MAC & CHEESE WITH NUT PARMESAN
WOW. Hello there.
Have you been missing cheesy, creamy, savory pasta? Do you want to avoid margarines and oil-based vegan cheeses? Then this is your recipe!
There are tons of vegan mac&cheese recipes out there but many of them are made either using margarine or vegan cheeses, which are almost always oil-based. You can also find many recipes that call for a considerable amount of either cashews or nut butters. This recipe, although not completely fat-free, it is very low in fat and absolutely delicious.
I don´t know whether it will taste like cheese to you or not (it does to me) but even if it doesn´t, I am sure you will love it anyway. It is so tasty that you will probably end up licking the plate 🙂
Mac & Cheese with Nut Parmesan
Prep
Cook
Total
Yield 2 servings
Ingredients
For the cheese sauce:
- 1 cup soy milk (use almond milk for a soy-free version).
- 1 small potato, peeled and chopped in small pieces
- 1/3 cup chopped onion
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 1 teaspoon mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon tomato paste
- 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
- 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
For the vegan nut-parmesan:
- 2 walnuts
- 2 Brazil nuts
- 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- pinch of salt
- squeeze of lemon
For the pasta:
- 3 cups of dry pasta (around 300g). I used whole wheat Elbow Macaroni but you can use any kind of pasta. (Use corn or rice pasta for a gluten-free version)
Instructions
- Cook the pasta according to the package instructions.
- Add the milk, potato and onion to a small sauce pan. Bring to a light boil, then lower the temperature to the minimum, cover and simmer until the potato is throughly cooked (around 15 minutes).
- Meanwhile, prepare the vegan Parmesan by grating the walnuts and Brazil nuts using a fine grater. Then mix it with the nutritional yeast, salt and a squeeze of lemon juice. Set aside.
- Once the potato and onion is cooked, add the rest of the sauce ingredients and blend until smooth. I highly recommend using a high-speed blender for better results (you will get the creamiest consistency!)
- Preheat your oven to 200ºC
- Place the cooked pasta in a baking dish (or in two single-serve oven dishes as I did) and stir in the cheese sauce.
- Then top it with the vegan Parmesan.
- Bake it using the grill function for around 3 minutes. Be EXTREMELY careful and pay attention to the oven. The grill function can be very strong and if you do it longer that 3 minutes, your vegan Parmesan might end up burned. Check the oven constantly during those minutes and just turn it off as soon as you see some browning on the Parmesan.
- Take it out of the oven and serve.
Courses Mains
Cuisine Low-Fat, Gluten-Free, Soy-Free
