Happy Vegan Couple: Mac n Cheese Cooking Video

We have a great plant-based version of mac n cheese to share with you. We have adapted this recipe from one in the terrific book, "The Cheese Trap" by Dr. Neal Barnard, Director of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. This version is chock full of colorful veggies and the cheesy flavored sauce is amazing. There is no added oil or sweeteners; there is a bit of salt you can omit if you prefer. So get your taste buds revved up. You're going to love this recipe!!! PS: A great dish for pot-lucks.

Cuisine: American
Course: Main
Servings: 6

Ingredients

• ​​2 cups of each vegetable: cauliflower, broccoli, sliced mushrooms, sliced carrots, cubed sweet potatoes
  
• 1 cup each: sliced zucchini, frozen green peas
  
• 1 1/3 cup raw cashews
  
• 3 1/2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
• 2 tbsp tahini
• 1 tbsp miso
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 cup dried bread crumbs (we make our own with the heels of Organic Dave's Killer Bread 21 Whole Grains and Seeds)
• 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
• 2 cups unsweetened soy milk
• 3/4 cup water (you may or may not need this)

Instructions

1. ​Steam sweet potatoes first for about 3-4 minutes
   
2. While steaming, start preparing your sauce in blender. Combine soy milk, raw cashews (if you do not have a powerful blender like a Vitamix, soak your cashews for a few hours to soften before using in this recipe), lemon juice, tahini, miso, garlic powder, 1/4 cup of the nutrional yeast, salt, and pepper. 
   
3. When sweet potatoes are steamed, add them to your blender
   
4. Blend until very smooth. If the sauce seems too thick, add in a little water to your desired consistency. 
5. Boil your pasta a couple minutes lass than the packaged instructions. So if is says cook for 6 minutes, cook only for 4. It will cook the rest of the way in the oven. 
   
6. Once cooked, drain all water out.
7. Steam the cauliflower, broccoli, mushrooms, and carrots. 
8. Once steamed, combine these veggies in a large bowl with the uncooked zucchini and frozen peas. Mix them up. Now you can assemble your casserole. 
9. Preheat oven 400 degrees. Use a 15x10x2" pyrex pan. 
10. First layer in the pasta and spread evenly in pan. 
11. Next add all the veggies and spread throughout pan. 
12. Mix up the pasta and the veggies a bit. 
13. Then pour in the sauce from the blender. Mix well.
14. Add bread crumbs over top and add the rest of the nutritional yeast (you can sprinkle on more nutritional yeast too if you need to cover more of the pasta).
15. Cook the pan covered with aluminum foil or another cover if you have one for 15 minutes.
16. At this point, the casserole should begin turning brown on top: if not, you can try to cook a bit more but be careful not to overcook. Enjoy! 

Recipe Notes

This recipe was adapted from the Mac n' Trees recipe in Dr. Neal Barnard's wonderful book titled, "The Cheese Trap."