10 Sep Vegan Mac & Cheese with edamame and corn

It feels like fall and I feel like eating comfort food!! Who else associates this weather with cozy bowls of pasta? Mac and cheese? I do and this is a classic fall bowl of veggie mac and cheese that I love making for myself.

I’ve tried so many cashew sauces and I love them! At times, however, I find they can be a little on the heavy side. Also, because my son is allergic to cashews, if I do make it, it is for myself only (I make dairy cheese mac & cheese for my family). Not only do I sometimes find it heavy but if I am making it for myself only, I find I eat too much of it because I don’t want to waste and it leaves me feeling full and bloated, as though I would have eaten dairy (with which I don’t do well). It is very difficult to prepare individual portion sizes of cashew sauces since you need to put enough cashews in your blender or food processor to blend into a super smooth sauce. If you try with smaller quantities (I’ve tried, believe me), you may end up with little pieces of cashews and a “not very smooth” sauce.

This is why I now prepare large batches and freeze in individual portions. When I feel like a bowl of vegan mac & cheese, I simply thaw one single portion and mix into my pasta of choice with my veggies of choice. I also make my sauce a little thinner which leaves me feeling better. You may add a little less almond milk if you prefer a thicker sauce, it really depends on your taste.

I love stir-frying or roasting veggies that I simply mix into the pasta with the sauce.

Here, I add sautéed corn and edamame as well as fresh cherry tomatoes and mint leaves. This is such a delicious and healthy high protein meal!! It’s easy to make and it’s what I call comfort food at its best!! Hope you give it a try. If you do, please comment or tag me on Instagram.

Ingredients

• 2 cups cashews soaked for 1 hour in very hot water
• 1 tbsp. coconut oil
• 1 medium to large onion
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1/3 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 very juicy lemon (I used 1.5 lemons since mine weren’t very juicy)
• 2.5 cup unsweetened almond milk (you can start with 2 cups if you prefer a thicker sauce)
• ½ tsp. smoked paprika
• ¼ to ½ tsp. truffle salt (regular sea salt works if you don’t have truffle sea salt)
• ½ cup frozen corn
• ½ cup frozen edamame
• 2-6 fresh cherry tomatoes
• 1 sprig of fresh mint leaves
• More truffle sea salt to taste

Preparation

• Sauté the onion and garlic in the coconut oil.
• In the meanwhile, rinse and drain the soaked cashews.
• Transfer cashews into the high speed blender or food processor and add sautéed onion mixture along with nutritional yeast, lemon juice, 2 cups of the almond milk, smoked paprika, and truffle sea salt.
• Process until you obtain a smooth sauce.
• If you want to make it thinner, add the rest of the almond milk gradually until you obtain desired thickness.
• Boil pasta of choice (I love chickpea pasta).
• While your pasta is boiling, stir-fry edamame and corn into the same pan as the onion (mine had enough coconut oil left to sauté, if not add a little oil).
• Once your pasta is boiled, drain it and put back into saucepan.
• Add amount of cashew sauce desired and top with sautéed veggies.
• To finish, add halved cherry tomatoes and mint leaves.
• Mix and enjoy!!
• Freeze the rest of the cashew sauce in individual portion size