This Sage Vegan Mac and Cheese recipe brings in the peppery and creamy notes of cauliflower and cashews to give a velvety deliciousness to Mac and Cheese. No animals required!
A few years ago I wanted to understand how the body adapts to a Vegan Diet. So for a month I had no meat, no dairy, and forced my carnivorous self to rely solely on vegetables, grains, and willpower to eat vegan. The biggest thing I missed, comfort food. And more than anything- Mac & Cheese, cheesy gooey, wonderful Mac & Cheese!
But how do you get Mac & Cheese, into a vegan diet, in a way that doesn’t make you want to starve to death or eat the gray visual equivalent of chunky concrete? Its not easy. Alicia asked me if I had a recipe for Mac & Cheese for a vegan friend. No dairy, no cream, no butter, no CHEESE!?!?!
No problem!
Most vegan recipes for Mac & Cheese tend to screw up on the creaminess; by adding things to replace the natural smoothness of heavy cream and butter. They both have a high level of fat and, at the right temperature, melt together with the cheese to provide the velvety mouthfeel we enjoy when biting into traditional Mac & Cheese. Most recipes add a mixture of Cashews & tahini which gives the creaminess but if done incorrectly can become cloying when it cools. Another attempt is to add potatoes, hoping that the potato starch can thicken the sauce and hold the mac & cheese together. But therein lies the problem, you’re trying to eat healthy, and adding potato carbs on top of pasta carbs is one big carb party that ends at the waistline and never wants to stop.
So I started playing around with ideas.
Cauliflower!
It has some of the same components as black pepper, which accounts for the peppery bite. Its ranked as one of the healthiest vegetables in the world and loaded with vitamins C, K, Folate, and Pantothenic Acid. It has enough of a flavor profile to add to the mac & cheese and plays well with flavors like Olive Oil, Thyme, and Rosemary to make it into a mediterranean version of the king of comfort pastas.
The dish basically breaks down into 3 components:
- The pasta
- The cream sauce
- The texture agent
The Pasta is what’s going to fill you up. The cream sauce is what’s going to give the most flavor, its the vehicle to carry the olive oil, garlic, thyme, and rosemary flavors, and the smooth velvety mouthfeel we would get in the traditional Mac & Cheese. The texture agent, is a fancy term to say that we have smooth and velvety pasta, al dente, but it doesn’t have the rich sexiness of a gratin mac & cheese, where the melted cheese forms a crust that’s just oh-so-fun to bite into! The texture agent gives you the last component of a truly satisfied mouthfeel: crunch, creamy velvety-smoothness, and the chewy resistance of good al dente pasta.
Directions
Make the actual pasta and cook it al dente, adding Kosher salt to the water before cooking. The main idea is making a Roux ( a mixture of equal parts flour and oil) to help thicken the cream of cauliflower and stick to the pasta better. Finally, once its served in a bowl, adding some toasted panko will bring this dish to a new level. There was an Italian cookbook on rustic country cooking, Cucina Povera, that used panko as a substitute for parmesan cheese in its dishes. It called panko “the poor man’s parmigiano” and the idea stuck with me.
Happy Eating!
Sage Vegan Mac and Cheese
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Prep Time: 20 mins -
Cook Time: 20 mins
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Total Time: 40 minutes
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Yield: 4 portions -
Category: Lunch -
Cuisine: American
Print Recipe
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This Sage Vegan Mac and Cheese recipe brings in the peppery and creamy notes of cauliflower and cashews to give a velvety deliciousness to Mac and Cheese. No animals required!
Ingredients
- 2 cups pasta
- 1 onion small dice
- 2 cups Cauliflower (frozen is ok)
- 2 cups Vegetable stock
- 1/2 cup almonds
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- Sage
- Rosemary
- 1/4 cup Panko
- White pepper
- Smoked Paprika
Instructions
- Cook the pasta al dente, drain and set aside
- In Olive oil, saute the onion until translucent and add the cauliflower.
- Add vegetable stock and cook until cauliflower is tender.
- Add the almonds and blend together in a food processor or vitamix blender.
- In a saucepan add the olive oil and flour to make a roux.
- Once the roux is done, take it off the fire and add a little bit of the cream at a time while stirring.
- Add the pasta and stir. Season to taste with white pepper, salt
- In a pan add the panko and toast over heat while stirring so it doesnt burn.
- Once cruncy, add smoked paprika and add the panko to the mac & cheese on the plate.
I love it!!!
★★★★★