Monday, September 25, 2017

Mac N Faux Cheezy

I made a mac 'n cheese that made VL say "I feel like I don't have any allergies." High praise.

For those who have "followed" this blog, you know I flirt with vegan recipes because they've come up with tasty dairy-free solutions, but in reality, we are much more paleoish because we eat meat and low to no grain. Anyways, my son--bless his lekkle heart-- is not allergic to dairy! So he can partake of that American childrearing staple of mac n'cheese. My daughter--bless her big heart-- is allergic to dairy--and no, it is not lactose intolerant people; there was projectile vomit involved and you think, I would have figured out the difference in the last 20 years, m'kay?--is always forlorn when she sees him partaking. And after almost 20 years of mostly dairy-free existence, I harbor a lot of dairy skepticism. So I resolved to come up with a solution. At Sprouts the other day, I picked up Ancient Roots shell pasta-corn & quinoa-that came in a small box; we don't normally eat a lot of corn because me and the girl do not digest it well, even "organic" corn, hard to say if it's because of GMO or lingering glyphosate or the lack of nixtamalization.

Anyways, I totally winged this one on the fly. I was inspired by reading this review of this taco stand in TJ that uses eggs to emulsify the salsa into a silky texture. It's basically a cashew faux "cheeze" + carbonara mashup. It is not vegan.

Mac N Faux Cheezy

Ingredients:
  • 1/2 cup of soaked raw cashews (soaked for 2 hrs then drained & rinsed well, can be done the day before and stored refrigerated or frozen)
  • Um then I filled the pyrex cup it was in with water (and nuts still in there) to about 1/2 c or more mark
  • 2 generous tsp of nutritional yeast
  • 1 tsp+ of garlic powder
  • sprinkle+ onion powder
  • sea salt
  • Generous splashes of avocado oil (can also use olive oil/lard/bacon fat)
  • 2 eggs

  • GF pasta
Blend sauce ingredients until it is super duper smooth. I think I let it run for 2-3 min but not enough for it to warm in the vitamix. The eggs help with making the particulate mouth feel of the cashews be more silky and emulsified (i.e. won't separate). Taste it and season more as needed.

Cook pasta according to directions. Drain and reserve some of the starchy water. Throw the drained pasta back into the pot and turn it on low heat. Then pour the sauce in and let it thicken while stirring, but try not to scramble the eggs. Use the pasta water to thin if it's too thick. (If I was more prepared, I would have used the pasta water to make the sauce in the first place.)

I topped my serving with a whisper of ground ghost pepper. I'm going to be sad when that runs out.

This made just enough for 4 bowls of mac. Next time I am doubling bc we barely had enough for VL's lunch tomorrow.