Thanksgiving Continued: Dijon Mac and Cheese

I was so unbelievably stoked to go to my parents' house for Thanksgiving this year. My tragically kitchenless dorm room makes me want to cook and bake incessantly every time I trek South during breaks from school. So I supplied mac and cheese and pumpkin chocolate chip cake for my family's Thanksgiving feast.

I've always wanted to make vegan macaroni and cheese and never got around to it until my Thanksgiving mac n' cheese debut -- this recipe was heavy on the nutritional yeast and dijon mustard, which was a departure from the standard cheese sauce the majority of such recipes produce. It definitely wasn't your familiar mac n' cheese and it was a little strange because of the mustard flavor, I'm not going to lie. But it was delicious nonetheless, and my family loved it (they're hard to please when it comes to vegan cooking --  skepticism all around).
I adapted my recipe from Healthy. Happy. Life.'s recipe, because I firmly believe this blog can do no wrong.

Dijon and Sun-Dried Tomato Macaroni and Cheese


6 cups cooked pasta -- I used whole wheat shell pasta, but really any variety will work.
2 tbsp dried parsley
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes
3 cups cheese sauce (described below)
1/2 cup Panko bread-crumbs
1-2 tbsp olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cook and drain pasta, then toss in the parsley, nooch, and chopped sun-dried tomatoes. Add the cheese sauce and distribute evenly. Transfer to an oven-safe serving dish and sprinkle the bread-crumbs over the top, followed by a small drizzle of olive oil. Bake until the top is browned -- it should be about 7-8 minutes.

To make the cheese sauce, you'll need:


3/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1 can Great Northern beans, drained (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 tsp garlic powder
1 1/2 Tbsp mustard powder
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp fine pepper
1/2 cup instant mashed potato + 1/2 cup water
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup softened Earth Balance
1-2 Tbsp agave syrup
2 Tbsp tahini


Blend all ingredients in a food processor or VitaMix (which I don't have, but desire desperately) until completely smooth. If the sauce is too thick, add the necessary amount of soymilk/soy creamer or water to achieve desired creaminess. Fold into the cooked pasta and continue directions above. 


I thought it turned out great. So addicting. 

Dijon and Sun-Dried Tomato Macaroni and Cheese

Emerging from Hiatus and a Vegan Thanksgiving

My list of excuses for my blog's temporary evacuation is tangled and unwieldy (so busy, so distracted, so without a kitchen to cook in), but rather than trying to justify my hiatus, I will gracefully apologize (I'm sorry I'm sorry) and vow to never carelessly abandon my child of a blog again. Promise! Instead I will compensate with photos of the delicious vegan food I consumed (and tricked my family into consuming....just kidding. I didn't deceive them, per se) on Thanksgiving. I know Thanksgiving 2011 is relative to prehistoric activity on the scale of Internet time. But it's still the holiday season, therefore my holiday food is still relevant! I'm not that anachronistic, I swear.

This year was actually my first vegan Thanksgiving, though I have plenty vegetarian winter festivities under my belt. When I eventually made the decision to switch to a vegan lifestyle about a year ago, strangely enough, the one condition I was most stressed about was surviving the holidays as an herbivore among a family full of meat enthusiasts -- which I'm sure is an anxiety shared by many-a veg-curious. But as I became more familiar with the vegan ethic and the ridiculously diverse realm of substitutions, that worry gradually disappeared since I knew I would be able to back up my dietary habits and resist any pressure toward non-vegan food with the facts that caused me to gravitate toward veganism in the first place. And by using facts to reinforce habit, I don't mean berating your family with statistics of nasty hormone injection and diagrams of cow slaughter over your vegan mashed potatoes. This will only alienate people and make your omnivorous family think you're just a deviant hippie (I know mine does most of the time) because a lot of people simply do not get it. But the comfort of having solid, ethical reasoning that reinforces your decisions is empowering and meaningful. You catch more flies with agave nectar than vinegar, my friends.

Anyways, rationale aside -- the endless possibilities of delicious and cruelty-free holiday food are enough to stop an omnivore in their tracks. I'm lucky enough to have a few family members that can be described as vegan allies, so I definitely did not go hungry on Thanksgiving this year. Not that I would have let that happened anyways, I jump at the chance to introduce people to vegan food myself. But for pretty much every non-vegan dish on the table, my awesome grandmother ensured that there was a veganized portion for me. Thus, the cruelty-free Tofurky, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and gravy were born. In addition to the dishes that I brought and the food that was already free of by-products I was in vegan heaven. 

Vegan tomato basil soup

My grandma made an amazing tomato and basil soup for a perfect already-vegan appetizer.

The vegan spread: description below!

Clockwise from the mashed potatoes:

Vegan mashed potatoes, made with soy creamer and earth balance, and mushroom gravy.

Rosemary sweet potatoes with olive oil (already vegan).

Sweet cranberry sauce.

Vegan mac n' cheese, recipe to-be-posted.

Sourdough stuffing, made with artisan bread and vegetable broth.

Tofurky -- I went for the sliced version, since I was the only one who would be eating it and the whole faux turkey shebang can get pretty pricey. 

Cranberry/orange relish.

Salad with garlic dressing and sunflower seeds.

It. Was. Amazing. I was stuffed beyond belief but STILL had room for the dessert I brought because I was so stoked to eat it. Enter, my epic pumpkin chocolate chip cake with pumpkin cream cheese frosting (recipe to-be-posted).

And so the meal was concluded, and likewise was my ability to eat for the next week. I may have my qualms about celebrating Thanksgiving (this is another post entirely) but it sure is an great opportunity to experiment with recipes and to introduce your omnivorous family and friends to all the deliciousness that vegan food has to offer!