Creamy Mac & Cheese – it’s a new Daiya!
May 16th, 2011 11:05 am by Kelly Garbato
When I went poking through the archives I was surprised to see that I’ve only written about mac & cheese but once! Just once! Shocking when you consider how often we eat the stuff. Which in itself is shocking, given that I’d never even had mac & cheese until I was in my mid-20s! (Milk allergy, how I’ve learned to love you.) This oversight must be remedied!
Anyhow, in the original Teese vs. Follow Your Heart showdown, Follow Your Heart emerged victorious. (My latest pizza nomz roundup? Full of spoilers. And no Teese!) I found Teese a little salty, possibly with a weird aftertaste; I don’t wholly remember. (Of course, this was the old formula; and while things may have since changed, between Follow Your Heart and Daiya my contentment is so complete that I’ve no desire to revisit the issue. But I digress.) Thus, the mac & cheese recipe I offered up as our “perfect” formulation was a strictly Follow Your Heart-based dish.
Once Daiya finally hit the market, however, we did revisit our previously “perfect” mac & cheese formula and came up with a dish that’s even creamier, worlds yummier and more decadent than the original. This one involves a 50/50 mix of cheddar Follow Your Heart and Daiya cheeses. We found that Daiya alone made for a good enough cheese sauce, but the two combined? Heavenly!
After years of tinkering, I think this is it! THE PERFECT CREAMY VEGAN MAC & CHEESE RECIPE! (Previous disclaimer re: personal tastes still applies.)
Although, there’s no telling what will happen when Pepperjack Daiya reaches Kansas City…
Creamy Mac & Cheese with Daiya and Follow Your Heart vegan cheeses
Ingredients
2 cups Follow Your Heart cheddar cheese, shredded
2 cups Daiya cheddar cheese, shredded
4 cups uncooked macaroni (mini shells are my personal fave!)
8 tablespoons margarine
24 oz plain soy milk
Directions
Make the cheese sauce!
1. In a medium-sized saucepan, bring the soy milk to a boil.
2. Reduce the heat to medium and mix in the margarine, stirring until melted.
3. Add the cheese shreds, stirring gently until they combine with the liquid to form a creamy cheese sauce.
Optional: season to taste with salt, pepper, onion or garlic. If a thicker sauce is your desire, stir in a pinch of corn starch.
4. Reduce the heat to low, stirring even few minutes.
Make the pasta!
5. In a deep skillet or wide, shallow sauce pan, cook the pasta according to the directions provided on the package. Stop when about 90% done and drain, leaving a little hot water with the pasta. (This will mostly cook down as you continue to heat the pasta.)
Combine the two to make mac and cheese!
6. Mix the cheese sauce into the pasta, stirring well. On medium low heat, let the pasta continue to cook, until it’s the desired consistency. Stir constantly during this last step so that none of the pasta or cheese sticks to the pan.
Serve warm and melty!
Or … maybe on a pizza? (You heard me right!)
Fuck yeah hot carb on carb action! (You’ll find the recipe at the PPP blog: Creamy Vegan Mac & Cheese Pizza! And you will go looking for it; resistance is futile. Muahaha!)
Extra-special bonus nomz!
Vegan Baked Macaroni & Cheese with Daiya! (Recipe via To Live and Eat in L.A.) Not bad, though not nearly as creamy and cheesy as I like it. Shane is a big fan; he’s partial to the breadcrumbs!
Tags: pizza
June 6th, 2011 at 11:54 am
[...] was the scene as we sat down to plates loaded with pizza slices and sides of mac & cheese (we made a full recipe, of course! ALWAYS MAKE A FULL POT OF MAC & CHEESE!): Me: I AM GOING TO GET PREGNANT WITH THIS MAC & [...]
June 6th, 2011 at 11:55 am
[...] this is my recipe for Creamy Mac & Cheese with Daiya and Follow Your Heart vegan cheeses, halved; follow the original recipe if you’d like some extra mac & cheese to serve with [...]
August 17th, 2011 at 7:52 pm
[...] was the scene as we sat down to plates loaded with pizza slices and sides of mac & cheese (we made a full recipe, of course! ALWAYS MAKE A FULL POT OF MAC & [...]
October 11th, 2011 at 12:32 pm
[...] this is 1/4 of my recipe for Creamy Mac & Cheese with Daiya and Follow Your Heart vegan cheeses; double or quadruple this recipe you’d like some extra mac & cheese to serve with that mac [...]
October 17th, 2011 at 12:27 pm
I made the 1/4 recipe which is perfect for me, and used spiral (Barilla Plus) pasta. this is SOOOOO creamy and delish! I WILL be making it again! Just one thing……you mention about adding a little corn starch if you prefer a little thicker…..corn starch needs to be mixed with a cold liquid first, but I’m sure everyone knows this.
October 17th, 2011 at 6:39 pm
Yes, thanks for the clarification Joy!
btw, spirals, nice choice! Plenty of ridges and creases to catch all the creamy cheesy goodness, yum.
November 19th, 2011 at 5:16 am
OMGeezy! i made this with just the daiya cheese, without the soy milk (since i didn’t have plain), added some nutritional yeast (just a little), pepper, and a dash of paprika, vegan bacon bits, and a little water so it wouldn’t burn, and it was thick and AMAZING!!! even my omni wife loved it O.o i am so making this for thanksgiving! it was a total hit as far as i’m concerned <3
November 19th, 2011 at 5:18 am
i forgot to say that i made it on the stove, so it’s a lot faster. just saying, for those of us that eat on the run or just want a snack ;)
January 4th, 2012 at 1:29 pm
[...] – a mix of Daiya and Follow Your Heart cheeses – is the same concoction we use in our vegan mac & cheese (and, incidentally, our vegan mac & cheese pizzas) … so this should give you some idea [...]
January 4th, 2012 at 2:23 pm
[...] contrast to the original hash brown pizza, I made a cheese sauce (a la mac & cheese) and mixed it with the hash browns and breakfast sausage before adding it to the pizza. This made [...]