My friend Deb asked me to provide a vegan mac and cheese recipe…my first request!!  Of course I was happy to oblige.  Most people are skeptical about vegan mac and cheese.  And I can’t blame them…a lot of it sucks.  There are loads of recipes out there…many using cashews or vegetables for the sauce.  I’ve tried a few other recipes and have found this one (which comes from Vita Cafe in Portland, OR and was featured in the June ’08 issue of Vegetarian Times) to be the best in sating my comfort food cravings.

While this doesn’t taste precisely like cheese, it has the thick creaminess of cheese sauce and is uber yummy.  You’ll want to use rotini or another hearty pasta to hold up under the sauce’s thickness.  You can also add veggies to this for more variety and color.  The nutritional yeast (which you can buy at Whole Foods in bulk) imparts a very subtle cheese taste and texture.  And don’t be scared of nutritional yeast!  It seems weird at first but I find myself putting it in other recipes too like tofu scramble.  My friend John even says he prefers this recipe to dairy mac and cheese. It’s that good.

Click here for the recipe for Vegan Mac and Cheese.

Notes: I used all-purpose flour instead of rice flour, Dijon mustard instead of yellow mustard, and low-sodium soy sauce.

Bon appetit!

Image by floridecires via Flickr and the Creative Commons License.