Baked Macaroni with cashew cheese

Brr, what a cold and snowy day. Yesterday we had such a nice evening with my parents and my sister. And like mostly we had too much food left. We splitted the dishes so everyone got something to take home.
This morning - being awaken by my cat sitting on me, right in front of the face and starring at me - I got up and done the rest of cleaning from yesterday.


Baked spelt Macaroni with cashew cheddar cheese

 

 

Macaroni and cheese is a well known dish for children and this dish i a kind of macaroni and cheese but made with wheat-free noodles. The herbed breadcrumbs add a chrunchy contrast to the creamy cheese sauce and tender macaroni.

 

 

Ingredients:

500 g spelt elbow macaroni

2 1/4 cups melted Cashew Cheddar Cheese (recipe below)

2 slices whole wheat bread

1 Tbsp. chopped fresh italian parsley

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

 

 

Direction:

1. Preheat oven to 300 °C (depends on the oven you got). Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the macaroni and cook, stirring often, for 8 min. or until tender but still firm to the bite. Drain, reserving 3/4 cup of the cooking liquid.

 

2. Toss the macaroni with the melted cheese ina large bowl, adding enough reserved cooking liquid to moisen and coat the pasta. Transfer the macaroni mixture to an 20x25 cm square baking dish. Cover and bake for 20 min. or until headed through.

 

3. Meanwhile, chop the bread in a food processor until coarse crumbs form. Toss the breadcrumbs with the parsley, olive oil, garlic, and pepper in a bowl to coat.

 

4. Uncover the hot macaroni and cheese and sprinkle the breadcrumb mixture over. Continue baking, uncovered, for 15 min. or until the topping is golden brown and crisp.

 

 

Cashew Cheddar Cheese

 

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups raw Cashews

1/2 cup nutritional yeast

2 tsp. onion powder

2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. garlic powder

1/8 tsp. ground white pepper

3 1/2 cups unsweetened soymilk

1 cup agar flakes

1/2 cup oil

1/4 cup yellow miso

2 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 1 Lemon)

 

Direction:

1. Finely grind the cashwes in a food processor, don't turn into a paste! Add the nutritional yeast, onion powder, salt, garlic powder and white pepper. Pulse three more times to blend in the spices.

2. Combine the soymilk, agar and oil in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a simmer over high heat. Decrease the heat to medium-low, cover and simmer stirring occasionally, for 10 min or until the agar is dissolved.

 

3. With the food processor running, gradualy pour the soymilk mixture through the feed tube and into the cashew mixture. Blend for 2 min. until very smooth and creamy and then blend in the miso and lemon juice.

 

Serve immediatly