No matter which way you cut it, the cheese that is, I’ve always been a fan of mac…
Many a plant based versions have there been, and still many o more, but I’d say this is a solid place to start. I love my yeezey, I love my noods, put them together and we have one dope dish that is 100 % guilt free (though all food should be), so nutritious, and the secret ingredient… a beautiful purple eggplant. Yup this creamy, saucy delight is made even more so with the beautiful texture of roasted eggplant. Sound crazy? I don’t care. It also stars nutritional yeast. I wanted another option besides simply cashew based sauces. The moment I tried a variation of using Eggplant from Minimalist baker, I knew it was gonna be a hit.
So this recipe is melded and adapted from a few of my favs, from the parm topping with breadcrumbs, to the yeezey sauce, it is Kate-ified, coconut-ified and definitely funkdafied.
too much? sorry not sorry.
Why eat this: Nutritional Yeast! Which is also a staring ingredient in this recipe, is loaded with protein, B vitamins. Specifically B12 which is very hard to include in a strictly plant based. It also contains a healthy dose of fiber, iron and other precious vitamins and minerals. Nutritional yeast is kind of like the franks red hot of the plant world…I put that sh&t on everything.
RECIPE
INGREDIENTS
Yeeze Sauce
- 1 Med Eggplant
- 2 cups Almond milk
- 3 Tbls Nutritional Yeast
- 1/3 cup Cashews
- 1/2-1 tsp Tumeric
- 1/2-1 tsp of chili powder
- 1 Tbls coconut oil
- 2 tsp arrowroot powder
- 1-2 cloves of garlic
- salt and p
Parm
- 1/3 cup cashews
- 1 Tbls Coconut oil
- 2 Tbls Nutritional Yeast
- 2 Tbls Hemp hearts
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 clove garlic
- salt and pepper
1 Pckg Gluten Free Pasta. Gogo Quinoa is my go to 😉
1/2 cup Earth Island Cheddar Shreds
Optional
gluten free Bread crumbs.
METHOD
Lets start with the noods… You go ahead and cook those up. My tip is to stir often with GFree pastas to prevent the sticking. Once cooked, drain and you can rinse with water. Then set aside.
Lets get to the cheese sauce:
preheat your oven to broil. Cut your eggplant into rounds about 1/2 inch thick but no wider. Salt your rounds and allow to sit for about 10 minutes in a strainer to draw out some of the excess water. Rinse and then place on a baking sheet with a light coat of coconut oil.
Broil for about 3-5 minutes each side. Watch until they are golden, then flip over. Once ready. Remove from the pan and place in tinfoil, loosely bundled. Allow to sit for about 5-10. And make your parm…
Parm: This ones easy, dump into a small container that you can use a hand blender on and chop all together until everything is nicely combined. Test and season with salt as needed and set aside.
Back to the eggplant. Open the package and allow to cool until you can touch. The skin of the eggplant should just be easy to remove and come off as ribbons. Place the eggplant meat in your food processor or vitamix. Combine all your other ingredients and blend until velvety and smooth.
Now you can mix your sauce into your noodles. You may have more sauce then neccesary, so you can judge how saucy or not you wanna get. Fold in your cheddar shreds. Pour your mac and yeeze into a baking dish, pan, or casserole dish. I love the individual skillet pans. Top with your parm mixture and lightly warm and broil until top is golden brown and cheese is gooey. This should only take a few minutes. Keep foil handy in case you need to cover the topping to keep from a burn.
Put on your favourite album, and go ham on this mac and yeeze
Why eat this: Nutritional Yeast! Which is also a staring ingredient in this recipe, is loaded with protein, B vitamins. Specifically B12 which is very hard to include in a strictly plant based. It also contains a healthy dose of fiber, iron and other precious vitamins and minerals. Nutritional yeast is kind of like the franks red hot of the plant world…I put that sh&t on everything.
