Macaroni Cheese

The vegan version. Of course.

So many people say ‘oh, I couldn’t go vegan. I’d miss cheese too much’.

Apart from the questionable ethics apparent in this statement (i.e. my enjoyment is more important than an animals life* or animal suffering), vegans have a lot of choices when it comes to cheese replacements. There are vegan hard and soft cheeses  in health stores, and you can make your own using ingredients such as cashew nuts, or nutritional yeast flakes. Nutritional yeast is high in B vitamins and protein, and low in fat, and has a cheese flavour, so it is far healthier than dairy based cheese.

So now you know.

The original recipe for macaroni cheese (or mac and cheese, as it is generally called in the USA) is loaded with animal fat: butter, milk, cheese.  My recipe is far healthier. I cooked the macaroni and sauce separately, and then combined, added a crispy topping, and baked in the oven for 15 minutes. The topping I used was crushed Weetabix (or wheat biscuits), but you could use bran flakes, corn flakes or crushed ready salted crisps instead.

Macaroni Cheese

Ingredients

400g dried macaroni pasta

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cup flour

3 1/2 cups hot water

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

Pinch of turmeric

1 1/2 cups nutritional yeast flakes

1/2 teaspoon marmite

2 crushed weetabix

Black pepper to taste

Method

1.  Preheat  oven to 180C/350F.

2. Cook macaroni according to the package directions. Drain and put aside.

3. Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a medium saucepan. Slowly whisk in the flour until  hot and smooth (If the flour refuses to turn into a smooth sauce, tip from saucepan into a blender and blend for a minute until you have a smooth texture. Tip back into saucepan, heat up again and continue with instructions).

4. Continue whisking whilst adding the hot water, salt, soy sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, turmeric and black pepper. Add marmite and mix well. Bring to the boil, and stir until thickened slightly.

5. Add the nutritional yeast flakes and stir for a few minutes until dissolved.

6. Tip macaroni into a large oven proof dish. Add 2/3rds of sauce and mix well.  Spoon the rest of the sauce over the top of the macaroni, so that there is a thick layer on top.

7.  Sprinkle weetabix over the top, and bake for 15 minutes.

*Many people avoid meat but still eat cheese, believing that is acceptable because an animal is not killed in the process of creating dairy products. If this is what you think, here is some information to enlighten you: Milk Myths

And if you are concerned about your health at all, I suggest you also check out the Not Milk site.