South Oakland Kitchen

all these rainy days in pittsburgh have me craving some comfort food! last night i made Roasted Tomato Chipotle Mac and Cheese from Hobby and More, a vegan blog I follow.  It was soooo good! The cashews and cauliflower along with nutritional yeast make such a rich, creamy sauce.  I didn’t have chipotle flakes so I subbed crushed red pepper with some liquid smoke and it added the perfect depth and kick. I also used extra cauliflower (I got one from the CSA and wanted to use it all up) and regular tomatoes because that’s what I had on hand.  I bet grape or cherry tomatoes would make it extra delicious.

I made this macaroni casserole a couple of weeks ago to satisfy an urge for comfort food.  It hit the spot!  Although I will not claim that it is exactly like it’s non-vegan equivalents, it is pretty darn good all the same.  I served it with my vegan creamy tomato soup for the ultimate comforting meal.

Baked Vegan Macaroni Casserole

Ingredients:

• 1 lb cooked Macaroni noodles (I used whole wheat and it tasted fine in the casserole!)
• ½ c raw cashews, processed into a powder
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 medium chopped potato
• 2 chopped carrots
• 1 c nutritional yeast
• 1 c non dairy milk
• Juice of half of a lemon
• 3 T corn starch
• 1 tbsp oil/earth balance
• 1 t salt
• ½ t Dijon mustard
• ½ t tumeric
• ½ t onion powder
• ¼ t black pepper
• 1/8 t cayenne
• dash of soy sauce
• **Garnish:  Paprika, bread crumbs, ground almonds
• **Optional:  Peas and halved cherry tomates

Instructions:

1. Grease a large casserole pan and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Cook your macaroni noodles according to the package instructions and drain.  Put in casserole pan and set aside
3. In a food processor, blend the raw cashews with the carrots, potato, and garlic, and process until well combined.
4. Add the rest of the ingredients (except for the macaroni, the garnish, and the optional ingredients) to the food processor and process again until a smooth “cheese” sauce forms.
5. Pour the “cheese” sauce directly onto the macaroni noodles and toss to coat the noodles evenly.  If you want to add optional ingredients to your casserole, now is the time to do it!  I added a bag of frozen peas and some spare, halved cherry tomatoes for color and nutrition.
6. Top with paprika (for a little kick), bread crumbs, and crushed almonds (for some crunch).
7. Cook for 30 minutes.
8. Serve!  This recipe makes enough to serve about 4-6 people, depending on how hungry everyone is.