Vegan Mac and ... Cheese?

Last Monday was a confluence of feel. Those many feels you get when it's the frozen armpit of late February, it's raining, your office is cold and you're a wee bit hungover* from yesterday's Sunday funday.

I was shivering, grumpy and wanted cheese. Hot cheese. And spicy pasta. And fat. And salt. And a Diet Coke, grapefruit juice, coffee and a water. One of those mornings. 

So while I'm not super strict about my dairy and egg intake, I also didn't want to screw it all up by going whole hog on fatty mac (somebody please use this as a nickname) and cheese. Plus, I had a huge container of nutritional yeast that I wanted to use, so I Googled the vegan version and I came up with this recipe from VegWeb.com. Do I think this lives up to its "best in the world, seriously" praise? No. Then again, this is my only encounter with the vegan version, and I will say it's not bad. In fact, it's pretty tasty. 

Here's the recipe in its entirety:

1 1/2 pounds pasta, preferably macaroni 
1 1/2 cups unsweetened nondairy milk
1 1/2 cups nutritional yeast
1 cup canola or vegetable oil
1 cup water
1/3 cup tamari or soy sauce
1/4 (12 ounce) block firm (not silken) tofu
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon vegesal or in lack of fancy product, just use salt
1 dollop mustard, optional

I deviated from the original recipe, starting with the pasta. I used small shells, since they've been sitting in my cabinet for about a year or two now. Any pasta that has curves, nooks and crannies is perfect for this dish. I would actually forget about elbow macaroni altogether and opt for something that's going to hold tasty pockets of sauce. 

I probably only used about a pound of pasta, but I also forgot to add the water, so I think it all worked out in terms of consistency. I cooked the pasta a few minutes shy of al dente, since this is getting thrown in the oven to bake. 

As for the milk, I used an almond/coconut milk blend that was sweet (not sweetened), but I'm curious to know what a full coconut milk sweetness would do to the sauce. Methinks great things. 

I threw the ingredients for the cheese sauce into my blender, and it all looked like something you pull out of your ears after a long day at the beach. 


Gave it a whirl, found the taste a little...odd. I think next time I'm ditching the soy sauce. I used an extra teaspoon or so of paprika, and skipped the mustard. Taste was still a little off, but I gotta say, it looked downright gorgeous poured over the pasta. 

So gorgeous was it, I couldn't even focus on taking a decent, shadow-less photo.

Baked it up for about 15 minutes until it was golden brown, gave it a stir, and was left with this über creamy pan of it-will-do-if-you-don't-do-cheese. 

nom nom. 

This dish definitely benefits from letting the flavors settle and mellow a little bit before digging in, but it's great right out of the oven. I still miss the real stuff, but I would make this again in a non-clogged heartbeat given the choice between the two. A few days later, I heated it up and added hot sauce and diced avocado, which melted right into the "cheese" ... heaven. 

Also, like the chili, meathead approved!

More on the frightening varied world of dairy substitutes next time. 


* If E, L, J or any other letter of the alphabet I work with is reading this, I swear it's not a regular thing. Valentine's Day weekend behind the bar, man. It'll getcha. 

Minnesota Winter Chili (Or, Conquering the Beast)

OK, full disclosure: The reason this chili is so good is because this is not my first attempt. The initial run did not go so well, as I threw the pot of chili (and my ego) out the door. And not just the chili. Pot, containing chili, out the door. We'll go over my mistakes (and there were many) in a few. 

First of all, the source of this recipe is the whole reason I've changed my diet in the first place. Ultramarathon legend Scott Jurek's 2012 book Eat & Run chronicles his running career and his slowly-but-surely transition to a vegan lifestyle. Do yourself a favor and read this book, even if you're not a runner, or even an athlete for that matter. READ IT. Anyway...

In addition to being really inspiring, Jurek is also nice enough to share a ton of great recipes, 76 percent of which are too complicated for my life right now. But this is chili! Ingredients, stove, pot, wooden spoon, ta da, right? 

In a word,

No. 

Here's the recipe in it's original form. Note that the prep is going to take a solid bit of time. Unless you have a slap-choppy-thing, in which case, awesome. Consider getting yourself one in general, saves a million minutes of your life. 

2 tablespoons coconut oil or olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup finely chopped onion
8–10 medium mushrooms, finely chopped
1/2 cup finely chopped green bell pepper
1/2 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
1/2 cup finely chopped carrots
1 jalapeño pepper or other hot pepper, seeded and minced (optional)
1 cup frozen corn kernels
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
2 tablespoons chili powder, or to taste
2 teaspoons sea salt, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
1 15-ounce can tomato purée
1 15-ounce can kidney beans, drained
1 15-ounce can black beans, drained
1 15-ounce can red beans, drained
2 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup dry bulgur wheat
Hot sauce or cayenne pepper (optional)
1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro, for garnish
Tofutti sour cream, for garnish (optional)

Yeah. That's a sh*tload. By the way, this serves 8. 

Once everything's prepped, it's relatively smooth sailing. Get yourself a large pot and heat the oil over medium heat. Add veggies, garlic and spices and stir around for about 10 minutes. If stuff starts to stick, throw in a few teaspoons of water. 

Throw in the rest, minus the sour cream and cilantro. Bring to a simmer over medium-low heat, get yourself a good book, don't go anywhere and stir every few minutes for about a half hour. Hey, it worked for me. 

Uncover and simmer for another 20 minutes or so, stirring less frequently. 

Eat. Enjoy your life. Roll around in it. Get seconds. 

Now, here's where the finesse comes in. This is where I went so, so wrong the first time:

• I think it was a combination of buying cookware from IKEA and getting distracted by whatever was on TV, but Jesus Christ did I burn the hell out this chili. STIR IT. A LOT. This may not actually be necessary if you have nice things (and I do not), but I'm not taking the chance ever again. 
• I also didn't add enough water. When you make this, there's going to be a ton of liquid at first. It will reduce during the hour or so that it simmers, so don't think you know best by shorting yourself of liquid. Because I you don't.  
• I used dried red beans instead of canned. They floated to the top and turned into jawbreakers while everything else turned into a biohazard. Cool. 

This is what I did oh, so right this time.

• I freakin' stirred that sh*t. Kept both eyes on it. 
• I used canned pinto beans instead of dried red beans.
• I pretty much doubled up on all the spices, garlic included. I noticed that once I added the beans and tomato products the first time, the spice complexity died. Also, I didn't have and couldn't find coriander, but it didn't seem to matter. 
• I also dumped in a quarter cup-ish of Frank's Red Hot Sauce, but next time I make this I'll add the recipe amount of salt and Frank's instead of doubling up on the salt as well. If I have one criticism of this batch, it's a smidge salty. 

Even my meathead boyfriend likes this. Trust me, you won't miss the beef, and the bulgar wheat gives it a nice texture. I now have lunch for the next week, provided that no one else snakes it. 

You're welcome :)