This is a paid collaboration.with Bute Island Foods.
My favourite comfort food is pasta. I could eat it in every form, every day, for every meal. Okay, maybe not breakfast.. but it's ridiculously good. When I first went vegan I never even gave mac and cheese a thought, due to cutting out regular cheese from my diet. Around this time there were hardly any brands about that I knew of that did good vegan cheese, like I'm literally talking one brand that I could name, but even then I didn't think it would work as I believed it would have the same taste or texture. Oh how I couldn't have been further from the truth.
It was only around six months ago that I really thought about making my own mac and cheese. Obviously following a vegan diet has become more popular over time and now there are so many store bought options to choose from, however, I always wanted to make my own from scratch. So after much trial and error, I have finally found the perfect way to make mac and cheese the way I remember!
This recipe uses one of my favourite vegan cheese brands Bute Island foods. They have a wide range of vegan cheese's available, all of which are amazing, but for this recipe I kept it nice and simple and used their grated mature cheddar shreds. I absolutely love these as they melt so well in everything I've tried so far, so can't wait to share more recipes featuring them soon!
I also topped off this recipe with some fresh parsley and panko crumbs for some extra texture and flavour, this is optional but I would highly suggest using them!
- SIMPLE VEGAN MAC & CHEESE -
Serves: 1-2 Cook Time: 30 mins
You will need:
- 150g macaroni pasta
- 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 1/2 tbsp plain flour / sauce flour
- 1 cup almond milk (or other dairy free milk)
- 1/2 cup Bute Island Foods Mature Chedder Grated Sheese
- 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp dijon mustard
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp garlic granules / powder
- 1 tsp onion granules / powder
- Sprinkle of panko crumbs (roughly 3 tbsp)
- Parsley for garnish
Method -
1. Preheat oven to 200C.
2. Fill a medium sized saucepan with a decent amount of water and bring to the boil. Once boiling, add the macaroni and allow to cook for 10 minutes.
3. While the macaroni is cooking, start making the cheese sauce. Start by adding the oil and the flour to a saucepan on low - medium heat. Stir the two together to form a paste, ensuring there are no lumps.
4. Once the paste has formed, add the almond milk (or other non dairy milk) into the pan. Keep stirring the milk into the paste until the sauce thickens. Once it has reached a thicker consistency, remove from the heat. The sauce will thicken once its taken off the heat anyway, but make sure it has thickened enough by stirring for a good 2 - 3 minutes.
5. Add the dijon mustard, cheese, black pepper, salt, nutritional yeast, onion granules and garlic granules to the sauce. Mix everything together until well combined.
6. By this time the macaroni should be done. Drain the macaroni in a colander so there is no excess water, before pouring it all out into the sauce. Mix the sauce with the macaroni until it is completely coated.
7. Pour the mac and cheese into a small dish. Sprinkle a generous amount of panko crumbs on top before placing the dish in the oven for 20 - 25 minutes until the panko crumbs have turned slightly golden.
8. Finally finish off the dish with a little bit or parsley as a garnish for some extra flavour!
This dish is honestly as delicious, if not even better than how I remember classic mac and cheese to taste! I also love that this cheese sauce could be used for so many different dishes or even just as a dip with some tortilla chips, so the recipe could even be doubled and stored for a few days to try out with lots of different things!
If you haven't tried out Bute Island Foods, then I highly recommend checking them out! I love all of their options, especially their grated mozzarella and chedder for pizzas! and I also absolutely love their spreads for things like bagels!
Let me know if you try this recipe and keep up to date with me on instagram @veganshannon for more delicious recipes and daily life updates!
What's your favourite vegan cheese brand?
Love Always,
Shannon x
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