Mac 'n' Cheese Monday - Sweet Potato

Tonight I got that carried away with making a 'cheese' sauce with no cheese involved that I forgot about my "everything bean like theme"!

It wasn't until the sauce was made that I suddenly gasped in horror that there were no beans. A quick nip out to my veggie patch and 10 minutes later there was a saucepan of hot water cooking my runner beans. You can't get any fresher than that.

As you may remember Marco hasn't been feeling that well and I have been feeding him on sweet potato amongst other things. So tonight I set myself a challenge and decided I would make a cheese sauce out of sweet potatoes. The verdict? Not bad, if I say so myself. This sauce wasn't overly 'cheesey' but delicious all the same. Here's what I did.

Ingredients - The sauce makes enough for 4-6 servings of pasta

3 Sweet potatoes

1 Tbsp White miso
150ml Almond milk
250ml Rice milk
50g Nutritional yeast
1 Tsp English Mustard
Salt and Pepper
150g Runner beans-prepared
Pasta of choice

Method
First bring a large pan of water to the boil, peel and cube the sweet potatoes and boil until soft. Drain and set aside to cool.

Once cool, (I cooked mine the night before) tip into a food processor and process until smooth. Add all the other ingredients except the salt & pepper and process until you have a silky sauce. Transfer to a saucepan and warm over a low heat, stirring every now and again to stop the sauce sticking and burning to the bottom of the saucepan.

While the sauce is heating through cook the pasta in boiling water for 10 minutes, with 5 minutes remaining add the runner beans then drain once the beans and pasta are cooked.

Tip the sauce over the beans and pasta and stir to combine. Add salt and pepper, I love black pepper so won't state a quantity, just add to taste. I only cooked enough pasta for me so I enjoyed a lot of sauce. I have plenty left over so great for lunch, all I need to do is cook more pasta and beans. I may try the sauce on a pizza too.

Recipe note: When I make this sauce again I will serve it over pasta and sweetcorn rather than runner beans as I think it would work better.

Mac 'n' Cheese Monday - Yellow Peppers

Summer is finally over boo hoo, the weather has turned and we are now experiencing rain, wind and colder temperatures. I'm trying to hold off with turning on the heating though, so more jumpers and more comfort food required!

The ultimate comfort food in my book is a "Mac 'n' Cheese" recipe, although I very rarely use macaroni pasta, its normally spirals!

Today's recipe for Mac 'n' Cheese was created using yellow ingredients to see if I could replicate the colour and taste of cheese. A hard call but I think it paid off. You'll have to let me know what you think.

Ingredients

15g Cashew nuts 
60g Ground almonds
1 Yellow pepper
2 Tbsp White miso
25g Nutritional yeast
150ml Almond milk
¼ Tsp Turmeric
1 Tsp English mustard
150g Runner beans
140g Dried pasta of choice

Method 2-3 servings

Add the cashew nuts to a blender and process until they resemble fine bread crumbs. I haven't got a vitamix or anything as snazzy (I'm saving up for it) so my food processor won't turn the nuts into a paste, but it doesn't matter if yours does, it would be better.

Meanwhile quarter the yellow pepper and put under the grill skin side facing up. Grill until the skin is blackened and put in a plastic bag for a few minutes. Remove and peel off the skin and chop the yellow pepper flesh.

Next add the ground almonds, yellow pepper flesh, white miso, nutritional yeast, almond milk, turmeric and mustard to the food processor and turn on the machine. Let it process the ingredients for a while until you have a smooth and silky sauce. 

Meanwhile cook your pasta shapes in boiling water for 10 minutes or as per the packet instructions. Top and tail the runner beans and slice into 5cm widths. With 5 minutes cooking time remaining add the runner beans to the pasta.

Drain your pasta and beans and add the sauce from the food processor to the pan and gently heat through. Add the pasta and mushrooms and stir through the sauce. Serve straight away.

I'm ashamed to say this but I have eaten every last bit! It tasted that good. What a fat piglet I am! If you have any left overs, you will need to add a touch more almond milk before heating as the pasta soaks up the sauce.

Mac & Cheese Monday - Spicy

Gosh, this month is flying by, I can't believe we're on the second Mac 'n' Cheese Monday already!

As you know by now my theme throughout mofo is everything bean like and I wanted to create a 'cheese' sauce based on beans, so off to the kitchen I went to do some experimenting.

I needed something spicy to warm me up, I've been trying to fight off a bug for a couple of weeks now and I'm a bit fed up with feeling like this for so long.

In my cupboards I had quite a few tins of different varieties of beans and it took me some time to decide which one I wanted to use.

I finally decided that my 'cheese' sauce was going to be based on spicy refried beans. If you have time you can always make your own refried beans but tonight I couldn't be bothered so I settled for the tin. This sauce has got an underlying cheesy flavour due to the nutritional yeast but its got a little kick to it to which warms the cockles of your heart.

Ingredients

215g Spicy refried beans

35g Nutritional Yeast
1 Tbsp White miso
1 Tbsp Vitalite or other vegan margarine
250ml Almond milk
Pasta of choice*

* Sorry I forgot to weigh my pasta so I don't actually know how much I used!

Method - serves 2-3 people

Put the first 4 ingredients into your food processor and process until smooth and creamy.

Transfer the mixture to a pan and slowly add the almond milk a little at a time, using a whisk to incorporate the milk with the bean puree.

Heat up the sauce slowly, do not boil. Whilst the sauce is warming up cook your favourite pasta shapes as per packet instructions.

Drain the pasta and add the sauce, stir to coat the pasta evenly and serve straight away. Dinner is served in 15 minutes tops!

Mac & Cheese Monday - Simple & Quick Recipe

Today's daily theme is Mac 'n' Cheese Monday and as there are 5 Monday's in September this year I thought I would start with the easiest and less complex of  my recipes for Mac 'n' Cheese.

There are no weird and wonderful ingredients in this recipe, you can buy all of the ingredients from your local supermarket.

As my Vegan Mofo theme is beans, this recipe includes them and gives the dish a little bite as well as colour. 

Later blogs for the Mac 'n' Cheese Mondays will include different ingredients and you can decide which recipe suits your taste buds the best. If you only have a little time to prepare something then this recipe takes some beating.

Ingredients 
250g dried pasta
1 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp Vitalite
 Soya milk
1 Tsp Dijon Mustard
1 Tsp Garlic puree
60g Vegan hard cheese
150g Green beans
Salt & Pepper

Method

Top and tail the green beans and cut to make 5cm lengths or there abouts. No need to be precise but you want the beans to be roughly the same size. Put to one side.

In a saucepan place the pasta and pour over boiling water and bring to a boil. Simmer for 10-12 minutes or as per packet instructions. After 6 minutes add the beans.

In another saucepan add the soy milk, flour and vitalite and cook over a low heat whisking all the time until the sauce thickens. Add the garlic puree, Dijon mustard and salt & pepper to taste and whisk until combined. Grate the vegan hard cheese and add it in batches to the sauce, keep whisking until the cheese has melted and then add another batch and repeat until all the cheese has been incorporated. 

Drain the beans and pasta and add to the sauce. Stir to combine and serve straight away. Serve with a garden salad.

Package leftovers and keep in the fridge, before reheating add more soy milk and stir to desired thickness.