Gluten-Free Vegan Mac ‘n’ Cheese?!

It exists! And it’s good.

This is not the kind of thing that comes from a blue box, though. It’s made of various elements of deliciousness that tag-team your taste buds into admitting that this is an impressive take on a classic American dish.

Give it up for the Pure2Raw twins for making this a reality.

I intended to make this dish exactly per the recipe’s instructions, but ended up with a few adaptations upon realizing that I actually was out of the main ingredient (quinoa). I don’t think I missed out on the intended taste, though! Here’s what I ended up with, but see Lori & Michelle’s guest post on Averie’s blog for the original recipe.

“Mac ‘n’ Cheese”

Ingredients:

• 2 cups water
• 1 cup brown rice
• 3/4 cup light coconut milk
• 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 2 tbsp tahini
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1 1/3 cups frozen diced mixed vegetables

Directions:

1. In small saucepan over high heat combine water and rice and bring to a boil. Then reduce heat to low, cover and let simmer for 30 minutes.
2. Remove from heat and pour the rice into a bowl and set aside.

3. Using the same pot that the rice was in, place it back on the stovetop over medium heat and add coconut milk and tahini. Whisk together. The tahini will melt into the milk.

4. Then add remaining ingredients except cornstarch and whisk. Raise the heat to medium-high.

5. Once veggies are thawed and sauce is nearly simmering, add cornstarch and turn stove off. Continue to stir 1-2 minutes more until sauce is thickened to your liking.

6. Pour the rice back in the pot and stir till well combined.

Serves 3-4

I added some vegan “bacon bits” on top, since I’d just tested that recipe for the upcoming Happy Herbivore cookbook. It was a very nice addition, but very optional of course.

I also enjoyed the additional veggies I’d thrown in, but next time I might up the coconut milk to 1 cup to compensate for the extra volume, as my sauce was a tad stretched to cover it all.

Definitely give this mac ‘n’ cheese spin a try! It hardly takes longer than the blue box, especially if you make it with quinoa like the recipe suggests. Not that there’s anything wrong with the blue box, as you may remember me going so far as to compose poetry in its honor…

Now we just need a clever name for this dish that actually contains neither mac nor cheese. Since I made mine with rice, I was thinking “Rice-A-Roni.” Catchy, no? And utterly original. ;)