Specials Board: Healthy Mac 'n' Cheese

Hands up who likes pasta? It is such a simple ingredient that allows you to have dinner on the table in a matter of minutes. Check out my courgette pasta with creamy basil sauce, which is on the table in less than 15 minutes. Ideal for a week night dinner when you're tired, and so much healthier than a take away.

Before transferring to a vegan lifestyle I used to love pasta with a cheesy sauce such as mac 'n' cheese or pasta with a four cheese sauce, but it used to be laden with calories! Now I'm vegan, I still love a 'cheese' sauce but I am trying to be a healthier individual and don't want to rely heavily on the range of vegan cheeses that are available. I've tried many vegan cheeses and I have been disappointed with some and shocked by others as some of the ingredients used in some vegan cheeses I can't even pronounce!  It's easy to replace ingredients with a vegan substitute and I'm not advising that you give up the substitutes there is a time and place for everything, but everything in moderation! 

Today after scrutinising the label on a vegan cheese substitute I decided to edge on the side of caution and decided to make a "cheese" sauce with no vegan cheeses being used.

I needed a yellow colour to my sauce and a cheesey taste so after raiding my spice rack and store cupboard two ingredients that stood out and had to be included were turmeric and nutritional yeast! I have previously experimented with "cheese" sauces for last years vegan mofo and I used different ingredients to replicate a cheese sauce with varying results. My most successful ones included Mac 'n' Cheese using sweet potato and Mac 'n' cheese using yellow peppers.

Today I'm using another vegetable that's yellow in colour and I'm also inundated with them from my garden, I'm showcasing the pattypan squash!

Ingredients - Serves 2-3 

1 Large Pattypan squash, or 2-3 smaller ones totaling 325g*, cut into chunks
150ml Unsweetend almond milk
55g Cashews
3 Tbsp Nutritional yeast1 Tsp Mustard powder
½ Tsp Ground turmeric
¼ Tsp Pink Himalayan salt
160g Pasta

* You could use a yellow courgette instead if you can't get your hands on a pattypan

Method

Cook your pasta in boiling water as per the cooking instructions.

In a saucepan add the cut up pattypan/courgette and a little boiling water. Simmer for 5 minutes or until the vegetables are al dente, don't cook until soft. Drain the vegetables and add to a blender.

Add the almond milk and cashews and blend until you have a smooth liquid. Add the nutritional yeast, mustard powder, turmeric and salt and blend again.

Drain the pasta and tip back into the saucepan, add the sauce and stir to coat over a low heat. The sauce will thicken over the heat, add a splash more almond milk if you want the sauce a thinner consistency.

I've submitted this recipe to Shaheens "Vegetable Palette Challenge". Shaheen runs the fabulous Allotment to Kitchen blog and every month Shaheen chooses a colour, and you make a recipe with vegetables, fruits or a combination of both with that colour. Its a great idea! The colour for July is Mellow Yellow & Orange, so this recipe fits the bill perfectly.

Once you've posted a recipe you email Shaheen and a round up of all the entries will be posted on her blog before the end of the month.

Specials Board: Side Orders - Cheesey Kale Chips

I've been perfecting a recipe for Cheesey Kale chips for a little while now and I'm pleased to announce I think I've cracked it!

Thankfully my little garden has provided me with enough kale to perfect the recipe. But alas my crop has all been used up now, but don't fear now is the time to sow sow sow! You'll be pleased to hear that it wasn't all used to make kale chips though and I'll post another kale recipe soon..........

The path of perfecting the cheesey kale chips was up and down but there were a lot of giggles along the way. A couple of weeks back my sister and I had a cook up session in my kitchen, trying out different ingredients to get that cheesey taste just right. The only problem was when we made up a batch of the marinade/sauce we mostly ate it during our taste sessions! When we finally thought we had it just right we realised we hadn't written down the ratio of ingredients!

Anyway, to cut a long story short a few days ago I had a light bulb moment and in my opinion got the ratios just right, so without further ado here is what I did! Not everyone has the same taste opinion but the beauty of making your own, is that you can add more of one ingredient if you think it needs it.

You may need to double up the ingredients or even halve them depending on how much kale you have.



Ingredients

Bunch of kale, washed & dried thoroughly
4 Tbsp Water
1 Tbsp Olive oil
2 Tsp Lemon juice
3 Heaped Tbsp Nutritional Yeast
1 Tsp Garlic granules
1 Tsp Porcini powder
½ Tsp Vegetable bouillon powder
½ Tsp Mustard powder




Method
In a pestle and mortar pound the nutritional yeast to form a fine powder. 

Whisk the oil, lemon juice and water together to combine and add the nutritional yeast powder and the remaining ingredients bar the kale. Give everything another whisk up and have a quick taste test.

Now's the time to add more of any ingredient if you think it needs it, but remember the taste now will be lighter than the final version as we are dehydrating the kale.

Remove the larger stems from the kale, the smaller ones will be fine and chop the leaves into smaller pieces. Just a bit larger than you want your chips to be. 

Transfer to a large bowl and pour over the marinade/sauce and mix with your hands making sure all the leaves are evenly coated with the mixture. 

Transfer the leaves to a food dehydrator being careful not to overlap the leaves. Dehydrate at 70°C for 6 hours or until totally crispy. If you haven't got a dehydrator the kale chips can be made by baking in a very low oven overnight.