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!

What Vegans Eat

It feels as if I just finished writing up January's short highlight of some of my favourite vegan food blogs--February has been zipping right by! So, on with it, I guess:

Anna over at Carrot and Potato Time just blogged about her experience making almond milk. I really, really have to try this for myself, soon since it seems so easy to make. Many don't realize that almond milk has been enjoyed for hundreds of years, its origins easily traced back to the Middle Ages, when refrigerators were a luxury only enjoyed by time-travelers.

Speaking of milks: Mihl at Seitan Is My Motor recently posted a recipe for a delicious-sounding Carrot-Coconut Soup w/Lime. It's described as "creamy, spicy, fruity and slightly sour" and looks absolutely beautiful, to boot!

Speaking of carrots (and beautiful dishes): Sinead at kitchen dancing shared a recipe for a Multicoloured Carrot Pilaf that sounds as delightfully complex tasting as the aforementioned soup. I always love her descriptions of how she goes about assembling her vegan culinary concoctions.

For a quick dessert or just a snack to satisfy a sweet tooth, how about a couple of the Banana-Maple Oatmeal Cookies from SusanV's FatFree Vegan Kitchen blog?

Go forth and cook up some good vegan eats!

Because Vegans Love to Eat, Too

Once again, just because I can, I've taken a peek at what some of my favourite vegan food bloggers have been up to lately.

Yesterday, the perpetually-upbeat Jessy from happyveganface posted a recipe for the veggie burger to beat all veggie burgers. Her Spicy Black Bean Millet Mushroom Potato Burger seems to incorporate anything and everything -- from tahini to sriracha) and looks amazing. Click on the aforementioned recipe title to see for yourself!

SusanV over at the FatFree Vegan Kitchen shared a recipe earlier last week for Iraqi-Inspired Seitan and Eggplant Stew. Just reading the list of the mix of seasonings used is enough to make me want to try this one out soon--paprika, cloves, coriander, nutmeg, cinnamon, et al..

Spreaking of intriguing spice mixes, Claire at Chez Cayenne posted a tempting recipe for Malaysian Tofu Curry over the weekend. I may actually test this one out on my spice-living friend Thomas when I visit him in Pennsylvania in a few days. Those of you who appreciate heat should visit her blog periodially, since its focus is indeed on spicy cuisine.

Vegan Recipes in Online Media

I stumbled across another piece today that mentions Bryant Terry and his book Vegan Soul Kitchen. This one offered up his recipes for "Vegan Succotash Soup" and "Garlicky Corn Bread Croutons".

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Mississippi's Clarion-Ledger's website has a feature today on Susan Voisin (aka SusanV), creator of the FatFree Vegan website. In it, Voisin discusses how she came to set up her site -- a definite favourite amongst vegan foodies across the internet. A recipe for "Quinoa, Asparagus, Mushrooms and Chickpeas" is included. Mention is also made at the end of the piece of a forthcoming book in 2010.

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Seacoast Online's Rachel Forrest has a really informative piece that highlights the origins, versatility and health benefits of agave nectar (or agave syrup) today. It's not written from a vegan perspective, by any stretch, but it's great nonetheless to see it being discussed in mainstream media. She's included recipes for an "Asian Vinaigrette", as well as a "BBQ Sauce".