Meatless Monday: Gluten and Dairy Free Mac & Cheese!

September 17, 2012 by ellepottsie Leave a comment

Don’t worry, I know the title is a bit contradictory – but it really is gluten and dairy free mac & cheese… if you have an open mind. It doesn’t take exactly like cheese, but it is delicious, and pretty healthy!

I like to use zucchini noodles for this recipe, but I have also had success with brown rice pasta. If you are looking for comfort food, I would recommend using the gluten free pasta – or regular pasta if you can handle it!

Dairy and Gluten Free Mac & Cheese

Inspired by: http://detoxinista.com/2011/01/move-over-kraft/

Recipe serves about 4 people.

It looks kind of strange, but most gluten and dairy free food does.

What you will need:

For the cheese sauce:

1 1/2 cups raw cashews
3 T. fresh lemon juice
3/4 cup water
1 1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 clove garlic
pinch of cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp. mustard (dijon or yellow)

Other:

zucchini (I use about 2 person if I am not cooking it – if I cook it I will use at least 3 per person) or pasta of your choice
paprika for garnish
broccoli
green onion

Ingredients for the “cheese” sauce.

What to do:

Combine all of the “cheese” sauce ingredients into a high powered blender. If your blender isn’t very strong I would suggest soaking your cashews overnight to soften them. I skipped this step though because my magic bullet can handle the raw nuts.

Process in the blender until everything is completely mixed and you have a thick sauce.

Next you will need to use a spiral vegetable cutter to create your zucchini noodles- like the one I used here. It should look like this when you are finished [I used both green and yellow zucchini].

Zucchini Noodles

If you aren’t using zucchini, I would recommend starting the pasta before making the sauce.

Finally, roast the broccoli and onions, I usually use a bit of coconut oil and salt an pepper.

Now it’s easy – just combine all the parts [noodles, “cheese” sauce, and roasted veggies]. Top with paprika and enjoy.

Another option is to heat it in the oven at 350F for 30 minutes to warm the dish and create a crispy layer on the top. I enjoy both, however, if you are using pasta instead of zucchini, I would recommend using the oven method.

Try it out and let me know what you think! This is quite an easy recipe to make and it is really good!