Macaroni and Cheese

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

Who doesn’t love macaroni and cheese?  No one, that’s who!  We sure do, so of course it was quite distressing pondering the thought of giving it up for good.  I don’t really remember where this recipe came from but it makes a shockingly good vegan version, and as you’ll see its really easy. 

The cheesy-ness comes from nutritional yeast.  It has a funky, parmesan-y kinda flavor that I really don’t like plainly sprinkled on things like popcorn.  When used judiciously though, as in this recipe, it really works.  This is the basic version but of course we like to jazz it up once in a while too, adding things like peas or mushrooms (or really anything in the fridge that needs to get used up).  We always plan on having leftovers of this for days but it rarely lasts the night!

Here are the ingredients:

½ c. Earth Balance

½ c. flour

Water/veg stock

S+p, nutmeg

½ c. nutritional yeast

1lb. macaroni noodles, whole wheat if you like

Olive oil

Garlic

Chili flakes

Panko bread crumbs

Begin by making the sauce.  Combine the Earth Balance and flour over medium heat until well combined, no lumps, and the rawness cooked out of the flour.

Whisk in the stock (you could simply use water too) and cook until it has the consistency of gravy. 

Bread crum topping:

Start a little less than ¼ c. olive oil and garlic in a small sauté pan, bringing up to heat together.  Add a pinch of chili flakes about 30seconds before garlic is done.  Add panko and stir to saturate with the garlic-chili oil.  Keep toasting on medium, stirring quite often until the panko is evenly (lightly) toasted.

Boil macaroni and until not quite tender.

Add seasonings, then nutritional yeast and simmer on medium low.  Add extra liquid to achieve the consistency you want, or to simply stretch the sauce a little bit for a saucier end result.

Combine cooked noodles and sauce in a bowl, then pour into 8x8” baking dish

Top the macaroni with breadcrumbs, bake for about 20minutes at 350F. Everything is already cooked and warm so the trick to achieving a creamy (not dry) result is, duh, to not bake it too long.

Here's the end result.  It serves up into beautifully uniform squares that hold their shape if you wait a few minutes before serving (or as leftovers out of the fridge).  We didn't wait this time.

Meghan likes hers with ketchup.

This is a staple item in our house and when we go on a bender we might eat this a few times in a month.

January 13, 2011--White Bean and Eggplant Gratin

White bean and Eggplant Gratin, balsamic reduction

January 12, 2011--Portabello Bake, broccoli

Portabello Cap, Wild Mushroom Cous Cous, broccoli

January 11, 2011-Carrot Soup/PB&J

Carrot Soup, Indian spices, quinoa (his)

Peanut Butter and Jelly, chips (hers)

January 10, 2011-Black Bean Soup

Black Bean Soup, tortilla chips, lime

January 7-9, 2011

Friday--Dinner out at Great Sage




Saturday--Vegan Macaroni and Cheese, garlic panko breadcrumbs
 One with ketchup one without.

 Sunday-Shells stuffed with Basil-Tofu "Ricotta"

Ethiopian Dinner at Home

This was the first week in quite a while that we had not gone out for Ethiopian food so we decided to give it a go at home and perhaps satisfy the urge.  How hard could it be!

We attempted our favorite dish, lentils in a spicy berbere sauce, as well as cabbage, carrot and potato, the ubiquitous Ethiopian tomato salad and, to stand in for the injera, chickpea crepes.

For the spicy lentils (called Mesir Wat) we used:

 

Onion, yellow

Garlic (~4cloves)

Ginger (1”piece)

Red lentils (2c.)

Berbere spice (1T)

Tomato paste (~3T)

Veggie broth (about 1qt+)

Took the onion, garlic and ginger and pulsed it in the food processor.

 

Added that to the Le Creuset, with a splash of oil and pinch of salt, to extract some flavor.  After a few minutes added the spice mix to sizzle for a minute or so, then the tomato paste to incorporate as well.

Then added the lentils and broth, simmered on low, stirring occasionally until the lentils were done and the flavors melded nicely. DONE! 

 

  

For the Cabbage, carrot and potato (Atakilt Wat):

Olive oil, ~1/2c.

Onion, yellow

4-5carrots, sliced in thick coins/halfmoons

Green cabbage, thick shred

2 potatoes, medium chunks

Cumin

Turmeric

Heated a pan, added the olive oil, onion and carrot.  Cooked on medium until beginning to soften.  Added 1-2T cumin and 1T turmeric to incorporate, then added the potato and cabbage, tossed to coat everything in the oil and spices then added a little bit of water so everything would steam nicely.  Put the cover on, cook until tender, stirring occasionally.  The water will evaporate and the oil will coat all the vegetables leaving them good and viscous (just like at the restaurant).  Season up with salt and pepper and . 

. . DONE!

For the tomato salad:

3 tomatoes, diced
½ red onion, julienne

1 jalapeno, thin discs
Juice of ½ lemon
Splash of olive oil
S+P

Couldn’t be easier, simply combine the ingredients and hold until ready to use.

I should have checked the jalapenos and thought about removing the seeds as this one was quite hot.  Will probably dial back on jalapeno next time and use perhaps ¼ onion instead of ½.  Chill and serve cold as they do at the restaurants.

And finally, the crepes:

1 ½ c. unbleached all-purpose flour    

½ c. chickpea flour

2T olive oil

2c. water

2t salt

Combine the flours, then add the liquids and salt.  Whisk well, then let chill in the refrigerator at least 30 minutes.  When ready to make, heat a non-stick skillet, thin batter as necessary with more water, then butter/oil pan just a little and pour a thin layer of batter in, swirling pan as you would to make crepes.  Cook a minute or two on each side then stack up and save for serving.

Everything tasted great, if not totally authentic.  The lentils were good and spicy though I’d use a little less fresh ginger next time and would like to get a deeper reddish-brown color (hmm, add paprika next time) for the sauce and perhaps have the lentils retain a bit more of their shape.

The cabbage, potato and carrots were pretty close the original actually and I wouldn’t change much in the recipe though smaller chunks of potato would make eating with your hands a bit easier.

The tomato salad was simple and a necessarily fresh addition to the platter while the chickpea crepes were by no means injera-like but were sturdy enough for eating with your hands and added an interesting (though not tangy) flavor of their own.

January 6, 2011--Quinoa w/ Kale and Shiitake-Ginger Broth

Used dried porcinis to start the broth, Sauteed garlic, ginger and shiitakes, added the porcini liquid, then the kale, cooked covered until tender, finished with a little soy and rice vinegar.  Flavorful and healthy,

January 5, 2011--Buffalo Tempeh Pitas

Buffalo Tempeh pitas with vegan ranch dressing.  Broccoli and chips on the side.

January 4, 2011--Salad(Hers)/Leftover Ethiopian(His)

Kinda of a fend for yourself night.  Salad for Meghan, leftover Ethiopian over Basmati rice with pita for Eric.

January 3, 2011--Red Curry Noodle Bowl w/Tofu

Eric loved this....Meghan not so much!

January 2, 2011--Vegan Ethiopian Sampler

Berbere spiced Red Lentils
Cabbage, Carrot and Potato
Tomato, Onion, Jalapeno Salad
Chickpea Crepes

Came up with these dishes based upon our favorites when we eat Ethiopian out.  Took some more photos and have easy recipes to follow.  Hopefully a blog entry with details to follow shortly!

January 1, 2011 - - We are back!

Back to the Blog!  After a long hiatus, and focusing on our other blog, the MFB is back for 2011.  We’ve still been cooking and eating, and following recipes and making up our own . . . We’ll be documenting recipes that we try, writing about interesting things we’ve seen while out and about, and mostly for our own enjoyment we’ll be posting a picture, and maybe more,  of what we ate for dinner each day.  Seems like a fun and easy way to stay engaged with the blog, post everyday, and have a record of all the things we’ve eaten and liked (and perhaps didn’t like).

So without any further ado, January 1, 2011:

Vegan Corn Chowder