Almost vegan Mac and Cheeze

Mac and Cheez (vegan except for a tbsp of butter)

My favorite restaurant in Omaha is Modern Love run by Isa Chandra Moscowitz who is apparently a vegan goddess. Mac and shews – her vegan Mac and cheese is always on the menu and last week I had an absolutely sublime rueben Mac and cheese. I am not vegan, I adore cheese but this vegan “cheeze” sauce wasn’t just fake-cheese good, it was a very well composed and delicious-in-its-own-right sauce. This is a recipe inspired by her. I’ve linked her recipe below

Start by soaking ¾ cup of cashews in boiling hot water for 30 min. I used a tbsp of butter (use oil if you must) to lightly brown a small chopped onion (10 min). I added 4 cloves of garlic to the pan (2 min)

Scrape the onion mixture into a large blender. Add 2 cups of broth (I used mushroom broth because I planned to top my pasta with mushroom bacon). Add the drained cashews, 1 roasted red pepper, 1 tbsp nutritional yeast, 1 tbsp tomato paste, ½ tsp turmeric, ½ tsp ground mustard and 1 tsp pizza seasoning (I used a mixture of ¼ tsp fennel, ¼ tsp oregano, ½ tsp thyme and ½ tsp granulated garlic since I didn’t have any pizza seasoning but apparently had all the constituent ingredients in my pantry). Add 1.5 tbsp corn starch. Give it a whir till the mixture has no grit in it at all (took my vitamix about 4 min on high)

Cook the sauce for around 10-15 min on low-moderate heat. Add the pasta , thin the sauce if needed with some pasta water.

Top with mushroom bacon or Brussels sprouts or grilled tempeh or anything crunchy or not. This is a delicious extremely creamy and deeply satisfying pasta dish – I did not miss the cheese one bit.

http://www.foodthinkers.com/roasted-red-pepper-mac-cheese/