In case you’re wondering, this is not the killer mac and cheese recipe I hinted at in an earlier post. I’m saving that one for another day. I pulled this recipe off Twitter a few weeks ago and tried it out last week while my husband was out of town (I have no problem making an entire meal of mac and cheese – he thinks otherwise…I married him anyway).

Since it was just me, I halved the original recipe. Also used a little less cheese, since I apparently cannot read an ingredients list appropriately and only bought one bag of cheese.

As you might have gathered from the title, this is some spicy goodness. Somewhat interesting fact: I was not a girl who enjoyed spicy food before I went vegan. You’d never know it now. I think that’s to do with the fact that vegan cooking generally makes use of a lot more spices, herbs etc. to add flavor to meals.

Anywho, I thoroughly enjoyed this. I made four meals out of it while Andy was gone, adding some broccoli on the side here and there to round things out a bit. By itself or jazzed up with some veggies, this will definitely warm you up on a cold day!

Spicy Vegan Mac & Cheese
Recipe Courtesy of A Soy Bean

Ingredients

16 oz medium whole wheat pasta*
6 cups shredded Daiya cheddar, divided
5 tbs Earth Balance
1 tbs minced garlic
1 tbs white miso
1 tbs black pepper
3 tbs All-Purpose flour
3 1/2 cups milk substitute (I like unsweetened almond milk)
2 tbs paprika, divided
2 tsp cayenne pepper, divided
1 cup breadcrumbs
Olive oil spray

*You may have noticed in the photo, I’ve got several different kinds of pasta going on there. I had small remnants of several kinds to use up. Whatever you like/have works.

Directions

• Preheat oven to 365°
• Lightly grease a 9 x 13 baking dish
• Cook pasta half of the recommended time, drain, transfer to baking dish and mix in 4 cups of cheese
• In a small saucepan, melt the butter with the garlic and white miso. Add pepper, whisk in flour and milk. Stir until mixture thickens, about 5 minutes or so
• Pour liquid over pasta, sprinkle in 1 tbs paprika and 1 tsp cayenne, mix well
• Sprinkle remaining cheese on top, then breadcrumbs
• Spray breadcrumbs liberally with olive oil (I forgot to do this and it was ok. I think it would have been a good idea though)
• Sprinkle remaining paprika and cayenne
• Bake uncovered, about 1 hour

Note: As I said, I used a little less cheese, and it was fine. Next time I make this, I think I’ll go sans breadcrumbs and the extra paprika and cayenne – maybe one cup of extra cheese on top instead of two. I found I was searching out the creamy stuff under the “crust.” Whatever you prefer.

Yield: 6-8 side servings