Nutritional Yeast Cheese Sauce

Macaroni and cheese is the ultimate comfort food.  Creamy cheese sauce covering sightly chewy rotini or penne pasta, with crevasses that soak up all the sauce…that’s bliss.  Add a glass of wine and some chocolate, and I’m a happy puddle of joy.
I have great memories of growing up with macaroni and cheese (obviously wine wasn’t involved back then).  My Mom would make a basic white sauce – melt butter, stir in flour to make a paste, pour in some milk and keep stirring until the sauce thickened – then
 she’d add a mound of grated cheddar cheese that formed ribbons in the sauce as it melted.

We’d sneak some pasta out of the boiling water and dip it in the sauce (ostensibly to test if the pasta was done cooking), then when everything was ready she would pour the cheese sauce over whole wheat pasta, and stir everything together in a big pot which went in the center of the dinner table so we could serve ourselves.

It always bothered me when people would refer to Kraft Dinner as “macaroni and cheese”.  I wanted to take them home and show them what real macaroni and cheese tastes like, because the two are so vastly different that KD isn’t even in the same food group; in fact, I don’t think KD is food at all.  It doesn’t even taste good.
Soft and creamy macaroni and cheese is an emotionally satisfying meal, but unfortunately pasta and cheese are both calorie-dense processed foods, and in particular most cheeses contain a lot of salt and unhealthy fats which make them something to limit in a healthy diet.  Avoiding cheese isn’t easy – in fact for many people, cheese is one of the most difficult foods to give up when adopting a vegan diet.

The good news is that you can still have your creamy macaroni and cheese, without any cheese at all.  Replacing the cheese with nutritional yeast isn’t just for vegans, and makes your classic creamy cheese sauce healthier; a way to satisfy your comfort food craving with less saturated fat and fewer calories than the original, while adding a complete protein, vitamin B12 and other minerals to give your body what it needs to keep you feeling your best.

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This recipe is based on the one I learned from my Mom.  I replaced all the animal products to make it vegan, but you can still use butter and dairy milk if those are the ingredients you have on hand.  It can also be made gluten-free by substituting 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch for the flour.
Although optional, the Dijon mustard and spices create a more meaningful flavour and add some colour, making the sauce a little more interesting.  If you have them, they’re worth adding!

We love to mix in a handful of baby spinach and serve over whole wheat pasta for a dressed-up vegan version of a childhood favourite, but you can also pour it over steamed veggies and rice, or use it as a dip for raw veggies or pita bread.  Share your ideas in the comments, and we’ll add them!

 

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