By Ashley Doris
Want a dinner that feels fancy and like comfort food all at the same time? Hello, vegan truffle mac and cheese!!
Hey there, my name is Ashley and I love mac & cheese. Well, more specifically, I love anything with cheese on it. Sprinkled, melted, sliced, or preferably drowning in cheese sauce is perfect by my standards!
A few years ago, I discovered that my skin did not love dairy as much as I did. (Of course, one of the foods that I loved the most would cause problems, lucky me). However, during that time I started to hear about this thing called nutritional yeast. “Gross,” I thought, “ Who wants to eat straight-up yeast?! Isn’t that something bakers use to make bread anyway?” After watching some YouTube videos, I learned that nutritional yeast is actually a wonderful ingredient that can be used to create a cheesy flavor without the dairy.
Cue the heavenly choir!
For this truffle mac & cheese recipe, you can go totally simplistic and use the butter of your choice, almond milk, nutritional yeast, and salt for a cheap, cheesy quick-fix. Through some fantastic stoke of luck, I recently found myself with several truffle products on hand, so I decided to implement them in this cheese sauce recipe. By no means is it a requirement that you have all of these truffle items, for example, regular Dijon mustard and sea salt will do nicely. But, since I did have so many truffle items in my pantry, I thought, what the heck, let’s go crazy!
This mac & cheese sauce is also customizable. Like things on the spicier side? Add a dab of Sriracha. Not a fan of macaroni? Pour this sauce over riced cauliflower to make dinner a little more interesting. Whatever your vibe is that day, play around with it and make it your own! I fully intend on spreading this sauce on bread along with almond milk mozzarella to make a gooey lava filled grilled cheese in the near future.
Ingredients
- Sauce:
- 2 Tablespoon Vegan Truffle Butter (you can also make your own vegan truffle butter)
- 3 Tablespoons Flour
- 3 Cups Almond Milk
- 1 Tablespoon Black Truffle Mustard
- 1 Cup Nutritional Yeast
- 1 Tablespoon Truffle Oil
- 1 Tablespoon Garlic Powder
- 2 Teaspoons Smoked Paprika
- 1 Tablespoon Black Truffle Salt
- 1/2 Tablespoon Ground Black Pepper
- Pasta:
- 2 Cups Dried Elbow Marconi
- Breadcrumb Topping:
- 3 Pieces of toast
- 1 Tablespoon Truffle Butter
Directions
Preheat Oven to 350 degrees.
Boil the macaroni until it is tender while making the “cheese” sauce. Drain it and let it sit until you are ready to add it to the sauce. (Do not rinse!)
Add the truffle butter and flour to a small pot and combine over medium heat. After three minutes, add almond milk and bring to a simmer. Turn off the heat and add the nutritional yeast, truffle oil, truffle mustard, garlic powder, smoked paprika, truffle salt, and pepper. Stir to combine, and taste it to see if it has the desired saltiness.
Remember, the cheese sauce should be well seasoned because the pasta is relatively bland. If your sauce tastes good, the dish will taste good.
Add the drained macaroni to the sauce and stir to combine, then put it in a non-stick sprayed casserole dish.
Put the toast in a food processor and pulse it until bread crumbs form. Melt truffle butter and combine the breadcrumbs and butter together. Sprinkle the bread crumbs over the top of the macaroni and cheese.
Top with more smoked paprika, salt, and a little black pepper if you would like some extra color and flavor. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.
Keep an eye on the top so that your breadcrumbs come out perfectly golden brown.
This recipe makes four servings.
Enjoy the recipe and let me know how you like it!
Vegan Truffle Mac And Cheese
Ingredients
SAUCE
- 2 TBSP Vegan Truffle Butter
- 3 TBSP Flour
- 3 CUPS Almond Milk
- 1 TBSP Black Truffle Mustard
- 1 CUP Nutritional Yeast
- 1 TBSP Truffle Oil
- 1 TBSP Garlic Powder
- 2 TSP Smoked Paprika
- 1 TBSP Black Truffle Salt
- 1/2 TBSP Ground Black Pepper
PASTA
- 2 CUPS Dried Elbow Pasta
BREAD CRUMB TOPPING
- 3 Pieces Of Toast
- 1 TBSP Truffle Butter
Instructions
- Pre heat oven to 350 degrees
- Boil the macaroni until it is tender while making the “cheese” sauce. Drain it and let it sit until you are ready to add it to the sauce. (Do not rinse!)
- Add the truffle butter and flour to a small pot and combine over medium heat. After three minutes, add almond milk and bring to a simmer. Turn off the heat and add the nutritional yeast, truffle oil, truffle mustard, garlic powder, smoked paprika, truffle salt, and pepper. Stir to combine, and taste it to see if it has the desired saltiness.
- Remember, the cheese sauce should be well seasoned because the pasta is relatively bland. If your sauce tastes good, the dish will taste good.
- Add the drained macaroni to the sauce and stir to combine, then put it in a non-stick sprayed casserole dish.
- Put the toast in a food processor and pulse it until bread crumbs form. Melt truffle butter and combine the breadcrumbs and butter together. Sprinkle the bread crumbs over the top of the macaroni and cheese.
- Top with more smoked paprika, salt, and a little black pepper if you would like some extra color and flavor. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.
- Keep an eye on the top so that your breadcrumbs come out perfectly golden brown.
