Baked Macaroni and Cheese

Today marks the first day of Vegan MoFo. What is Vegan MoFo, you ask?

Vegan MoFo stands for the Month of Food and the only real rule is to post as much as you can about vegan food for the month of November. For my part, I would like to post a different recipe, three times a week, from around the globe.

What's a better way to start off MoFo, than by posting a recipe from the good ol' US of A!

I've tried so many vegan recipes of mac n cheese..some containing cashews and some with curry. Nothing seemed to be of my liking. Then last week, something suddenly hit me..what if I make mac n cheese the way it is traditionally made but I use Daiya cheddar cheese in replace of the dairy. It worked! This has to be the best out of all the recipes I've tried. Now its not exactly like how I remember mac n cheese to taste but it is pretty darn close. (For people who haven't tried Daiya yet, I highly suggest you do. I purchase mine at Whole Foods but I am sure it can be found at other all natural health food stores as well).

And now something totally unrelated for all my other food bloggers, Nancy of Spicie Foodie, will be hosting a monthly roundup of everyone's best recipe. So basically just submit what you think was your best recipe for, say, the month of November, and then you will see everyone's best recipes all up on the same page! Pretty neat!

For my part, I picked the carrot cake I made earlier this month. Click here to check out my recipe and a bunch of other really yummy recipes for the month of October.

Printer Friendly Recipe Here

Serves 4

Ingredients

* 1/2 pound elbow macaroni

* 2 Tb vegan butter ( such as Earth Balance )

* 3 Tb all purpose flour

* 1 tsp powdered mustard

* 3 cups soy milk

* 1/2 cup yellow onion, diced

* 1 bay leaf

* 1/2 tsp paprika

* 1/4 tsp cayenne

* 1 1/2 cups vegan cheddar cheese, finely grated

* 1/2 tsp salt, to taste

* freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Toppings

* 3 Tb vegan butter

* 1 cup dried bread crumbs

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Cook pasta in a pot of lightly salted, boiling water for about 5 minutes. Just under it is slightly tender.

3. While the pasta noodles are cooking, start making the sauce.

4. In a separate pot, melt the butter and then whisk in the flour and mustard. Keep on whisking on medium heat for about 5 minutes.

5. When all the lumps are gone, stir in the soy milk, paprika, cayenne, onion and bay leaf. Simmer for 10 minutes and then remove the bay leaf.

6. Stir in 3/4 cup of cheese. Season with salt and pepper.

7. By now your macaroni should be done. Drain well and then fold into the sauce pot.

8. Pour into a 2 quart casserole dish and sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top.

9. Melt the butter in a small pot and add the bread crumbs. Stir to coat.

10. Top the macaroni with the bread crumbs and bake 30 minutes.

11. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes before serving.