Mac & Cheese; No Cheese?!?

Believe it or not I thought of this one all by lonesome.

A while back my wife I went to our specialty store (Apple Valley) because we needed a few things. Vegan cheese slices was one the other was nutritional yeast. 'Nutritional yeast', I thought. For what? She tells me it's a substitute for cheese. Turns out that you just don't sprinkle it onto your "burger" and magically get a nice slice of swiss cheese.

However, I have discovered you can do quite a bit with this product wherever a powered cheese ingredient is present and then substitute.

Mac & Cheese vegan style.

Let me say a little bit about my cooking style...ad lib. That out of the way I will just say this. When using nutritional yeast you need very little while adding to the mixture of whatever you are concocting; as it thickens quite quickly with minimal amounts. Very much like corn starch or rue.

Ok, to the "recipe".

Get your: Elbow macaroni, salt (we use sea salt), plain soy milk, vegan butter spread and...nutritional yeast.

Boil the macaroni to your preference with some oil (olive oil so your noodle doesn't stick) drain.
Place the noodles back in the pan after reducing to low heat.
Add the soy milk and vegan butter (again by preference; some like it soupy and some like it dry).
Place back on the burner under low heat; stir and add salt to taste then let the "butter" melt.
While stirring add the nutritional yeast one large pinch at a time (yes, give it time; blend it in until it seems to have thickened enough, then add some more if you think it needs it).

That's it.

You could add other seasonings as you see fit. My wife loves gargantuan amounts of garlic.

Variation: Creamy
Substitute macaroni with cavatappi. After draining the pasta you would add nayonnaise (soy mayonnaise).

Note:
I have found that adding just a dash or two of cumin REALLY adds a rich flavor. Be careful as not to add too much because that is all you would taste.