Things I Eat: Vegan Mac & Sweet-Savory Comfort Food

I use to inhale Kraft Mac & Cheese as a kid, no lie. But, now it’s time to throw out that blue box of chemicals and weird powdered cheese and be an adult!

A food eating adult!

A food eating adult who loves a healthy take on macaroni and cheese! I mean, there are tons of ways macaroni & cheese has been changed and updated and reinvented, why not a way in which someone who can't have dairy, wheat, soy, yeast, canola or fun enjoy it?

This is pretty simple to make – sloth is one of my favorite sins, after all.

What You Need

• Sweet potato – for me, I used half of a large tater. I think a whole, large sweet tater could feed a lot of people. 
• Onion
• Garlic power or a couple garlic cloves
• Olive oil
• Sea salt
• Warm/hot non-dairy, non-flavored milk (or just water)
• Fresh chives (to taste)
• A bunch of kale

Optional

• Anything you would like to dress up your mac & cheese with! 
• Chilli powered for a kick
• Daiya Cheeder Cheese (vegan, soy free, wheat free, yada yada - it IS rich in chemicals and stuff so if you can and want to do real cheese, do it!)
• Breadcrumbs
• Salsa
• Tomatoes
• Bacon (if you roll that way)

What You Do

• You’re going to want to roast that sweet tater. I molested mine with olive oil and cut it up into hunks to speed up the cooking. Pop it in the oven (or a toaster oven) at about 400 for anywhere between 25-45 minutes based on size. You want it to be warm and smushy. Don’t worry if it burns a little. I also added an onion which I quartered and separated. Onion is great. 
• Boil up some noodles, ya noodle! I used elbow rice noodles. You could really even use some zuke noodles (that’s slang for zucchini noodles which you can eat raw and involve just shredding out a zucchini in whatever way you want)
• Do a little dance.
• Blend your flavors! When the tater is done, pop it and the onions into your food processor and add a touch of olive oil, the garlic, sea salt, kale and chives (and anything else you want blended in there). Blend until it’s smooth. It will be super-thick, and that’s fine! Add in water or your non-dairy, non-flavored milk to make it the consistency you would like. If you are using the Daiya Cheese or any other type of vegan cheese, add it now. You can warm it up in the microwave if things got too cold for it to melt.
• Put the mixture over your noodles of choice. Add any toppings you would like – savor!