About two years ago, Brian and I were back in my home town and decided that we’d make an impromptu stop at Michael Symon’s restaurant, Bar Symon. We had heard rave reviews from family and friends about both the atmosphere and the food.

Of course, I fell in love with the place immediately. The restaurant was situated in a shopping center in Avon, Ohio.

It was a quaint space with masculine, gray toned decor, a flying pig logo and a perfect bar full of an incredible selection of beer. The menu was simplistic and full of staples like pierogies and pork. Since our first visit, we dined there numerous times and although everything was beautiful and more importantly delicious, nothing stood out in my mind like their Mac and Cheese with Roasted Chicken, Goat Cheese and Rosemary. The Mac and Cheese was creamy, tangy and perfectly infused with fresh rosemary.

The roasted chicken made it hearty and “manly” enough for Brian to accept as a main course. It’s one of those dishes that forces you to instinctively close your eyes and truly enjoy what is dancing around in your mouth. It was love at first bite and I knew I had to find a way to replicate it at home. You can probably imagine how jazzed I was when I discovered that the recipe was from Symon’s book,.

I must say that I was pretty amazed that such a gorgeous plate of food consisted of such a short list of ingredients. And the ingredients are not the only thing that’s simple about this recipe – the prep work is also a breeze. I used leftover roasted chicken from the night before, but you can make it even more simplistic by picking up a rotisserie chicken from your local market. Although I was pretty upset when I learned that Bar Symon was closing its doors last fall, I’ll remember it for turning me on to one of the most delectable mac and cheese recipes that I’ve ever eaten and will be forever replicating in my own kitchen. I hope you’ll join Katie and I this week and share your favorite recipe that uses fresh herbs for our Shenandoah Growers Organic Fresh Herbs Holiday Recipe Exchange. Shenandoah Growers offer high-quality, organic, fresh herbs that are perfect for all of your Holiday recipes.

You can connect with Shenandoah Growers on and for product information and delicious recipes. Head on over to Good Life Eats and check out Katie’s recipe for. Place a large pot of salted water over high heat and bring to a rapid boil. Add the oil and rigatoni to the water and cook according to the directions on the package, 10-12 minutes. While you are waiting for the water to boil, pour the cream into a large sauce pan over medium heat.

Add the rosemary and garlic to the cream and bring it to a simmer - take care not to let it boil over. Allow the cream to reduce by about half. Stir in the goat cheese and chicken and continue cooking cooking it till the cream coats the back of a spoon. Thoroughly drain the pasta.

Add the pasta to the sauce. Coat the pasta in the sauce and simmer over low heat for a few minutes. Follow Jamie on Instagram. We love to see what you're baking from MBA!

Be sure to tag and use the hashtag #mbarecipes! Shenandoah Growers even has holiday trio packs that include living organic Rosemary, Thyme, and Sage, so they’re perfect for holiday cooking. Festively wrapped with an elegant holiday greeting card, they also make an excellent hostess gift.

Look for the Holiday Trio Pack in your local supermarket. How To Participate For a chance to win a $200 Cash Card:. Write and post a recipe on your blog featuring FRESH HERBS. Include “ Come join the fun at the and Holiday Recipe Swap sponsored by.” in your blog post. Just leave your recipe in the comments section. Add your link to the widget on either GoodLife Eats or My Baking Addiction (we have the same widget code, so only add it on one site).

Submit your post before Nov. 14, 11:59 PM. Anyone can participate in the link up, but the prizes will ship to US addresses only. More detailed info are. Link Up Your Recipes: Love any of the recipes featured in today’s Holiday Recipe Exchange?

If so, be sure to to use the to add your holiday favorites to your online recipe box. ‘); // This Week’s Prize: $200 cash card. Prizes provided. Recipe Theme Schedule. Made this tonight and instead of the heavy cream I substituted a mixture of whole milk and half and half, plus 2 tsp cornstarch to thicken the sauce. It was a little on the bland side – maybe a Tbsp or two of butter melted in would have made it taster richer without adding as much fat. Or maybe a few tbsp of parmesan would have amped the flavor.

The garlic/rosemary combo was nice though and I think this is worth experimenting with more for a healthier version. (I’m sure the full fat version is delicious as written). I’ve made this twice in the past few months and it’s delicious. I did, however, make a few changes.

I added a little salt and pepper to taste and substituted half of the heavy cream with light cream. I also substituted white beans for the chicken just to save time, but still add some protein and it’s yummy.

I didn’t quite use the full pound of pasta either as I thought it’d end up too dry. I also used dried rosemary. Tastes great. For those who think it’s too bland, try adding salt at the end and don’t use the full pound of pasta.

Also add dried rosemary. I added a lot to mine. I can’t see where all of the negative reviews for this recipe are coming from.

I have made this twice now, first coming across it on Stumble Upon a few years ago, and it is a definite keeper. As a college student living on her own and trying to cook for herself as much as possible, the ingredients for this are easy to find at my local Aldi and easy to put together after a day of classes (that means not too expensive AND convenient!). I add a bit more garlic because I’m really into that kind of thing, but other than that I follow the recipe as it’s written and it’s delicious. I’m sure mushrooms would be a great addition as well, I just didn’t have them on hand. All in all, a deceivingly simple and tasty dish.

Serves 8 Time: 1 hour Active time: 30 minutes I don’t think vegans ever get sick of Mac & Cheese, or, “Cheeze” or whatever. One of the first recipes I ever tried was from one of my all time favorites, the New Farm Cookbook. It was great for me back then because I always had a ton of people over, and you could make it for a crowd at the drop of a hat. So if you were all sitting around watching Evil Dead 2 on repeat, it was only a matter of time before a magical pot of Mac & Cheese would appear and swallow your soul. That recipe is still the prototype for many a vegan Mac & Cheese recipe: lots of nooch, garlic, onions and, wait, what’s that? Half a cup of margarine?! This was the 80s and so it wasn’t even non-hydrogenated margarine.

It was the real deal – a bright yellow log of pure processed fat. Today we have less ungodly ingredients to work with, but still, I can’t shake the feeling that when I eat those types of Mac & Cheese, I’m eating melted margarine. So I’ve been toying with different ingredients for the past few years and I’ll probably continue to mess around with it. It’s all about developing flavor and creaminess with ingredients that are still really accessible and really delicious, but also way less processed, and, well really real. To keep things from being one note, I wanted to build flavor with a few simple methods and ingredients. Like all great Mac & Cheese recipes, this one begins with a roux.

Flour is cooked in olive oil, lending a toasty flavor and giving the finished sauce extra body and creaminess. If you’ve never made a roux before then this will be a great skill to add to your repertoire! And speaking of creaminess, cashews are given their standard vegan treatment: a long soak in water and then a horrifying (for them) trip in the food processor, to be pureed until they’re silky smooth. So I’ve been playing with various ratios and ingredients, and it always comes out good and creamy, but I wanted something different, tangier, more interesting.

Cheese is aged, giving it flavor and nuance. There’s always mustard (an ingredient even in the New Farm recipe), miso, lemonbut I hit upon an ingredient that really gave me the depth I was looking forsauerkraut! Since the average home cook (myself included) isn’t really set up for aging stuff, I wanted something that’s already fermented, and sauerkraut really works. This mac is my favorite yet! (But that still doesn’t stop me from adding some Frank’s Red Hot.) And of course I don’t totally break with tradition, I used a little turmeric and a touch of nutritional yeast for that telltale yellow that tells you you’re eating “cheeze” not “cheese.” Recipe notes: You really need to blend the beejeezus out of the cashews and sauerkraut.

Although it won’t be completely creamy until after it’s cooked, it should still be relatively smooth, with absolutely no chunks, when it comes out of the food processor. I think a Vitamix type thing would work here, too, but I don’t have one myself.

Make sure that the roux is cooked and toasty before streaming in the veggie broth. It really makes a difference in the final flavor, so get your roux a really beautiful gravy color. You can use any smallish pasta. I love to use because it can hold plenty of sauce, and I just find the shape pleasing.

Small shells or traditional macaroni are both great choices, too. To soak cashews, just place them in a bowl and submerge with water. Soak for at least an hour, preferably two, or up to overnight.

And lastly, the type of veggie broth you use makes a huge difference. If I use my own homemade broth, I make sure it’s super assertive. If you use the type of broth that comes from a powder or concentrate, that is totally cool, just make it a bit stronger than you usually do. 1 lb small pasta like shells, macaroni or chiocciole 1 1/2 cups cashews, soaked (see recipe note) 4 cups broth, divided 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided 4 cloves garlic, minced 1 small onion, diced 2 cups sauerkraut 1/3 cup all purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon tumeric Several dashes fresh black pepper 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast (optional) 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice First boil salted water for the pasta.

Cook pasta and drain. In the meantime, prepare the rest of the recipe. Place the soaked cashews and 2 cups of the vegetable broth in a food processor and blend until smooth, scraping the sides of the food processor with a spatula occasionally to make sure you get everything. This could take 5 minutes. In the meantime, preheat a large pan (preferably cast iron) over medium heat.

Saute the onions and garlic and a pinch of salt in a tablespoon of the oil, until onions are softened. Drain the sauerkraut in a sieve, pushing it into the sieve to remove as much moisture as possible. Add to the pan just to heat through, a minute or two. Transfer sauerkraut mixture to the food processor with the cashew mixture. Once again, puree until relatively smooth.

There will be some texture, just make sure it’s not chunky. Wipe out the pan that you sauteed the onions in and preheat it over medium heat once again. Add 3 tablespoons of oil, along with the flour. It should become a gooey clump. You’re now making a roux!

Add a little bit more olive oil if necessary. Toast the roux for about 15 minutes, until it smells toasty and turns a medium brown. Stir practically the whole time so that it cooks evenly. Now stream in remaining 2 cups of broth, whisking constantly so that it doesn’t clump. Whisk until thick and smooth, about 2 minutes. Stream in the cashew sauerkraut mixture, and whisk until well incorporated. Add the tumeric, black pepper, nutritional yeast if using, salt and fresh lemon juice.

Heat through and stir occasionally, allowing the mixture to thicken. Preheat oven to 350 F and lightly grease an 11 x 13 casserole with olive oil.

Add the cooked pasta back to the pasta pot and pour in the sauce. Taste for salt and pepper. Mix to coat, then transfer to the casserole dish. Cover casserole with tin foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove tin foil and bake an additional 5 minutes.

An anecdote for those of you who hate sauerkraut but are still willing to try: I hated, I mean H-A-T-E-D tarragon before I tried the recipe Lotsa Veggies Lentil Soup in AfR. I hesitated when I saw the dreaded herb, but then reasoned, if anyone could change my mind about tarragon (ack, phooey) as an ingredient, it’s Isa! Well, needless to say: Best. In fact, the second time I made it, I ran out of zucchini so I substituted chopped fennel root to highlight the anise-y flavor of the tarragon! Thank you, Isa, for expanding my flavor horizons.:o). I almost skipped this post in my news feed because I’ve got a bunch of vegan mac ‘n’ cheese recipes in my collection.

This could be the only one I need, though. I’m glad to find a vegan mac and cheese that doesn’t rely on nutritional yeast.

I rarely like nutritional yeast and don’t agree that it tastes like “cheese”, no matter how many vegan books try to convince me that it does. (Different taste buds, perhaps.) I do, however, have a vegan alfredo recipe that’s cashew based. I’m intrigued by the sauerkraut idea.

I’ll try this the next time I’m in the mood for a vegan mac ‘n’ cheese. Thanks for posting it. Well, my current fave veg M&C involves combining soy sauce, soy milk, noosh, mustard and well, it seems like a bad idea until you taste it all blended together! So based on that and previous experience with the awesomeness that is the PPK and Ms.

Chandra, I’m gonna take a deep breath and try this. Would never have thought of it.

XD Thanks so much for sharing this! I’m a little nervous, but I can’t wait to try it. (Aw just realized I can’t make it immediately because of cashew soaking. Tomorrow then! I have a potluck tomorrow anyway.). Unfortunately during preparation, my 25 y/o Regal La Machine (which is not made any more – and I know why) had a tantrum and lost a fair amount of the creme through various crevices. No matter, threw it into my $40 crappy HB blender, added some macadamia nuts I had leftover to fill in and it was all good.

(Vitamix & Cuisinart FP on wish list for b’day). I.love.

that this has no Earth Balance in it. What’s the function of the sauerkraut? I didn’t taste it in there, but was thrilled with how it came out. Husband liked it better than my normal go to mac & cheese. Thanks again for another kick-ass recipe. Had this tonight along with some Buffalo ‘fu (used the marinade from A.

R.) and steamed broccoli. You can’t really taste that it’s sauerkraut at all. It’s super yummy!

Very reminiscent of the baked mac’n’cheese I used to make with lots of “real” sharp cheddar way back when. We have tons (and tons, and TONS) of leftovers. The 8-person serving size is very generous, especially if you serve it as a side dish. We’ll be taking leftovers to school (hubby and I are both in college full-time) at least twice this week, and I’ll be able to put a couple of servings in the freezer as well. I will definitely make this again.

Might add more nooch (we really love the nooch in this house) and maybe even a little more kraut. Thanks Isa for the recipe! This really worked. I LOVE MY VITAMIX!! With that dandy machine making this is effortless and fast, less than a minute to blend the cashews and kraut. We had to omit the yeast due to a guest’s allergy. We found that a dollop of Dijon mustard helped make up for that.

So next time we’ll add some Dijon to the mix. One interesting thing is that the dish smells a lot more like pickles than it tastes. In the oven and on the table I was afraid that the kraut taste would overpower. But it didn’t. This recipe makes a whole lot so we’re saving to reheat for tomorrow when the weather will once again be cold and rainy.

Thanks for the recipe, my yeast allergic guest was thrilled!! OK: this is good. REALLY REALLY GOOD. I can never leave a recipe alone, so I added about 1/2 tsp dry mustard, several dashes of cayenne and white pepper (I like spice!) into the sauce.

I adore Nutritional Yeast so put even a little more. Also: thinly slice some tomatoes on top, and sprinkle w/a little smoked paprika to finish (all before baking). Filling, satisfying, tangy, yummy. Great w/broccoli or sauteed greens (spinach, chard, kale).

I have a large Cuisinart food processor and I just let the damn thing run and run to get the cashews pureed in the broth. Always get some “leakage” but no biggie to clean up. I had another brand of food processor in the past: nowhere near as good. The Cuisinart is worth the $$. Someday maybe Santa will bring me a Vitamix. Am I the only one in the vegan world who wasn’t wild about this? I was only going to make 1/2 but then I thought, “nah it’s isa, I trust her + this looks really cool.” 1 thing that didn’t work was the cashew consistency.

It wouldn’t been much better had I ground them up before adding the broth. Maybe even adding the broth a bit at a time, but 1/2 the broth at once did not bring my cashews to the right texture 🙁 and it never got that interesting aged taste I was hoping for. It just tasted like cashews and sauerkraut and lemon juice 🙁 it’s a little better the next day, but from now on I think I’ll stick to the way I do cheesy sauce. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to stop (it slows down a little, though) and I am always prepared with towels because I know it does it. As long as that is normal and won’t like leak into the motor or something, I’m cool.

My processor is seven years old and has always leaked with liquid based recipes. Anyhoo, the Mac & Shews recipe is FANTASTIC, and I definitely want to make it again. I always worried about the processor leaking but never asked anyone, so I really appreciate your help with my appliance issues:-). Note about the food processor: Yes, it will leak! I too did not look at the “max liquid” line. After sopping up my mess, I re-started with a small amount of broth and added slowly as the mixture became less liquid-like.

I was really excited to make this since I cannot stand fake cheese but I LOVE mac and cheese. I was VERY impressed with how this turned out! I am a fan of Sauerkraut already so no issues there, although I have to say in the finished dish I could not taste it (but I’m sure if I hated Sauerkraut I would have picked it out right away, that’s usually how it goes). I substituted gluten-free pasta and chick pea flour to make the recipe Gluten Free Friendly! I also added a topping of crushed gluten-free pretzels mixed with some herbs (basically italian seasoned breadcrumbs) for some crunchy crust on top. Can’t wait to make it again! ISA, thanks for replying!

No reason in particular to soaking them in broth, I just thought I could soak them in my Vita mix blender and then turn it on when they were soaked without draining. No biggie though to soak in water first. Anyhow, I made this last night. My family are not vegans although we are trying to eat much healthier and maybe someday I will be vegan. But for now I am experimenting with it all.

I make a very good mac and cheese so I wanted to test this on my family(husband and 2 teenage sons) they are brutally honest! They all really liked it!

They do not like sauerkraut, they didn’t even know it wad there. They thought it was nice and creamy, but not cheesy. They were fine with that because it tasted good. The sauce was tangy when made but lost the tanginess when baked with the whole wheat noodles, so I served it with Frank’s Red hot sauce. I had added mustard and smoked paprika to the recipe also.

This Card Is All About Food Love. 05 Ideas For Machines

I think next time I might add more than the tablespoon of mustard that I originasly put in. Anyone not sure about the kraut, don’t sweat it, try it you’ll like it! Made this last week and really enjoyed it, although it tasted nothing like mac and cheese to me. It actually reminded me of this delicious stuffing my aunt makes for Thanksgiving every year which has tons of onions, butter, and Italian sausage in it. Soo good, but soo not vegan! I think I may bring some Mac and Shews to next Thanksgiving so I won’t feel bummed about missing out on her stuffing like I have the past 3 years.

Or sub the noodles w/ vegan cornbread stuffing, mmm. Thanks for the recipe!!

Oh man, this is my absolute favorite sauce that I have ever made! (The first time I made it, I used a foor processor and it leaked everywhere, but after that I used a blender and that seemed to get it creamy enough). I like to make just the sauce and use it for everything–putting on pasta, dipping bread, coating steamed veggies. My new favorite recipe by far. I find that every time you reheat it after being in the fridge, it gets milder, but no less delicious.

Thanks for this amazing recipe. Any idea if it can be considered low-fat?

(I mean it’s certainly lower in fat than a stick of margarine, though). My lady-friend I made this last night.

It was a great success, but we made a few alterations that are worth mentioning. I had been thinking for a while about ways to make an ‘asian-infused’ mac and cheese cheez.

We stuck with the basic recipe, but added a couple spoonfuls of miso paste to the vege stock, replaced the salt with soy sauce, and added about 2 tablespoons of ‘prickly ash’ chinese chilie sauce. We also fried up a couple of chinese eggplant (the long, purple kind) and about 10 oz. Of shitake mushrooms, and stirred them in with the roux/cashew/kraut mixture. The resulting mac was delicious!

The miso, soy sauce, and shitakes gave it a nice, pungent, fermented quality, and the eggplant some interesting color. We ate it with Sri Racha sauce and IPA, very nice. I made this yesterday for some friends and just finished up the leftovers for breakfast. I was drawn by the idea of making a vegan mac n cheese with cashews and sauerkraut. This was SO GOOD and had my omnivorous friends hooked. I had several helpings of this myself. I used canned broth with half a cube of veggie bouillon added, and i also included a few generous dashes of cayenne pepper as the onions and garlic cooked.

Also, i omitted the turmeric as i don’t have it handy and couldn’t justify the expense. It wasn’t missed. Otherwise, i followed the recipe precisely. I will definitely make this recipe again. This is a great potluck recipe. I’m afraid if i made it for myself i’d eat myself sick.

II pretended like I had enough time to make it when I started it. I soaked the cashews overnight on Monday night, made the mix with the cashews, broth and sauerkraut (I used mild KimChee) on Tuesday. I finished the whole thing on Thursday. One thing that is very important is that I ruined one batch of the cashews in the food processor because I used all 2 cups of broth. I tried again and only used about a cup to get it the right consistency. I didn’t add any other spices that would conflict with the KimChee. For instance I didn’t add any onion or garlic.

I did add the nooch and only 1 cup broth at the end w/ the roux. I added breadcrumbs to the top which was fab! The consistency is wonderful.

There is a slight metallic taste with the kimchee. I hope my fam likes it! Made this yesterday! It didn’t take as long as i thought it would. I had a vitamix, so the sauce blended up really well. Although the kitchen smelled like sauerkraut, the sauce did not.

I didn’t have turmeric on hand but I think the next time I make it, I might skip the yeast, and use mustard for flav and turmeric for color. Also, I wasn’t sure how the top would look after baking, so I used my vitamix to chop up some Jewish Rye, toasted it, and then sprinkled on top.

I thought rye and sauerkraut would go together. I can imagine using the sauce recipe for a pasta primavera maybe add a bit of wine.

This is the strangest recipe I’ve ever loved! I prepared it for a vegan family friend who needed some comfort food. I am a complete newbie to vegan cooking.

I read the ingredients, very dubiously, then I read the comments – which are overwhelmingly complimentary – and I HAD to make it, if nothing else, to satisfy my curiosity. So very very good! And, I am so excited to learn to cook more of these recipes. We’ve been talking about reducing our meat and dairy intake at my house, but I was unsure about how to cook without using those foods. It’s awesome how you have created such fantastic flavor and texture by combining these crazy ingredients. I can’t wait to learn more! Thank you for this great recipe and this wonderful site.

I am planning to make this for a friend tomorrow! This may be a dumb question but I am a novice cookdo you think I could make everything beforehand, assemble and put it in the casserole, and the bake it later that day?

Or would that mess up the roux and all by not baking it immediately? I have a busy day planned before dinner and thought it would be nice to prep in the morning and then just toss in the oven later. But since I am feeding someone besides myself, I would hate to create a disaster! Best how to find audio settings on skype for mac.

I also love the idea of adding steamed broccoli that you mentioned in one of the comments. I was thinking about maybe also (or instead of) mixing in some fresh torn spinach leaves before baking. Any reason that would ruin everything? 🙂 I love adding veggies to my mac n cheese – esp. Thanks for the recipe; I am excited to try it! AHHH I love this! It is so sinfully good.

I avoided cashew cheeses for so long because cashews are so expensive! But now you got me hooked it’s going to be really depressing when I have to be homeless because I bought so many pounds of cashews, but until that day comes, I am going to enjoy this to the fullest! It reminds me so much of the high quality, homemade macaroni and cheese that my family makes. My mom won’t eat any vegan meats, cheeses (except Daiya which she loves for some reason), or anything, but she ate some of this because it smelled so good, and then she took like half of the pot!

But that’s okay, because it gave me an excuse to make more. WOOF just ate some tonight for dinner.

This Card Is All About Food Love. 05 Ideas For Mac 2017

This dish is so satisfying and filling! It is a staple here and cashews were getting really expensive; so we made the switch to sunflower seeds(i also tried sunflower mac, it was good but i missed the tanginess from the sauerkraut in mac n’ shews). I was hesitant about subbing shews for sunflowers, but it came out just as good! It never really smoothed out and had a slight taste difference. It definitely hit the spot.

And we kept it gluten free with brown rice pasta and buckwheat flour. The flour made it an odd color but it baked up really nice in the end! Topped it off with a little daiya cheese(mozz and cheddar) and stuck it under the broiler. Mmm aughh roll me to bed. I’m a total cooking noob, and I wanted to share my experience with others who are similarly afflicted. So, as with all of the recipes of yours that I’ve tried, it was fabulously smooth sailing up until the roux moment. I mixed, I stirred, it toasted up nicely as described, I was more chuffed than was appropriate about my victory.

As I cockily whisked in the broth and then my cashew goop and spices, I started to smell something toxic and burny and acrid. “That must be what roux smells like, I’m just unaccustomed to such sophisticated aromas,” I thought hopefully. The nylon spatula I was using to mix, scrape and stir the roux had, during that process, gradually melted in an accordion-like pattern, and the burned plastic fumes had permeated the whole pot of sauce. I completed the recipe in pursuit of a fantasy that maybe the fumes would bake off in the same way that alcohol is supposed to, but god, did that ever not happen. I created an amazing-looking tray of creamy, bakey, golden mac and shews and spatula. Now, I know this site isn’t Vegan Cooking for the Woefully Uninitiated, but adding a bit about the ideal implements with which to prepare a roux (Wooden paddles?

Sassy.) couldn’t hurt, right? I’m not letting the spatula win, I’m remaking this dish tonight armed with a paddle and a grudge, but I thought I’d chime in on behalf of any other potential spatula melters of the universe. Godspeed, you graceless culinary clods. I was very suspicious of the sauerkraut, and would NEVER have even taken the time to try this recipe if it wasn’t coming from such a trusted source 🙂 I’ve made it twice now and it is absolutely delish!!

Rich and creamy, but not too heavy – and the flavour is just perfect. I usually reserve fake mac and cheeses for vegan friends, but this one is a hit with any omni crowd. I’ve passed this recipe along to two grateful omnis, in fact! Isa – I’ve never posted on your site, but I am one of the silent masses who loves and appreciates all your amazing recipes, and buys all your books hot off the presses. Keep up the great work!! This s better than many other vegan mac and cheese recipes, and since nooch can be pricey, it’s a good thing that the sauce isn’t 80% nooch. And we all love the nooch, folks, but it can be frustrating when a lot of vegan mac and cheese recipes basically taste the same.

I don’t really want recipes to be able to make non-vegan friends think they’re eating non-vegan food, but I do want recipes that reflect how far vegan food has come, and this kind of innovation does exactly that. For the people who are iffy about the sauerkraut: if you taste the blended sauerkraut mixture before cooking, you can taste a bit of the sauerkraut flavour (though it’s mostly the tanginess of it, rather than the specific flavour of the sauerkraut), but once the dish is cooked, unless someone told you it was sauerkraut, you wouldn’t expect it at all. The final sauce would probably also go even better in a potato bake, and with some mustard in it. Sauerkraut and cashews? Sounds werid, are you sure final flavour is “cheesy”? I can live without meat (well, I hate the taste, so I find being old enough to decide about it a nice thing! And openly declaring as vegetarian is easier than eating this gross thing sometimes), and I don’t like eggs (it’s gross when raw, so why cook and eat something gross?

And I didn’t bake a lot, so I can learn vegan recipies. And my habit of grabbing a yogurt or milk dessert for every brekfast or snack, whas more from habit and convinience, than taste (so bananas work as well and I don’t need a spoon for them!) But cheese is hard as hell. No camembert for the rest of my life? No cheese on my pizza? No mozzarella, no caprese salad?

Even no cheese-flavoured popcorn? OMG, I’m gonna cry!

But I’m not sure, if I’m desperate enough, to try cashews and sauerkraut in one dish. You swear it tastes cheesy, not sour and you don’t find the smell od cabbage in it? Isa, I love this recipe and I love you! Lauren: go for it without oil, I just did tonight and it still tasted marvelous! I did oil the baking dish though. I just toasted the flour in an unoiled pan, then mixed it up with the 2 remaining cups of veg broth and brought them to a boil together, and otherwise followed the recipe minus the roux.

I think you could just use a gluten free flour blend, no problem. Also I’ve tried gluten free noodles, and the quinoa/corn blend they sell at whole foods was AWESOME, I think better than wheat noodles, although big wheat shells are pretty darn good! Isa you have done it again!!! I have tired dozens of vegan mac n cheese recipes over the years but this one is by far THE BESTthe others don’t even touch it! The sauerkraut gives it the depth of a sharp cheddar.

I also love the consistency of the sauce. I added some panko breadcrumbs to the top for a little crunch. I accidentally just ate two huge bowls of it. I have been vegan for 6 years now and tried countless cookbooks and recipes, and yours are in a league all of their own.

It’s like somehow you understand and satisfy the precise cravings of my tastebuds. I could live off this recipe, breakfast nachos, bestest pesto, and your vegan pad thai and never tire of them.

It’s Isa’s biggest book ever, featuring awesome vegan cooking for every occasion!