to play with the sauce-to-noodle ratio to your own tastes, and I have a hard time remembering exactly how I make it because I don't really measure things, but I think it's pretty darn good. It's not as oily as Plum's, because I'm pretty sure they pan fry theirs, but it hits the spot!

The cheese sauce is also great to dip chips in, or use to make nachos, or spread on a sandwich, etc. etc. etc. 

Edit: I just noticed I already had a Mac and Cheese recipe posted. That's what happens when you never update your blog. I like this one better (sorry, Chef Chloe...). 

Ingredients for the Cheese Sauce:

• 3/4 cup Earth Balance margarine (stick or tub)
• 3/4 cup flour 
• 1 1/2 cups nutritional yeast
•  3 1/2 cups boiling water 
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp tumeric
• 1 tsp mustard powder or 1 tablespoon mustard

Warm the butter on low-medium heat in a large saucepan. When it's melted, add the flour and whisk together until it's a smooth mixture, turning up the heat to medium.

Add the boiling water to the butter and flour mixture, and all of the tumeric, salt, garlic, and mustard. Let it cook and thicken, then stir in the nutritional yeast. It should start becoming a thick, creamy, bright yellow sauce, and you'll have a few cups worth. If it's too thick, add a little more boiling water. It should be pretty thick, though. 

After stirring it for about 5 minutes, remove from heat. Cheese sauce is done!


For the Mac n' Cheese:

• Noodles - I don't even mess around with rice noodles (gluten-free) or whole wheat noodles (blech) because I'm already eating mac and cheese, and I don't care if it's healthy (it's not). But you can make your own decisions here. So get your noodles of choice, and cook them al dente. I like to make a lot so I have leftovers for days, so I'd cook a few cups of dry noodles so I can fill a large casserole dish. 
• 1 package silken tofu, blended to a cream in the food processor (optional)
• Daiya cheese, cheddar and/or mozzarella, about 1/3 - 1/2 cup is good
• Bread crumbs (optional)   

Pour the noodles into a big bowl (or directly into the casserole dish you're going to use) and stir together with the blended-up silken tofu (I think it just adds a little something extra, a little creaminess) and about 1/4 cup of each kind of Daiya (or 1/2 cup of one kind, or neither, it's up to you; the Daiya adds a little more creaminess as well). Pour in the sauce and mix around with the noodles, coating them evenly. You might have some sauce leftover (not always a bad thing - make more noodles? or dip chips in it?) depending on how much you want with the noodles. 

Throw on some breadcrumbs if you want and bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes, until it's all bubbly and the Daiya has melted. And then eat it.  

Roasted Eggplant Soup

I love thick, pureed soups, and I love eggplant, so I think that's why this is one of my favorites. It's great in a bread bowl (and they have yummy sourdough bread bowls at Trader Joes for 99 cents!). It's a pretty simple soup with not that many ingredients, and smells great while it's cooking... as usual, I double it so I have lots of leftovers! I haven't tried freezing it but I would think it would freeze okay.

Ingredients:

• 1 Large Eggplant
• 1 Onion, peeled and quartered
• 6 large garlic cloves, peeled
• 2 Tomatoes, quartered
• 2 tablespoons Olive oil
• 4 cups Vegetable stock (this makes it pretty thin, though - I would recommend 2.5 or 3 cups if you like a thicker soup - you can always add more broth if you want it runnier but you can't really take it back out!)
• Salt and pepper, and additional seasoning like thyme or rosemary if desired. 

Preheat the oven to 400°F and line a baking sheet with foil. Trim the ends off of the eggplant, and quarter it lengthwise. Place the eggplant and quartered onion, tomato, and garlic in a bowl and toss with olive oil to coat. 

Place on the baking sheet, drizzle over olive oil, and sprinkle salt and pepper lightly. Roast until vegetables are tender and lightly browned, or about 40 minutes. 

Remove from the oven and scrape the eggplant from their skins. Add the eggplant and the other vegetables into a large saucepan. Cover the vegetables with your vegetable broth and bring to a rolling simmer until everything is very tender (about 15 to 20 more minutes).

Purée soup with a blender or food processor until smooth (let it cool down a little, first!!). Season to taste.

Beet and Kale Quesadillas with White Bean Garlic Spread

Again, it's been forever since I posted. Oops! I've still been cooking, just forgetting to blog and take pictures about it. Of course, finals and moving week probably isn't the best time to re-start this, but I made up something yummy last night and wanted to write it down before I forgot about it. 


I am moving in about a week and a half, having finished law school (woo!) and wanted to make something using up what I had on hand - a beet, some carrots, an onion, some kale, and tortillas. The wonderful farmers market quesadillas filled with sauteed veggies at Patty Pan in Seattle were my inspiration, along with a recipe I saw awhile ago for a white bean "cheesy" spread for a pizza as I had a can of white beans to use up, too. I thought I'd combine the two and see what happens... the result was pretty yummy!

Ingredients:

• 1 can of white beans, drained and rinsed (I used white kidney, but cannellini work too)
• two tablespoons olive oil
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/3 cup water or veggie broth
• 1 beet, rinsed, peeled, and sliced into thin coins
• about 4 carrots, also sliced into coins
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 cup of kale, rinsed and cut into bite-sized pieces
• flour or corn tortillas 
• salt, pepper, other seasoning to taste

To make the spread, sautee the garlic and olive oil over medium heat until the garlic is soft. Add the beans and the water/broth, and some salt and pepper to taste. I actually threw in some Italian Seasoning too, but that's optional. Turn the heat a little lower and stir the beans until they gradually mash up into a spreadable consistency, usually takes about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside. You could throw them in a food processor or blender if you wanted it even smoother, and feel free to add a small amount of water until you get the consistency you want (thick, but spreadable is ideal). 

For the veggie filling, just throw your beets, carrots, and onion into a saucepan/skillet and sautee with a little bit of oil or water/veggie broth (if you want lower fat). I covered it so it would cook faster, and added the kale for the last few minutes so it got soft, too. 

To make the quesadilla, just spread the bean spread on a tortilla, add as many veggies as you want, and cook on the saucepan or a griddle. Mmmmmmm..... I also made one with some pesto (pesto recipe is below) and some vegan cheese sauce mix from Pigs Peace, but the white bean was the best!  

Vegan Baked Mac N' Cheese

I haven't updated for awhile - oops! I was pretty busy this summer with my internship at the Oregon Humane Society doing animal cruelty investigations work. It was a wonderful (albeit, sometimes sad) experience. I didn't even really cook or bake much this summer! But I'm back in Seattle now and ready to post some more recipes!

Anyway, now that fall is approaching, it's a great time for some yummy, warm comfort food. This is my adaptation of Chef Chloe's Mac 'N' Cheese that my friend Jenna sent to me. I was actually never a Mac N' Cheese person growing up (weird, right?). My dad would make it for me sometimes from the Kraft box and I HATED it. Now, I have to really be in the right mood for it, but this is one of the best vegan ones I've made at home (the best one I've had in a restaurant is at Hungry Tiger Too, in Portland!). Easily made gluten-free, too, if you want. 

(I don't pretend to be a food photographer - food looks much better in person, and tastes even better!)

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. noodles of choice (elbow macaroni is best, use brown rice or other GF noodles if you want gluten-free)
• 1/4 cup vegan margarine (Earth Balance)
• 1/3 cup flour (or gluten-free flour)
• 3 cups soy, almond, or rice milk (plain, unsweetened - duh)
• 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 teaspoons sea salt
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/3 cup Daiya or Follow-Your-Heart Cheddar Cheese, grated (optional, Daiya would probably taste better in this, in my opinion!)
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs, optional (make sure it's gluten-free bread, if that's what you're doing)
  

Bring water to a boil, add the noodles, and cook according to the package instructions. 

In a medium sized saucepan, whisk the margarine and flour together for several minutes over medium heat into a roux (paste). Add the milk, nutritional yeast, tomato paste, salt, and garlic powder to the roux and whisk together. Let it come to a boil as you whisk, then reduce the heat to low and let it simmer and thicken up. Add more garlic powder or other spices to taste. 

This part is optional, but I like it baked- if you don't, you can serve it with the sauce now and enjoy:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Pour the cooked noodles into a large casserole dish and pour the "cheese" sauce mixture evenly over the noodles. Stir to coat the noodles with the sauce. Sprinkle the top of the casserole with a layer of Daiya or FYH (or stir it in with the noodles). Sprinkle the breadcrumbs on top and bake for about 15 to 20 minutes or until the breadcrumbs get toasty and the cheese is melty. Enjoy!

Basic Pie Crust

This is a staple pie crust you can use for sweet pies or savory meals like veggie pot pie or shepard's pie. Use whole wheat pastry flour (or 1/2 whole wheat pastry, 1/2 white flour) for a healthier touch, but all white flour is best for desserts. This recipe makes TWO pie crusts (or one crust and enough dough to cover the top of the pie) - halve the recipe or put half the dough in the freezer for later if you only want one pie or do not want to cover your pie with a top crust.

Pie Crust:

• 1 cup non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening
• 1 teaspoon Earth Balance vegan butter
• 3/4 cup boiling water
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 to 3 1/2 cups flour (brown rice flour is good if you'd like a gluten free crust)

Mix shortening with butter and boiling water until creamy. Add baking powder and salt, then gradually mix in the flour. Separate into two equal balls, trying not to knead too much. Chill 20-40 minutes before rolling out, or freeze for later.

Kentucky Pecan, Bourbon, and Chocolate Pie

We wanted to make the perfect pie inspired by the official Kentucky Derby Pie (which I understand to be heavily copyrighted) but obviously our version would be "veganized" and modified. This pie is so good! It took a lot of experimentation to get it just right. However, I've never had real Derby Pie so I don't have a basis of comparison. But my Kentuckian here loves it! Sad story - I made it last year for my dad for Father's Day, and pulled up to his house, pulled it out of the car, and immediately dropped it in his driveway. The glass pan shattered into a million pieces. I tried to salvage some, but there were shards of glass in it. SAD DAY. I admit that I cried. But I always think of that story when I make this pie...

Ingredients:

• unbaked pie crust (this is my Basic Pie Crust recipe)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3 to 4 tablespoons flour
• Egg replacer equivalent of 3 eggs (I use Bob's Red Mill or Ener-G generally)
• 1/2 cup Earth Balance vegan butter, softened
• 3 tablespoons bourbon (a little goes a long way! add more to taste... but go slowly)
• 3/4 cup pecans, chopped in a food processor (but not too finely ground)
• 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips (vegan)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix everything but the chocolate chips until creamy. Add more flour if necessary until you get the right consistency (not too runny, but kind of more of a batter than a dough). Spread the chocolate chips out on the bottom of the unbaked pie crust, then pour the pie mixture over the top. Bake for 45-60 minutes, checking often. It should rise a little bit but you'll mostly know it's done when the crust starts to get lightly browned.

Enjoy! Serve with vegan whipped cream or soy ice cream if you'd like!

Vegan Caesar Salad Dressing + Croutons

I love a good Caesar salad, and this one is cheese and anchovy free, so I can eat it! It's probably low fat or low calorie or whatever as an alternative if you are into that and still want something creamy. I've also been spreading the leftovers on bread as part of my sandwiches for lunch and it's really good! I think this is originally from Veganomicon, but I found it on and copied it from this website. I usually double it because the Silken Tofu box has a lot of extra tofu in it and I don't know what else to do with it.

Ingredients for Caesar dressing:

• 1/3 cup almonds
• 3-4 cloves garlic (or more if you like garlic)
  
• 3/4 cup silken tofu
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice (fresh is always best)
  
• 1 heaping tablespoon capers
• 4 teaspoons caper brine
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard powder
• Salt

Ingredients for Croutons:

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 4 cloves roasted garlic
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (optional)
  
• 1 medium size loaf French or Italian bread (little less than 1 pound), stale and torn or sliced into bite-sized pieces (or, I've just used regular bread in a pinch)
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

For Salad:

• 1 large head romaine lettuce, chopped
• Freshly cracked black pepper
• Spinach and/or arugula, torn into bite-sized pieces (optional)
• Gardein "Chick'n" for "Chick'n" Caesar salad, or tofu/seitan if preferred.
  
• Vegan Parmesan cheese, or make your own
  

Prepare the dressing: Pulse the sliced almonds in a food processor or blender until crumbly. Empty the ground almonds into an airtight container that you'll be using to store the finished dressing. Blend the garlic, tofu, and oil in the food processor or blender until creamy. Add the lemon juice, capers, caper brine, sugar, and mustard powder, and pulse until blended. Adjust the salt and lemon juice to taste. Put into the container with the ground almonds and whisk to combine. Cover and allow the dressing to chill in the refrigerator for a minimum of 30 minutes, optimally 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

While the dressing is chilling, prepare the croutons: Preheat the oven to 400F. Combine the olive oil, roasted garlic, and lemon juice in a large bowl. With a fork or immersion blender, mash or blend the mixture until creamy. Add the torn bread and toss to coat each piece with the oil mixture. Spread onto a rimmed baking sheet, sprinkle with salt, if desired, and bake for 12 to 14 minutes until golden brown. Toss the croutons twice during the baking process. Remove from the oven and cool the croutons on the baking sheet.

Note: This makes a LOT of croutons and they don't often store well, so sometimes I only make half of the recipe amount and make the other croutons fresh when I'm eating the leftover dressing :)