Vegan Smoked Gouda Mac and Cheese
Servings 4
Ingredients
potato chip topping
- 2 C salted kettle chips
- 1 teaspoon garlic salt
- ¼ teaspoon chili powder
smoked gouda mac and cheese (makes 2¼ cups of sauce)
- 2 C elbow macaroni
- ½ C raw cashews (soaked for 20 minutes in hot water)
- 1 C nondairy milk
- 200 g vegan smoked gouda, cut into cubes (1 block or stack of slices)
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- To make the potato chip topping, crush the potato chips in a large bowl with the bottom of a measuring cup or use a mortar and pestle. The crumbs should be fairly small and crushed, but don’t need to be uniform. Stir the crushed chips with the garlic salt and chili powder and set aside.
- To make the smoked gouda sauce, rinse and drain the cashews from the soaking water and add to a high-powered blender with nondairy milk, vegan smoked gouda, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, onion powder and ground pepper. Blend on high until very very smooth.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil to cook the elbow macaroni. Once at a rolling boil generously salt the water and cook pasta for 6 to 7 minutes just before the al dente stage. If you want to add any greens to this dish you can add broccoli, peas, or other greens to the pasta water at the last minute to blanch them. Drain the pasta but do not rinse.
- Add the pasta back to the pot you cooked it in and combine it with all the sauce from the blender. Stir to combine well. Add this to a baking dish and top with an even layer of potato chip topping.
- Bake uncovered on the middle rack of the oven for 15 minutes. Then broil on high for 4 to 5 minutes to get a darker browning on the topping if you want. Watch closely so it doesn’t burn. Serve immediately.
