Food Blog Friday: Vegan Mac n’ Cheese
I spent a lot of time sifting through all the recipes for vegan macaroni and cheese that are floating around the internet and I landed on this recipe for Vegan Mac n’ Cheese from Happy Herbivore. What drew me to this recipe is that it has a lot fewer ingredients than many of the other recipes that I’ve seen.
I made a couple of substitutions in this recipe: 1/4 c. diced & sauteed onion for the onion powder, and brown miso paste for yellow miso paste.
I had high hopes for this recipe, I really did. It was a really simple recipe and very easy to make. The sauce came together and thickened in only about 5 minutes time.
I was impressed by the texture of the sauce—so, so creamy. Honestly, it was creamier than a roux. The texture was really decadent.
Unfortunately the flavour fell flat. I wasn’t expecting it to taste exactly like mac and cheese (and it didn’t) but I was hoping for some of the sharp tanginess that real cheese lends to the original dish. This vegan version just didn’t live up. I’m not convinced that it would have tasted much different had I used onion powder and yellow miso paste.
So even though the texture was great, the flavour just wasn’t enough for me.
I give this recipe:
1 spoon
Likes:
- The texture of the sauce was perfectly creamy
- Quick and easy recipe to put together
Dislikes:
- The flavour fell flat. There was nothing in the recipe that gave it a kick I was looking for.
In an quest for more flavour, Matt and I each added a little somethin’ somethin’ to our bowls: ketchup and hot mustard respectively. The ketchup, of course, made the dish much sweeter which isn’t exactly what I was looking for. The hot dijon mustard brought a bit of tanginess to the dish, but not quite enough to get me raving about it.
Find the recipe for Happy Herbivore’s Vegan Mac and Cheese here.
Food Blog Friday recipes are ranked on the scale of 0-3 spoons
0 spoons – That was fucking horrendous
1 spoon – I doubt I’ll be making that again
2 spoons – I’ll probably make that again with some tweaks
3 spoons – That was perfect.
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- e-mail: samanthaamenzies@gmail.com
- Samantha Menzies is an opinionated young firecracker who just happens to enjoy distracting web surfers with chronicles of her mildly entertaining daily pursuits.
You can’t replace cheese. That is a fact.
I think I see my favorite food..nutritional yeast!!! I love it. I will have to try this recipe one day and see if Nick notices the NY. He says he hates it, but in mac and cheese I bet he wouldn’t notice!
How do you use your nutritional yeast? I bought more than I needed for this recipe now I don’t know what to do with the rest!
I love your honesty in this review! I feel like mac and cheese is one of those dishes that have to be really tough to veganize successfully. But maybe I am an especially difficult customer on this one, as a girl who doctors her mac and cheese with extra cheese …
I’m impressed you gave vegan mac a shot. I had high hopes looking at the title as I would love a low-fat mac recipe, but I’m sure it’s much easier said than done!
THAT’s disappointing….I love mac n cheese but I love the real ooey gooey REAL cheesy kind. I made some earlier this week…one helping, no biggie. I dont think I could or would try to make a vegan version.
I notice the recipe didn’t ave salt!? Did you use any? I find nut. yeast needs a good amount if you want it to taste cheesy. Good move with the onion. I think I would like both kinds.
Well the miso paste is pretty salty so I don’t think additional salt would’ve helped much.
Too bad the flavor fell flat because the texture looks amazing. The best vegan mac and cheese recipes I’ve tried use raw cashews to make cashew cream sauce. Lots of vegan butter works too.
Bummer about the mac & cheese. At least it looks pretty and creamy!
(p.s. Thank you for such an honest review on the recipe!!!)
That’s too bad about the vegan mac and cheese. I’ve yet to find a vegan “cheese” recipe I like, because usually, like you found with this dish, the flavor is a bit flat. Gorgeous pis, though!
Well you certainly gave it a good try!! It does look like mac and cheese, so you get an A for effort!
Hope you have happy weekend!
Dennis