Although I've been off dairy for a couple of years, occasionally I do crave something cheesey. Today it was mac and cheese - I wanted it, I needed it, I had to have it. Hello, internet.
I read several vegan recipes, and they had one ingredient in common: nutritional yeast. I'd never tried it before, but it was typically described as "nutty", "cheesey", and "good on popcorn" (??). And it really is quite nutritious - chock full of vitamin B goodness. I was game. Bring it on.
Luckily I read the fine print on the base recipe before starting to make it: "If you are used to nutritional yeast sauces AND you like Road’s End Chreese, then this might be the recipe for you." Hmm, neither of those applied to me - rave reviews aside, what were the odds that I would find it delicious? I needed a back-up plan.... or rather some back-up ingredients. Something to alter this from yummy "mac and cheese" to "generic pasta dish".
Good thing I did, because the underlying sauce on its own tastes kind of like ass...
Spinach/tomato/olive rotini with ... sauce
adapted from this recipe
375g whole wheat rotini, cooked al dente
1 1/4 c water
1 c plain, fat-free soy milk
3/4 c nutritional yeast
3 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp turmeric
cayenne pepper (to taste)
freshly ground black pepper (to taste)
2 tbsp tahini
1 tsp shiro miso
While pasta is cooking, blend the sauce ingredients (from water to miso) together in a blender. Drain the pasta, reserving about 1/2 c of the cooking water, and return the pasta to pan. Add the sauce mixture and cook, stirring, until the mixture boils and thickens. Taste; gag. Add the pasta water to avoid drying out while you try to fix this mess.
1 can fire roasted tomatoes
several handfuls fresh spinach
lots of kalamata olives, roughly chopped
more freshly ground black pepper
Throw in all of the above and stir until spinach has wilted. Keep adding more of whatever it takes until the pasta tastes edible. Eat. Feel healthier.
The key here was to stop thinking of this as a "cheese" sauce - because it tastes nothing like cheese. But the texture is good, the colour is... well, greenish yellow, but at least it's not boring. And it does have flavour. So once you start thinking of it as just a pasta sauce, it's... well, it's edible. And did I mention that it's healthy? So healthy...
But yeah. Don't make this. Just... don't. Eat something with a nice tomato-based sauce and pop a B vitamin instead.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
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Michelle says: OMG that was an epic descriptive post! I too was told about brewer's yeast 'great on popcorn' seems to be popular words of choice. Didn't buy it, haven't tried it ... perhaps won't?
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