18 October 2011

Vegan Butternut Squash Mac and Cheeze

It's no secret that I love the vegan recipes from Oh She Glows. I've reposted a number of them on here, but never fail to give credit where credit is due. Angela is a cooking machine, and her kitchen produces some of the best healthy recipes I've ever tasted. This is just another one of those, perfect for fall, and a perfect comfort food without all the "bad for you" things we typically find in mac and cheese.



Butternut Squash Mac n' Cheeze

Ingredients:
1 fresh butternut squash (peeled and chopped)
Extra virgin olive oil
Dash of salt and pepper
1 tbsp Earth Balance (or butter if you choose, but will no longer be vegan)
3/4 cup unsweetend and unflavored almond milk
1 tbsp cornstarch
6 tbsp nutritional yeast, or more to taste
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2-3/4 tsp kosher salt (or to taste) & ground black pepper, to taste
8oz whole wheat or brown rice pasta of your choice
Mix-ins of choice (I used spinach and leftover chunks of roasted butternut squash)



Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425F. Spray a casserole dish with PAM. Mix chopped squash with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast for about 40 minutes, uncovered, or until tender.
2. Meanwhile, prepare the cheeze sauce in a pot on the stove top. Add Earth balance/butter over low-medium heat. In a bowl, whisk together milk and cornstarch until clumps are gone. Add into pot and whisk. Stir in remaining ingredients (nutritional yeast, Dijon, garlic, salt and pepper) and whisk over low heat until thickened (about 5-7 minutes or so).
3. Cook your pasta according to package directions. The sauce makes enough to cover 4 servings of pasta.
4. In a blender, blend the sauce with one cup of roasted squash.
5. Add cooked, drained, and rinsed macaroni into pot, along with cheeze sauce & mix-ins. Heat and serve.


Question of the Day:
Does the idea of eating a vegan meal scare you/turn you off? If so, why?






23 comments:

  1. YUM! Butternut squash in mac and cheese sounds delicious!

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  2. Doesn't scare me...though I would probably end up using butter and adding cheese hehe :)Butternut squash is yummy!

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  3. I'm intrigued by this. I was a veg/pescetarian for a long time. I still make primarily vegetarian dishes at home because it's cheaper.

    Glad to see you're blogging again! :)

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  4. Vegan recipes don't scare me (I drool over Angela's recipes, too!)-- I just need to stock my kitchen with the essentials so I can give them a try (i.e.: nutritional yeast... have had a hard time finding that.) ...This looks like such a perfect fall comfort food :) Warm... cheezy... YUM!

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  5. Wow...yum, I'm passing this along to all of my vegan friends!!!

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  6. This looks AWESOME, although I'd probably end up sneaking a bit of cheese in there :-)

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  7. Hilliary and Amy Grace- You'd be surprised, the nutritional yeast has a cheesier taste than actual cheese.

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  8. that looks delicious! and even simple enough to make. will have to try this soon!
    xo TJ

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  9. Mmm, butternut squash mac n' cheese...nom nom.

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  10. Vegan does kind of scare me off, to be honest. My good friends are vegan and often eat meat and cheese substitutes made of soy. I've had them and didn't like them at all! I think I would prefer to just eliminate meet and cheese from my diet as opposed to finding something that mimics them?

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  11. I'm so excited you tried this!! I've been saving this recipe for ages, but never make it {she's one of my fav food bloggers--doesn't she just seem like the sweetest?!?}. You've just given me some incentive to make this, so thank you :)

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  12. I made tofu sticks for dinner with flax pasta...this actually looks quite delicious to me. I'm a "flextarian" love my meat, but also really enjoy my vegetarian dishes/creation.

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  13. k- i had a dumb moment, my mind wouldn't merge 'vegan' and 'mac and cheese' and i was a bit stressed like, "this looks so good but my husband doesn't eat butter or cheese..." i was confused, now i will definitely have to try it, my husband isn't vegan but he won't eat cheese, butter, or white condiments like sour cream, mayo, etc... and we love squash and pumpkins so... i'll try and get this on his list of things to try... this week is Italian and next week is Spanish already planned out

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  14. Oneika- I couldn't agree more. Why make stuff that isn't meat taste like it? Might as well just eat the real deal. I rarely eat meal substitutes and just stick with the protein found naturally in all the veggies I eat.

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  15. I got a bit confused by the idea of having mac and cheese without actual cheese but you say the nutritional yeast acts as the cheese? Sounds (and looks) good, I might give this a try for lunch - no ways the bf will eat this minus cheese. Also, are you and John still not eating meat? How's it going?

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  16. Meghan @ Wishful Thinking- Yes, the nutritional yeast is very cheesy tasting. Much like the cheese in a blue box mac and cheese.

    John and I have tried to keep meat out as much as possible, and sometimes it isn't possible. Mostly we eat a vegan diet but have thrown in the occasional egg, cheese, and glass of milk here and there. Things are going great though. He's lost weight, we both feel healthier...my hair and nails are growing like weeds, I have more energy. It's been great! I'll probably do a post about it in the coming weeks. Thanks for asking!

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  17. This sounds AMAZING. I really want to try this... and my vegan-diet little sister is coming this weekend :) Saw Meghan @ Wishful Thinking's comment above... my plan is to let the fiance try it before I tell him what it's about!

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  18. I love how versatile pasta is! You can pretty much do anything! I really enjoy vegan meals, my husband used to cringe in the beginning but now he doesn't realize that the meal is vegan :)

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