Is there really anything better than creamy mac & cheese? It’s one of the best comfort foods there is. Best in winter months I think, but with the frigidness that is my office lately, I needed some warming up despite the fact it’s still summer (seriously – do you get that? When the office is so cold you feel like it takes hours for you to defrost after you leave?) I digress…I invited Fatman over so I could test this recipe out on her. I knew if I could come up with a mac & cheese that would pass her test, I’d be in good shape. Afterall, we met in college in Wisconsin. The girl knows her cheese. Luckily for me (and you!) this one is Fatman approved!

What you’ll need: 

• 1 cup almond milk
• 1 cup nutritional yeast (NOT your normal yeast. This is flaky and can be found in most health-food stores – there’s no substituting here, nutritional yeast is what gives mac & cheese it’s cheesy flavor)
• 2/3 cup soaked raw cashews
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 TBS miso paste
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 12 oz package of pasta (I went GF with this)

Start by soaking your cashews for a few hours. I tossed mine in a bowl of water and headed to work. 12 hours later when I was home, they were super soaked. (If you don’t have the time to wait for this – you could boil them in water for about 10 minutes to get them to soften up)

Bring a pot of water to boil and add your pasta. You can use any type you like, I have been really digging this brand lately. They make amazing brown rice pasta that you wouldn’t even know is gluten-free. I actually like it even better than whole-wheat pasta and Fatman didn’t even realize there was anything not “normal” about it.

While the pasta cooks, make the cheese sauce. Add milk, cashews, garlic, miso paste, vinegar and nutritional yeast to your ninja or food processor and process/pulse until it’s all smooth. Make sure to stop and wipe down the sides to make sure everything’s mixing together.

When the pasta is done, drain and rinse, and add back into the pot. Pour the sauce over, stir everything up and enjoy!

I took it for lunch to the office the next day – and added a few frozen peas to get at least SOME green in there. I think I liked it even more with the peas! And it held up well – reheated it was still creamy. This one will definitely end up in my winter rotation.