Welcome Home Mac ‘n “Cheese”
Lots of exciting news to share. First thing’s first, this past Friday my big sis left on her big Scottish adventure. Emma is on exchange in Scotland for the next five months. I am hopeful that I will have a chance to head over to the United Kingdom in the spring to pay her a visit and get a tour of her new (temporary) digs. I’ve never been to Europe, so it would be an amazing experience to get a chance to travel over there. Em and I are huge fan of the show Outlander, which is set in Scotland. I’ve been wildly searching Pinterest for Outlander-themed day trips that Em and I can do if I come over to visit. If any of you are Outlander fans and are going to be in Scotland anytime soon, I definitely recommend that you check out this pin. I’ve already sent it to Emma and she’s pretty hyped about it.
With all this talk about my sister leaving for five months you’re probably wondering why this post has “Welcome Home” in the title. Without further ado, on to my second piece of exciting news. Last December Kate, one of my closest friends, embarked on a year-long exchange to Australia with her family and just under a week ago she came home, hence the “Welcome Home” title. I am beyond excited to have her around! The other night Kate came over and we made some yummy vegan food and talked for hours about what has been going on in our lives over the past year while we were apart.
In other exciting news, Kate b brought home a bunch of 100% vegan chocolate (!!!) from Australia. The brand is called Loving Earth and their products are amazing! I had never heard of them until Kate introduced me and I’m so glad she did! On Saturday night we did a little chocolate taste testing. My favourite (of the ones that she brought home) was the milk chocolate. What I also like about this brand is that the products only have like six ingredients in them and they can all be easily pronounced and identified, win! Check out their stuff cause it’s pretty cool! (Side note: not sponsored, just excited about delicious dairy-free things).
This recipe is a spin off of my Ultimate Mac N’ Cheese. I swapped out the nut-based topping for a bread crumb one and added in some delicious and nutritious greens to add more substance to the recipe. We also roasted some cherry tomatoes to serve on top of the macaroni. This was very much the result of Kate and I cleaning out my fridge. I had kale, frozen peas, broccoli and some suspiciously wrinkly tomatoes that were in need of using up, despite this fact, the recipe turned out to be exceptionally tasty. Feel free to sub in other veggies if you want.
xx
Ashley
Ingredients
- 3 cups gluten free macaroni noodles
- 1 cup broccoli florets
- 2 cups kale, destemmed and chopped
- 1/2 cup green peas
The Sauce
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/4 cup chickpea flour
- 2 cups unsweetened almond milk
- 2 teaspoons dijon mustard
- 1/4 teaspoon ground chipotle pepper
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
- sea salt and pepper to taste
The Topping
- 1 cup gluten free bread crumbs
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/8-1/4 teaspoon ground chipotle pepper
- 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- sea salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
- Over high heat, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the macaroni noodles and cook according to package instructions. Once the pasta is finished cooking, blanch the veggies in the pasta water for about 3 minutes or until bright green in colour.
- Place the noodles and veggies in a medium casserole dish and set aside.
For the Sauce
- In a medium sauce pan, heat oil over medium heat. Whisk in the chickpea flour.
- Add the almond milk, mustard, spice, and vinegar, whisking constantly to prevent clumps. Allow the mixture to come to a boil over medium low heat. Cook, whisking periodically, for about ten minutes or until thickened. Remove the sauce from the heat then whisk in the nutritional yeast, salt and pepper.
- Pour the sauce over the noodles and veggies and give it a good stir so that the noodles are evenly covered in sauce.
For the Topping
- In a small mixing bowl, combine all of the topping ingredients. Mix well, then sprinkle evenly over the macaroni.
- Pop the macaroni into the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes. Broil for a further 2-3 minutes to brown up the top. Serve immediately or store in an air-tight container for up to three days.