Let me start off by saying I never thought I would become vegan – I used to love meat, and love, love, love cheese. The funny thing is I didn’t really wake up one day and think ‘I’m going to make a conscious effort to become vegan because I don’t agree with…”. How it happened was simply having many vegan and vegetarian friends, spending a lot of time with them, enjoying the food we shared, and suddenly realizing it had been about 2 months since I’d eaten meat! I actually tried eating meat again after the 2 months off, and it simply wasn’t appealing anymore. My dairy product consumption decreased also by “accident” – and then while at one of my favourite restaurants (because it’s soo healthy and yummy, and just so happens to be vegan ) Green Cuisine, I picked up the Vegan Starter Guide to see if it had any good recipes. I hadn’t intended to read any more than the recipes because I still loved my cheese…and just didn’t want to know! My son for some reason insisted on my reading it to him…maybe he likes the colourful veggie pictures on the front? Anyway, I read it out loud and after what I learned I am simply not interested in any animal products. I’m more shocked than anyone that I made this change and in what seems like a very short time, but I feel great for it and honestly do not miss the other foods. I think we are especially lucky in Victoria to have so many wonderful vegan options, in many other cities I think it would be significantly more challenging. I’ve always liked experimenting with food (when I can find the time) and now I can share my experiments (most of which I think are pretty good) here!

So…here’s the recipe – please note that nothing will taste just like cheese, certainly don’t expect a KD taste here but if you’re looking for a thick cheese like sauce that is totally vegan this is pretty awesome! Please feel free to post any changes you made to improve on it – I’d love to know as this is only my second time making it! Oh – and this recipe made WAY too much sauce, I’ve frozen half of it…I’ll let you know how that works out, but halve this recipe and it should serve 4 people if you add your choice of veggies / protein.

Vegan mac ‘n “cheese”

1 small acorn squash peeled, chopped, boiled until VERY soft, strained and mashed

1/2 cup soy yogourt

3 cups Nutritional yeast (most health food stores sell it, in Victoria Seed of Life has the best price I’ve found)

1.5 Tbsp Tamari (this gives an aged cheddar bite to it)

Salt & Pepper to taste

2 tsp Garlic pressed / powder (optional…I always love garlic in everything!)

Simply keep mashing and mixing until it’s a smooth creamy consistency, add it to some cooked wholegrain macaroni and enjoy!

Again, this is only my second time making it – so you might want to play around with it a bit, I had to post it as is because I have two very dear preggies waiting to get it Enjoy ladies! (and gentlemen)