We attended a rather amazing concert at the Community Hall last evening followed by a party at one of our neighbours. It was a lovely evening, and I enjoyed it tremendously, but whenever I have to be social for anything more than a few hours, I need to lie in a darkened room for half a day to recover. I also crave old-school comfort food (like KD!), which is invariably bad for you.

This mac and cheese, however, is actually good for you because the noodles are brown rice and the sauce is a combination of nuts, non-dairy milk, vegetable broth, and spices. It’s basically my thick cheez sauce (which is a bit thick for mac and cheese) thinned with my savoury cashew cream. The savoury cashew cream contains fresh basil and oregano, which realllllly improves the taste as well!

Best Ever Vegan Mac and Cheez 

Ingredients:

• 350 gram package of brown rice rotini noodles

Cook according to package directions:

• 1 cup cashews
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 cup strongly flavoured vegetable broth (add a tsp of BTB if the broth is weak)
• 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 2 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/2 tsp liquid smoke
• Blend all the ingredients in the bullet, then cook, stirring constantly until thick.

Remove from heat and add:

• 1/2 – 1 cup savoury cashew cream

Stir the cashew cream into the mixture until you achieve the desired consistency and then pour it over the drained noodles and add whatever else you like!

I added chopped sweet onion and sliced grape tomatoes, but as soon as I tasted it, I realized it would taste amazing with some steamed broccoli mixed in.

This is SO good–even better than my beloved KD!