The Ultimate Mac 'n' "Cheese" Post!

Amanda from Vegan Mafia was jonesin' for a vegan macaroni and cheese recipe on Facebook earlier this week and apparently got her fix yesterday. When I think of macaroni and cheese (a.k.a. mac 'n' cheese), I think of two completely different dishes. The first is the straight-from-the-box stove-top meal that used to be a lunchtime staple for me when I was a kid, as well as when I was a penny-pinching college student. The second is that gooey and greasy oven-baked concoction that conjures up images of casserole dishes, oven mitts and aprons.

Variations on either version get tried, tested or tweaked by so many North American vegans. I challenge you to visit a vegan discussion forum with a recipes thread and to not find at least one or two lengthy exchanges where favourite vegan mac 'n' cheese recipes are shared, with tang and texture discussed in great detail. Ingredients like cashews, miso, tahini and pop up alongside the nutritional yeast or vegan cheeses used in the recipes in an attempt to satisfy cravings for the nutty, tangy taste of cheese--without exploiting animals in the process. The "cheese" portion of the recipe titles is often places in quotation marks or changed to "cheeze" or "cheez". They're everywhere and they range from ones with creamy nutritional yeast-based sauces, to (yep!) gooey oven-baked concoctions that, thanks to the wide variety of vegan cheese now readily available on the market, are nearly identical to what your mom (or dad) used to haul out of the oven in a casserole dish.

My quick-fix stove-top mac 'n' cheese over the years has almost always involved a variation of this "cheese" sauce recipe posted at VegWeb.com. It's a simple nutritional yeast sauce that's easy to adjust for taste or thickness and that hits the spot with so little effort--check the comments and suggestions left in response to its original posting to get an idea of just how versatile it is. Another recipe I've loved (and which others for whom I've made it have loved) is the oven-baked "New Farm Macaroni and Cheese Casserole" from The New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook. You can find an adapted version of it here on the Get Sconed! blog, or many other places online.

Joanne Stepaniak's "Melty White Cheez" is another standby I use for quick stove-top mac 'n' cheese, and you can find the "Baked Macaroni and Cheez" recipe from her Uncheese Cookbook right here on the Comfort Food Vegan blog. Another variation of a stove-top nutritional yeast based mac 'n' cheese recipe can be found on the FatFree Vegan Kitchen blog; the list of ingredients for SusanV's "Easy Macaroni and 'Cheeze'" is a bit more lengthy and includes smoked paprika -- which I love -- as well as optional mellow white miso. Bryanna Clark Grogan has a somewhat more elaborate recipe on her Notes from the Vegan Feast Kitchen blog; "Bryanna's New Baked Vegan Macaroni and Cheese" offers up many variations, including a gluten-free option for the recipe.

If you're not a purist and are looking for a bit more variety with your mac 'n' cheese (i.e. more veggies, please!), check out the "Macaroni and Cheese with Cauliflower and Tomato" and "Mexican Macaroni and Cheese" nutritional yeast-based recipes on one of my favourite food blogs, Vegan Epicurean. You can also try Robin Robertson's soy- and nutritional yeast-free "Mac and Chard" or her Sheese-based "Easy Green Bean Mac and 'Sheese'", both featured on her Vegan Planet blog.

Speaking of processed vegan cheese substitutes: Here's a recipe that is the stuff of legend on the Vegan Freak forums. Using Sheese, Cheezly and Teese (all available via Pangea), it's the "Holy Trinity 'Mac 'n' Cheese'" recipe from the Yummy Vegan Dinners blog and I swear to you that I've heard that people have wept in absolute joy while eating it. And of course now with the "stretchy" Daiya available in more and more US stores (and also available by mail-order anywhere in North America), how could a post on vegan mac 'n' cheese be complete without an oven-baked Daiya-based recipe or two?

So there you have it--comfort food without compromise! Enjoy!

Because Vegans Love to Eat, Too

A popular misconception about veganism is that food options become limited. If anything, becoming vegan taught me that I'd had no idea of the actual variety of foods available to me and of the multitude of ways in which they can be seasoned and prepared. I taught myself most of what I know about cooking while reading vegan cookbooks cover to cover and while lurking in recipe forums in online communities; these days I'm still studying cookbooks, but tend to pick up so many new ideas and tips on many of the wonderfully well-written vegan food blogs out there. I'm trying to get into the habit of providing a regular update of the dishes and cooking tips that catch my eye on those vegan food blogs I follow. I think that learning how to prepare food you love is probably one of the most important things you can do for yourself as a vegan. Plus, becoming a good cook provides you with a valuable tool for vegan outreach, where you can teach others around you that absolutely delicious meals need not involve animal exploitation.

So?

Anna, over at Carrot and Potato Time, posted a recipe for a Basic Vegan Chili for crock pots a few weeks ago that included a tip on using kombu seaweed to bring about "a general reduction in, ehm, digestive distress (gas!) associated with beans". Her recipe was of interest to me since I was recently given a crock pot and have just started experimenting with it. I picked up a copy of Robin Robertson's Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker while in Philly and look forward to sharing the outcome of recipes I try from it.

A recipe that could easily be adapted for slow cookers is the one for Smokey Corn Chowder posted by Claire at Chez Cayenne just a few days ago. It's adapted from a recipe by Deborah Madison. I love corn chowder more than just about anything in the world--honestly! I hope to try this recipe out soon if I can find some smoked Spanish paprika in one of my local stores.

Last week, Ms. Veganorama at Yummy Vegan Dinners posted a recipe for Vegan Burger Patties, with credit for the recipe given to Bryanna Clark Grogan. I'm a sucker for a good veggie burger recipe and this recipe is neat because it's not your typical crumbly bean / grain burger, but is more of a burger-burger substitute, using gluten flour, chickpea flour and oats for texture and to bind the patties.

And by the way, if you haven't done so already, bookmark and read this blog: Vegan Mafia. From product and restaurant reviews to food photos and recipe ideas, Ms. Rock covers it all delightedly and delightfully!

Speaking of cookbooks: Along with the aforementioned Robin Robertson book, I also picked up Nava Atlas' Vegan Express and Bryant Terry's Vegan Soul Kitchen in Philly recently. I look forward to trying out some recipes from each of those and sharing the results here in future posts. (Note: You can find some sample recipes from Bryant's book by clicking on the links in this April 8 blog post.)

What to Eat

Once again, hours away from lunch, I find myself glancing through the latest posts of some of my favourite concocters of tasty vegan eats. I do so bravely, clutching a section of pink grapefruit while itching for ideas of what to make for dinner this week.

I'm always on the lookout for veggie burger recipes and cookbook author Bryanna Clark Grogan offered one up on her Notes from the Vegan Feast Kitchen blog last week, just in time for Canada Day and 4th of July celebrations. Bryanna shared some suggestions for making grillable kebabs, as well as two recipes for barbecue sauce and her Mushroom-Tempeh Burgers. I'm definitely going to give the burgers a try this weekend if I can fire up my feeble little Hibachi.

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Sinead from kitchen dancing posted a recipe a few days ago that included two of my favourite foods: beets and lentils. Her recipe for Lentil and Beet Salad calls for mustard, so she threw in a recipe for a homemade whiskey mustard for it. It looks like a really simple recipe that would taste anything but simple.

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I should also note that veganf has a really neat bento blog called Disposable Ardvaarks Inc.. Along with recipe ideas, including this recent post from last week for garlic scapes (Garlic Scape Infusion, Garlic Scape and White Bean Hummus and Potato Salad with Avocado and Garlic Scapes -- does it get any better?). If the recipes won't get you, the gorgeous photos she takes of the dishes she somehow manages to find time to assemble for her vegan family of six will leave you absolutely amazed.

A Vegan Thanksgiving

Trying to figure out what to do for a holiday meal? The ScrippsNews website has a short article on how to have a vegan Thanksgiving (U.S.). It includes recipes for a vegan Shepherd's Pie, Mushroom Gravy, Creamy Spiced Butternut Squash Soup and Pumpkin Raisin Bread, all from Mary Grayr, the chef and owner of Mary's Secret Garden in Ventura, CA.

Cookbook writer Bryanna Clark Grogan's got a whole mess of scrumptious-sounding Thanksgiving recipe ideas on her website. PCRM'S site has a bunch that sound lovely. Veg websites like VegWeb.com also have tons of holiday-themed recipe ideas and even ordinary recipe sites with search functions offer up lots of vegan variations on traditional holiday dishes.