Easy Vegan Mac n Cheese with Daiya!

I've tried to make vegan macaroni and cheese a couple of times, and somehow the texture was never quite right. Well, my dear reader, that is no longer the case. I've officially managed to muster up an easy mac n cheese recipe with Daiya that tastes absoultely yummy. (in fact, I've had it twice this week already, and I haven't really been feeling like pasta lately) I am not responsible for any drool that might fall on your keyboard so without further ado, here is the recipe...

Serving Portion: just for 1, but it's quite small.

Ingredients
1/2 cup of elbow macaroni (I used vegetable elbow mac, that's why you see all the strange colours)
1/3 cup of Daiya Cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon of nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon of vegan margarine
a sprinkle of black pepper
a pinch of paprika

Directions

1. Boil the pasta just a little less longer than instructions, al dente. You want it to be cooked, but a bit hard so that it won't mush up when you bake it.

2. Mix all the ingredients in a heat proof glass bowl (like a pyrex dish) and place it over a steaming pot of water, a la double boiler method. It's best the bowl does not actually touch the water because it could burn the cheese rather than melt it, so use a bigger bowl if you have to.

3. Once the cheese sauce is coming together, drain the pasta and add it to the pyrex dish and mix the pasta all around so the cheese sauce coats it. Pop in a toaster oven or regular oven at 300 Farenheit for 5-10 minutes max depending on your personal preference.

Smell it, eat it, lick it. It's that good.

Mini Potato Sandwich with Daiya Cheddar and Guacamole Topping!

When I woke up this morning (around lunch time), I knew I wanted something with Daiya. Grilled cheese sammies are awesome, but I wanted something new. I considered making a hash brown casserole with creamy cheddar sauce, but that would've taken up too much of my time.

I wanted something quick, yummy, and kind of light. I scouted the fridge to check what I had on hand and found half of an avocado. I was staring at my Daiya cheddar bag and the avocado, and thought I could maybe make fried hashbrowns blended with Daiya in it. And then a new idea was born. Fry sliced potatoes, melt some Daiya on one slice, then put another potato slice on top. It's like a mini-sandwich/slider type of deal...

It may sound weird, but it sounded strange to me too. To make it better, I decided to make some guacamole and top my potato sammies with that. The results? Actually scrumptious. I'm definitely going to be making this again when I'm in a pinch for time.

Ingredients
2 medium potatoes
Daiya Cheddar Cheese
1/2 avocado
1 tsp fresh lime juice
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper
pinch of chilli powder

Directions
1. Peel and wash potatoes, then slice length wise into ovals. Fry until lightly golden, then sprinkle Daiya on half of the potato ovals in the pan. Place the naked potato slices on top of the ones that have Daiya, and constantly flip them until the cheese starts melting inside.

2. Scoop out ripe avocado, add the rest of the ingredients, and mash up with a fork until you have a dip consistency. Scoop on potato sandwiches while they're still warm, and devour immediately.

Epic Photo Essay..

 I decided I want to do a sneak peak tease with some photos of dishes I've made in the past, and will slowly upload about 2 photos to this post every other day. If there's a particular recipe you're interested, leave a comment bellow and I will recreate the magic of cooking up the dish again and type up the recipe for anyone! 

Vegan French Onion Soup with Daiya Mozzarella 

 Roasted Red Pepper Soup with Homemade Garlic Croutons

 Vanilla Coconut Cream Cake adapted from Marly's Recipe

 Chocolate Hazelnut Crepes (think Ferrero Rocher)

Savoury Mozarella Pancake Puffs

Pancake puff pans are quite an amazing thing. Aside from making sweet treats which originated as the Dutch dessert Aebleskiver, there is a savoury Japanese version of this dish called Takoyaki.

What does this have to do with the Savoury Mozarella Pancake Puffs? Nothing really, except I found that tidbit of history slightly amusing. The photo in this recipe post is actually a Frankenstein puff in which I poured some batter first, spooned some marinara sauce and Daiya mozza and then more batter to fill up the well.

Get ready for some delicious snacking!


Ingredients 
 
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup Daiya Mozzarella cheese
1 cup water
1 tablespoon vegetable oil


Yield: approx 12 pancake puffs

Directions

1. Mix dry ingredients in one bowl with the Daiya Mozarella cheese. Mix the water and oil in another bowl and whisk well. Slowly mix in the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until you reach batter consistency.


2. Heat up your pancake puff pan to a LOW-MED temperature. This allows the pancake puffs to be cooked without burning. Scoop or pour enough batter in one well to almost fill up the well to the brim. (It is easier to flip pancake puffs if they are larger.)

3. After a couple of minutes when they are cooked on one side (pale yellow-gold colour), flip them holding one stick on one side of the puff, and the other stick on the opposite side of the puff.

4. Wait another few minutes for the other side to cook, then remove puffs using the 2 sticks like chopsticks. They will be pale in colour, but do not fret, they will be cooked inside. If you would like a more golden colour, keep flipping them on each side until they reach desired colour.

5.  Serve with warm marinara sauce.