Boozy vegan mac 'n cheese
An autumnal, plant-based version of the classic mac 'n cheese with a twist: tequila!
Equipment
- oven
- Hand mixer
- Pan
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp margarine
- +2 tbsp olive oil (i used my chilli infused oil)
- 1 onion, diced
- 4 cloves of garlic, crushed
- pinch of salt
- 1 red pepper, finely diced (bell pepper/capsicum)
- 1 tbsp tequila (gold)
- 1 tbsp tomato purée (concentrate)
- 1 tbsp Marmite
- 1 tsp rice vinegar (other vinegar works too)
- 5 sun dried tomatoes (finely diced)
- 1 tbsp flour
- 400 ml unsweetened oat milk (or any other milk of your preference)
- 100 ml water
- 1 small butternut squash, in small cubes
- 1 carrot, in small cubes
- 1 small sweet potato, in cubes
- 1 small potato, in cubes
- cracked black pepper
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp paprika
- ½ tsp smoked paprika
- ½ tsp chilli flakes
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- ½ tsp turmeric
- 25 grams nutritional yeast (½ cup)
- 500 grams penne lisce (pasta of your choice)
- 2 stalks of kale optional!
- 30 grams crispy onions (±2 tbsp)
- 30 grams bread crumb (±2 tbsp)
Instructions
The Mac 'n Cheese sauce
- Get a pan on a medium high heat, add the margarine and olive oil and when hot, add the onion, garlic and a sprinkle of salt. Cook down a bit.
- Add the red pepper and let this cook down more and lightly brown while you chop the rest of your vegetables.
- Once it's started to lightly brown in the pan, we're going to move in a few quick steps. First we're deglazing with the tequila. Then in goes the tomato purée, Marmite, the rice vinegar, the sun dried tomatoes, and the flour. Stir it all well to incorporate and then add the milk and water.
- Make sure you scrape down the bottom of the pan to incorporate all those nice bits into the sauce. Now add all the other veggies; the butternut squash, carrot, sweet potato, and potato. Turn down the heat to a low-medium heat.
- Add the pepper, oregano, nutmeg, turmeric, paprika, and smoked paprika. Cover with a lid and let this cook until the veggies are tender for 15 minutes.
- In the meantime, get your hand mixer or blender ready and do a bit of cleaning up.
- Once the 15 minutes are done, transfer everything from the pan into a bowl. Set aside while you give the pan a quick rinse and get the pasta water to a rolling boil.
- While you wait for the water to boil, add the nutritional yeast, and blend the sauce until it's smooth. Stir the crispy onion and bread crumb together in a small bowl.
- Pre-heat your oven to 200 °C (392 °F)
- Add the pasta to the pot and cook al dente. I use the penne lisce and they cook al dente in 8 minutes so I cook them for 7. Get a baking tray ready with a bit of olive oil.
Assembling the Mac 'n Cheese
- Drain the pasta and add to the baking tray. Stir in the sauce, add the kale if you want, and top with more sauce. Top with the crispy onion and bread crumb.
- Bake for 10/15 minutes, until golden brown on top.
- Serve with some fresh spring onion on top.
Notes
This recipe can easily be made gluten free if you use GF pasta and GF bread crumbs. and flour! You could sub for rice flour for example.
Keeps in the fridge up to around 5 days. You can re-heat in the oven. (or microwave).
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!