ExistUp Vegan Mac & Cheese
Mac & cheese with no guilt! The amazing cheese sauce is made from butternut squash, nutritional yeast, cashews and a few spices blended and can be put together in minutes.
Red lentil pasta packs a high protein, high fiber punch and it has the same flavor and texture profile as wheat pasta but with this amazing nutrition profile, it sticks with you, satisfying hunger far longer than wheat pasta.
ExistUp Vegan Mac & Cheese is unbelievably delicious and honestly nutritious, pleasing palates of adults and children alike!
Vegan, Gluten Free, Paleo and ExistUp Reboot Friendly.
Ingredients:
1 box red lentil pasta - penne or rotini shape
1 medium butternut squash
1 cup raw cashew pieces (soaked 1 hour)
1 cup organic chicken stock or vegetable stock
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp pink Himalayan salt
1/2 tsp cayenne
Directions:
One hour before you are ready to begin cooking this meal place cashews in a bowl of water to soak and put your whole butternut squash on a cookie sheet to bake at 350°F. Set your timer for 30 minutes. Test the squash for doneness by sticking a butter knife from top to center at 30 minutes and every 10 minutes thereafter. A Medium butternut squash will typically take 30-40 minutes to be tender, a little overdone is better than a little underdone in this case. When squash is done, remove it from the oven and let it cool for the remainder of the hour so that you will be able to easily handle it, but it will still be hot.
One hour later, you are ready to begin the 10 minute process to really make this meal!
Put water on to boil the pasta, (cook it according to box directions, reserving one cup pasta water when you strain it)
While waiting for pasta water to come to a boil, strain and rinse the cashews and prep the squash.
Making the "cheese sauce" - Cut squash in 1/2 and discard the seeds and skin. Move hot squash to high speed blender with cashews, stock, nutritional yeast and seasonings. Blend on high until smooth, typically 2 minutes, scraping sides to ensure all seasonings get incorporated well.
Tip: Baking squash of any type whole, is an easy trick to avoid cutting, peeling and deseeding them when they are raw and hard. It also speeds up cooking time significantly.
Pour approximately one cup of cheese sauce into pasta and stir together. Add more cheese sauce and pasta water a few tablespoons at a time to reach your desired consistency. You will likely not use all of your cheese sauce which is great news, as it is great reheated or cold with blue corn chips! If you are desiring left overs it is best to make fresh pasta each time, the cheese sauce holds up well in the refrigerator for up to a week.
We have done the research on the least expensive, yet best quality, delicious food products and linked them for you on Amazon. Some of the products that we use frequently are less expensive in bulk, so I have linked them that way. I buy local and fresh ingredients when I can.
TIP: Make your life easy! Choose a recipe, make a list of all the fresh ingredients to pick up at your local grocery store. For all other ingredients, save yourself the expense and hassle of finding them, order from Amazon and have them delivered to your door.
We have done the research on the least expensive, yet best quality, delicious food products and linked them for you on Amazon. Some of the products that we use frequently are less expensive in bulk, so I have linked them that way. I buy local and fresh ingredients when I can.
TIP: Make your life easy! Choose a recipe, make a list of all the fresh ingredients to pick up at your local grocery store. For all other ingredients, save yourself the expense and hassle of finding them, order from Amazon and have them delivered to your door.
We have done the research on the least expensive, yet best quality, delicious food products and linked them for you on Amazon. Some of the products that we use frequently are less expensive in bulk, so I have linked them that way. I buy local and fresh ingredients when I can.
TIP: Make your life easy! Choose a recipe, make a list of all the fresh ingredients to pick up at your local grocery store. For all other ingredients, save yourself the expense and hassle of finding them, order from Amazon and have them delivered to your door.