On Macaroni and Cheese

The cauliflower variety!

Welcome to the Friday post for paid subscribers, an oldie but goodie. On Tuesday, all subscribers will receive the first of two essays about the use of AI in food photography. As ever and always, thank you for being here. Check out my website to learn more about what I do!

I used to be a little bit more of a health-food nut than I am now, I must confess. A long time ago, when I was blogging full time for a short stint, I tried to avoid dairy and eggs and gluten when I cooked at home. This resulted in me making many recipes that I almost never touch these days—I’m back on the wagon of eating real food that nourishes me.

There are some meals from that dark time, though, that I still make and this is one of them: hidden cauliflower macaroni and cheese.

This macaroni and cheese relies on a "cheese" sauce made from cauliflower and nutritional yeast. It can be made completely vegan by using vegan butter and non-dairy milk, but I’ve also made it in quasi-vegan in the past for no reason other than not having cheese in the house. I love using high-quality dried pasta (I’m an al dente girl!), but I’ve also used Banza pasta, which is made from chickpeas, making this gluten-free and vegan. Truly, you can have it all in the year of our lord 2024.

The secret ingredient to replacing cheese in almost any vegan setting is nutritional yeast. You can read more about it below, but by replicating the texture of a cheese sauce with a thin cauliflower puree and the taste of cheese with nutritional yeast, you can get pretty close to the real thing. Fact: I served this to a 1 1/2 year old who is on a campaign against vegetables and she had no idea.

Cauliflower Macaroni and Cheese