July 23, 2022

VEGAN RECIPE REVIEW: Mac & Cheese Powder


Today's recipe review is a bit of an odd one--it's for a powder mix that you can use for things like macaroni and cheese. You know the Kraft boxed mac and cheese? I used to LOVE that as a kid! Well, this powder is supposed to be a replacement for that. You could also use it as a "cheese" dip. (I'm going to stop putting quotes around "cheese"--being vegan, there is no cheese in this, but it's easier than trying to figure out what else to call it.)

I actually got this recipe from a book by Sam Turnbull, who owns the website It Doesn't Taste Like Chicken. I've found that I like how her recipes don't use a ton of ingredients; nor do they use weird ingredients that you'll only use one time and then have the rest of it leftover. When I was at Barnes & Noble with Noah for his birthday, I spent some time looking through the recipes in the book and I found SO many that looked good to me. Just check out all the post-it tabs I used!


This recipe for the Mac & Cheese Powder is in this book, but it's also on her website (I wanted to try to find a recipe that I could link to). You can find the recipe here on It Doesn't Taste Like Chicken. (I'll link again at the end of the post.)

I did make another recipe earlier in the week for a queso dip but I realized it wasn't in the book. If you're a new vegan or if you just want to experiment with some recipes, I think hers would be a good start. You can find the book here on Amazon (affiliate link). As much as I love my Kindle, I would not recommend the Kindle version. There is a picture with every recipe and it's a beautiful book! She has a ton of recipes on her site, though, too.

Anyway, I was absolutely starving last night for dinner and I was on my own. I had no idea what to cook, so I started flipping through the recipes that I'd marked. The Mac & Cheese Powder was so simple and looked super quick and easy to make, I decided on that. And really, it couldn't be any easier.

To make the powder, here are the ingredients:


Nutritional yeast, flour, sugar, onion powder, garlic powder, turmeric, paprika, lemon pepper, and salt. I'd never used turmeric in my life until becoming vegan and now I use it all the time. I think it's used for color in this recipe (in a lot of recipes, actually). Simple enough!

The recipes says to just mix everything together and store in a container. However, I don't love the texture of nutritional yeast, so I ended up putting it all in the blender for 20 seconds or so to make it more uniform.

This is what it looked like before blending:



It doesn't make a huge difference, but this is what it looks like after blending. It was a lot smoother:


It made probably about 1-1/3 cups. I filled an 8-oz mason jar and had some leftover to make my macaroni and cheese as well as a couple of tablespoons that wouldn't fit in the jar.

Anyway, making macaroni and cheese with this was SO EASY. While I was measuring out the ingredients for the powder, I had a pot going on the stove for the macaroni. Once the macaroni was done, I drained it and set it aside for a moment. Then I poured some unsweetened almond milk into the pot along with 1/4 cup of the cheese powder. I stirred it over medium-high heat until the sauce thickened (which happens really quickly--probably three minutes).

Then you just add the macaroni back to the pot! I made a single serving of this, which was perfect for me when I had the house to myself and I was starving.


I was very skeptical about this one, but I was really surprised when it actually resembled macaroni and cheese! I didn't expect it to taste like mac and cheese, but I hoped it would be good. And honestly? It was! Clearly, I like black pepper on my mac and cheese, but it didn't even need more seasoning. I thought it was delicious and creamy and it absolutely hit the spot for macaroni and cheese.

My favorite part, though, is that I have the powder on hand so that I can make it very easily whenever I need something fast. It has about a million less calories than traditional mac and cheese, too! Just for reference, I used 2.5 ounces of elbow macaroni (which was 1/2 cup dry). And I used six tablespoons (1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons) of almond milk.

Eli came home right as I was about to eat, so I asked if he would try it. It said it's not bad--which is a big compliment from Eli! I don't think he'd eat a whole bowl of it like he did with the vegan Truffle Mac & Cheese, but I'm glad he didn't hate it.

Noah's having a birthday party with his friends this week, and I think I'm going to try making the vegan chocolate cake for next week. (I'll make a back-up dessert as well, but I think it'll be fun to try a cake--let's hope it works out!)

Once again, here is the link to the Vegan Mac & Cheese Powder.

3 comments:

  1. I might actually try this! I LOVE box mac n' cheese and always wished I could find a healthier version of the powder. BINGO! Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Her Sweet Korean lentils is one of our favourite recipe and we have it almost every week. Quick and easy. Have you tried it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I just looked up the sweet korean lentils and it sounds delish!

      Delete

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