cauliflower mac & cheese: it was 'ok'

I was pretty excited about this recipe at first. It seemed like just the kind of thing that I want to be posting about on here. Things that are clever, delicious and good for non-vegans. 

It LOOKS good, right? 

But it was SO disappointing! :(

It's not that I expected it to taste like cheese. Cauliflower and nutritional yeast hardly a cheese make, but I was hoping it could at least be the friend I turn to when suffering the sad grief of my break up with cheese.

But it wasn't. It was just something else entirely. Not BAD, necessarily, which is why I chose to write about it, but just . . . too strong, I think? Too much cauliflower. Too much nutritional yeast, which I don't really like the smell or flavor of in the first place, but I kind of forgot that part.

My recipe was adapted from this and I'm gonna tell you what I did, and what I would do differently.

What you need:

1 head of cauliflower (just the florets, really)
2 large carrots, chopped and peeled (not in that order)
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1/3 cup water
1/3 olive oil
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp honey or dijon mustard
dash of nutmeg
salt, to taste
1 lb. pasta (elbows, or spirals or shells, whatever you like)

In a large pot, boil your cauliflower florets and carrots until mashable with a fork (15-20 minutes).

If you have a large and/or powerful blender or food processor, throw everything in there until smooth and creamy.

If you have a small weak food processor like mine, mash your cauliflower and carrots in a bowl and combine remaining ingredients. Spoon into your processor in batches and blend until smooth and creamy.

I hope you cooked your pasta in the meantime, according to box directions, because now you can mix the whole thing together and serve hot.

Now. If I do this again, which I may, I will make the following amendments to the ingredients:

1 head of cauliflower
2 carrots
1 or 2 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup (or slightly less) nutritional yeast
1/2 cup of almond milk
1/4 cup of olive oil
1 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp dijon mustard
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt

I've also read that it can be made with potatoes instead of cauliflower which would maybe make it better. That sounds a lot less healthy, but I'll have to try it with that sometime, too.

Anyway, try at your own risk!

Peace,
-A.

fry fail

Here's a really good example of why "winging it" is not always the best way to cook. This past weekend I tried to make some baked carrot and sweet potato fries. I'm not sure where I went wrong, but they started getting a little blackened before they came anywhere near being crispy fries.

I set my oven to 425 degrees. I cut up the sweet potatoes and carrots very thinly, as uniformly as possible. I lined a baking sheet with parchment paper (we don't have non-stick baking sheets, though maybe I should pick some up?). I drizzled with a little olive oil. I baked for like 40 minutes, turning them over a couple times.

Here is a really great simple recipe for baked sweet potato fries that I probably should've looked up before attempting (though, in my defense, it seems tough to screw this up). I have more sweet potatoes so I will definitely be attempting this again.

It seems my biggest error was an over crowded pan. I'm super impatient so I didn't want to do two batches. Also, the recipe I linked says to cover the fries evenly with oil, which I did not do, and heat to 450 degrees, and not to use parchment paper because it will burn. Which it did.

So there you have it. Sometimes I'm wrong. But at least I admit when I am! :) You can trust me!

The not-fries were still yummy, though. They just turned out to be like, roasted carrots and sweet potatoes (imagine!). I've been having them for lunch at work, along with the chickpeas I made. Pretty satisfying.

Peace & love,
-A.