This four-cheese garlic spaghetti squash recipe is a low-carb alternative to regular alfredo pasta.

This spaghetti squash recipe is relatively foolproof, in both preparation and taste. I mean, what could possibly go wrong when tons of garlic, heavy cream, and cheese come together and adorn one of fall’s favorite vegetable? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Not only are the flavors on point but also the presentation is quite impressive. The spaghetti squash cooks, sliced side upward, cradling the spices, cream, and cheeses. Once fully cooked, a gentle scraping of a fork across the surface of the spaghetti squash reveals tender strands of “spaghetti”. While you scrape away at the squash, the strands mix into the other add-ins, creating a sumptuously aromatic, and a decadent seasonal pasta experience, only without all the calories and carbs (at least from the pasta itself).

Spaghetti Squash vs. Regular White Flour Spaghetti

Spaghetti squash is a winter squash with a mild flavor that, unlike many other squash varieties, isn’t very sweet. The squash fills in for regular spaghetti pasta but with an added crunch and much lower carbohydrate profile. In a 100-gram portion of both regular white spaghetti pasta and spaghetti squash, there are 31 grams and 7 grams of carbohydrates, respectively. Spaghetti squash also has much fewer calories, with 27 calories to regular spaghetti’s 158 calories per 100 gram serving.

Spaghetti squash is a good source of vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, magnesium, vitamin B6, and iron.

What You’ll Need

When choosing a spaghetti squash, look for one that is about eight to nine inches long and four to five inches in diameter. Smaller squashes can sometimes lack flavor while larger ones may have developed too many fibers that make them too tough to consume.

Once you find the right size, hold the squash and make sure that it is hard and free of any soft spots. Your spaghetti squash of choice should have an even, pale yellow color. Any green spots would indicate an immature squash.

Truth be told, at the end of the day, the real focus here isn’t so much the spaghetti – it’s the sauce. The squash helps to add bulk and fill up the tummy, but the true flavor comes from the garlic and four cheeses.

The four cheeses in this recipe are Gorgonzola (or a mild blue cheese), fontina, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and Pecorino Romano. This recipe isn’t married to this particular combination of cheeses, so feel free to use other varieties, such as Asiago, mozzarella, provolone, cheddar, and more.

Four Cheese Garlic Spaghetti Squash Recipe

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 1 spaghetti squash
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup heavy cream
• Fresh thyme
• 1/2 tablespoon chives, finely chopped
• 1 cup mixture of grated Gorgonzola (or a mild blue cheese), fontina, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and Pecorino Romano

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Cut the spaghetti squash in half, lengthwise and use a spoon to take out its seeds and pulp.

Place the spaghetti squash halves on a baking sheet with its sliced side upright. Season with salt and pepper.

In a small bowl, mix together the garlic, heavy cream, water, and chives.

Sprinkle half of the grated cheese evenly between the cavities of the two halves. Top each with an equal amounts of the heavy cream mixture and then with the remaining cheese.

Place the baking sheet in the oven to bake for 45 minutes, or until the spaghetti squash is tender and the cheese has melted and has turned lightly brown.

Remove the baking sheet from the oven and let the spaghetti squash sit for five to 10 minutes before serving.

Related on EcoSalon
Spaghetti Squash Pizza Recipe
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Spinach and artichoke dip and a grilled cheese sandwich are two of my favorite things. Meshed together and I may just have discovered my absolute favorite dish.

This simple sandwich recipe has a bit of everything: a touch of greens, a layer of gooey cheese, a dab of garlic, a couple slices of bread, a slab of butter, a dash of salt, and a good dose of artichoke hearts. It makes for the perfect wholesome sandwich that has enough vegetables in there to keep your mind at ease with so much cheese. Enjoy!

Spinach and Artichoke Grilled Cheese Sandwich Recipe

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 3 cups chopped fresh spinach
• 1 cup artichoke hearts from the can, drained, rinsed, and chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoons sour cream
• 1 cup shredded provolone cheese
• 4 pieces of your choice of bread (I use whole-grain or gluten-free varieties)
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon butter

Directions

In a saucepan over medium-high heat, add the garlic and olive oil. Sauté the garlic for one minute before adding in the spinach, salt, and pepper. Continue to cook and stir the mixture until the spinach has wilted, which will take another minute or two. Add in the artichokes. Stir for a few minutes, cooking off any extra liquid. Next, fold in the sour cream. Stir until well combined and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook for another two to three minutes and then set aside.

Prepare the bread for assembly. Spread butter on each side of each slice of bread. Place the bread pieces onto a baking sheet and top each slice with an equal amount of shredded cheese, spinach and artichoke mixture, and more shredded cheese. Place the baking dish into the broiler for one minute, or until the cheese begins to bubble and turn light brown.

You can serve the sandwiches closed or open-faced. If you want them to resemble a proper sandwich, flip two of the slices onto one of the other two to make to sandwiches and press down lightly. Broil the sandwiches for another minute, or until the bread is lightly brown and toasted.

Related on EcoSalon
Grilled Salmon Panini Recipe with Cream Cheese
Nutritional Breakdown: Macaroni and Cheese Gets a Sweet Potato Revamp
Vegetarian? Why Cheese is Not Eco Friendly or Humane

The post Spinach and Artichoke Dip Turns This Grilled Cheese Sandwich Into Perfection appeared first on EcoSalon.

For an easy fix for a last-minute party appetizer or a fuss-free, filling side dish solution, turn to this spring herb cheese ball recipe.

Fresh herbs are whipped into a mixture of cream cheese and goat cheese, shaped into a ball, and served on a plate aside your favorite chips, crackers, or fruit slices for non-stop munching.

Cheese balls are lifesavers if you’re pressed with time or skimping on creativity prior to entertaining guests or showing up prepared to a party. They look gourmet and sophisticated, belying their simplicity.

This cheese ball recipe invites the lightness of the spring season with aromatic herbs, such as chives, basil, and parsley, but also packs a punch with pepper and garlic. Cheese lovers will rejoice, and you’ll rest happy knowing you kept your little secret safe with you (and me): you barely lifted a finger.

This recipe instructs you to make one singular ball, but if it suits your fancy, form a bunch of smaller-sized balls instead. If you seek more texture in the mix, try throwing in two tablespoons of chopped nuts, such as walnuts or pistachios. Basil is the dominant herb in this recipe, so also feel free to swap it with fresh mint if you’d prefer a different strong flavor. Regardless of how you tweak it, this cheese ball recipe wins.

Spring Herb Cheese Ball Recipe

Serves a small crowd

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh chives
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
• 1 8-ounce packaged cream cheese, softened
• 4 ounces goat cheese
• ½ cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes
• 4 to 6 un-sulfured dried apricots, chopped
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• ¼ teaspoon sea salt
• 1 clove garlic, minced

Directions

In a wide, shallow bowl, combine one tablespoon of the chives with one tablespoon of the basil and one tablespoon of the parsley.

In a medium bowl, beat together the cheese cheese and goat cheese until smooth. Add in the remaining chives, basil and parsley as well as the sun-dried tomatoes, apricots, pepper, salt, and garlic.

Use clean hands to for the cheese mixture into a ball and roll the ball in the herb blend, coating the ball completely. Wrap the ball in plastic wrap and set it in the refrigerator for at least three hours before serving. To serve, place the cheese ball at the center of a dish and surround it with crackers for dipping.

Related on EcoSalon
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Where do our favorite dishes come from? In our ongoing series ‘Food History’ we take a look at classic dishes and their roots, this time with a focus on the world of blue cheese. 

Someone once told me a joke about the French and cheese:

“Put a plate of smelly cheese in the middle of the table and everyone will pull back, scrunching up their noses and saying, ‘eww.’ Except for the Frenchmen. He will lean in and say ‘ah….'”

Appreciating blue cheeses takes time, and it certainly isn’t everyone’s favorite. But some of us just can’t get enough of the mold. How did this obsession start?

Let’s start by breaking down the term: “blue cheese.”

Blue cheese is in fact a general classification of cheeses–from cow, sheep or goat milk–that have cultures of the mold Penicillium in them. Yup, the same stuff that’s in the antibiotic Penicillin. Because it’s a general term for a variety of individual cheeses, we can’t talk about the specific history of blue cheese, but one of the most well known blue cheeses is Roquefort, and because of its story, it is an excellent place to start.

Roquefort is actually one of the oldest known cheeses, being praised as far back as 79 A.D. It is said that it was the favorite cheese of Charlemagne, and that he himself called it le fromage des rois et des papes – the cheese of kings and popes.

But how did people start eating this pungent cheese decorated with green mold?

Legend has it that a young sheepherder eating a lunch of ewe’s milk curds and bread left his lunch in a cave while he left for more interesting pursuits; in this case pursuing a lovely maiden. When he returned to the cave months later, he found his cheese moldy, yet delicious.

Whether that’s true or not, we can only imagine the first person that looked at a molding cheese and thought the themselves, “sure, I’ll try that.” But good thing they did.

Roquefort is, not surprisingly, one of France’s most popular cheeses, and it has eve been said to help guard against heart disease. Yet another reason to get on the Parisian diet.

It is still produced in caves, and in France you can even visit those caves. To highlight it’s importance to French cheese culture, Roquefort was the first cheese to receive a Appellation d’Origine Controlée, a French certification that protects various regional products and their production. Champagne for example is regulated under the Appellation d’Origine Controlée as well, any sparkling wine that isn’t from the Champagne region isn’t champagne, and on the off chance that you’re ever eating a cheese labeled Roquefort that isn’t from the region of Aveyron it’s not actually real Roquefort.

But not everyone is a Roquefort fan. For other blue cheese lovers there’s Gorgonzola, Cambazola, Bleu d’Auvergne, Stilton, and several others. In the U.S., however, many of us have grown accustomed the the generic, industrialized form of blue cheese, but if you’re a real cheese connoisseur you’ll know that it’s important to choose the good stuff.

A good blue cheese variety should be creamy and moist, the more pungent the better. Crumblier varieties will be stronger – hello Roquefort – with that distinctive “bite.” If you’re a novice to the blue cheese family, this might not be the place to start. Kick things off with Gorgonzola or a Danish Blue instead to get yourself initiated.

Find a plate, serve up a few varieties and have a tasting to find your favorite.

And don’t let the mold scare you.

Check out more of our Food History series.

Image: milstan

The post Food History: Roquefort and the World of Blue Cheese appeared first on EcoSalon.

It’s the Holy Grail of vegan food. To create a passable vegan cheese is more than just an art, it’s practically a miracle.

If you’ve eaten a vegan diet for any length of time, you’ve seen the vegan cheese industry bubble and melt with all kinds of incarnations. At first, we were lucky to have Tofutti’s cream cheese-like spread. Nevermind that it’s loaded with hydrogenated oils and GMO ingredients. We took what we could get. There was VeganRella and Soya Kaas (which isn’t technically vegan—it contains casein). And who can forget the rice cheese singles that offered as much of the shivers as a traditional slice of American cheese itself? You could just feel the oils congealing somewhere along your spine. Ew. We tried tricks like covering up pizzas for the last few minutes of cooking so the steam would “melt” the rubbery substances we’d hoped would give us the stretchy goo we craved without the guilt we couldn’t stand. We used microwaves and flame torches in hopes of shreds disappearing into a clotted sea of soy, oil and “flavoring.”

While many vegan mock meats can effectively mimic taste and texture rather well (the biggest complaint I hear is that vegan meats are drier than animal products, but otherwise taste just like the real thing), cheese has long left us lacking. But, quite a few companies are getting close to perfection.

The darling of dairy-free cheese right now is Daiya (pronounced “day-uh”). The tapioca-based vegan cheese has true meltability that’s swayed the toughest vegans and even some dairy eaters too. But with melting comes consequences: While boasting some non-GMO ingredients—and being soy-free—the Daiya shreds are loaded with oils (including canola), “natural flavors” and stabilizers. But it melts. And vegans who miss cheese say it’s the best stuff ever (this vegan steers clear of the stuff. Always gives me an upset stomach).

Follow Your Heart and Teese brands are also receiving praises for their meltable vegan cheeses, but Daiya has virtually cornered the market—partnering with other brands (Amy’s and Tofurky use it on their frozen pizzas), food service distributors and top restaurants are all on the Daiya train, too.

Now, several brands are working on developing “finer” cheeses. Leaving the pizza and melting to the aforementioned brands, these aged vegan cheeses encourage you to tear off a hunk of baguette, say something French and crack open a bottle of expensive wine. One such brand is Kite Hill, formulated with chef Tal Ronnen. I tried these nut-based cheeses recently at his Los Angeles Crossroads restaurant. Served on a cheese plate with warm bread, jam, fruits and nuts, I realized it was the first time in my adult life I’ve ever eaten anything called a “cheese plate.” How refreshing. While the options I tried all lacked the bite of truly aged cheese, they were delicious nonetheless, and satisfied a hankering for hard cheese that I hadn’t realized I’d had.

But the true winner in the aged fine cheese category goes to a small Brooklyn-based brand called Dr. Cow. They naturally ferment their nut-based cheeses with acidophilus, which gives them a tang and texture that will be familiar to dairy cheese eaters. If you’re in Los Angeles, you can find them at Erewhon on Beverly Blvd. And be prepared to blink at the prices: nothing under $10 for a hunk the size of an apricot. But well worth the spend. The ingredients are impeccably clean as well: nuts, salt, acidophilus and some added flavors like kale or dulse. Truly delicious.

Similar to how the vegan mock-meat market exploded over the last decade (and has seemed to taper off with no noteworthy newcomers in years), it’s a pretty good guess that we’ll see more than a few more innovations and trends in vegan cheeses. And just like you can rather easily make your own veggie burgers from scratch, with a little effort, you can make your own vegan cheeses from scratch, too, using nuts and seeds (and never discount the myriad uses of nutritional yeast!). While they won’t get the melt of the highly processed stuff, they’ll certainly give you flavor—and a healthier option as well.

What is our obsession with melty, gooey cheese, anyway? I’ve spent more than a healthy bit of time fixating on this. One opinion is that there’s a chemical in cow’s milk to help “addict” the baby cows so they make sure to eat. When it’s made into cheese, it  becomes more concentrated, and the reason we crave the stuff is the opiate-like effect it appears to have on humans. (How many times have you heard “I’d go vegan, but I just can’t give up cheese!”) If that’s true, it could explain our pursuit of a vegan cheese that tastes and melts just like the stuff we’re eschewing for ethical reasons. But vegans don’t pursue faux animal bones in mock meats. We don’t seek out gristle or other components to meat products. Should we be agonizing over cheese that melts—especially if it means ingesting highly processed factory-made options?

I suppose like mock meats, it is a step in the right direction of a greater food consciousness. While I prefer a sprinkle of nutritional yeast on an otherwise cheeseless pizza, here’s hoping we melt our way into a more ethical and humane future.

Keep in touch with Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

Image courtesy of Kite Hill

The post The Rise (or Rather, Melt) of Vegan Cheese and Our Favorite Picks appeared first on EcoSalon.

Easy substitutions for a plant-based lifestyle. 

One of the nasty pitfalls of becoming vegan or pursuing a more plant-based, healthy lifestyle is the allure of vegan or low-calorie products. These packaged goods mock the “real” thing with often not so forgiving preservatives, colorants, and other additives. That’s why one of the biggest challenges is finding simple, within-hands-reach ways to replace the most common ingredients with their vegan or healthy (and just-as-real) counterparts.

Brighten your kitchen, nourish your heart, and spread the love with these animal-friendly and nutritional kitchen substitutions.

Eggs

If you aren’t eating an egg-centric dish, chances are that a recipe calling for eggs is looking for either a binding or leavening agent. Eggs are viscous and hold ingredients tightly together, which is why they appear in most baked goods, burgers, and creams. They also help to leaven, or “rise” baked dishes. Depending on what you’re making, the replacement will change accordingly.

To replace one egg in a baked recipe, alternatives that have worked for me in include:

• 1 tablespoon a of ground flaxseed mixed in 3 tablespoons of water and allowed to sit until the mixture thickens
• 2 tablespoons of cornstarch or potato starch
• 1/2 large banana, mashed, but only for sweet recipes
• 1/4 cup applesauce, but only for sweet recipes

Keep in mind that the replacement should adjust according to the recipe. The flaxseed mixture wouldn’t work in a smooth batter, so opt for another alternative. If the recipe calls for more than two eggs, add some baking powder – 1/2 teaspoon per additional egg – as it will help with the rising effect.

For the pure purpose of binding ingredients in a mixture, the options are wide and varied. Instead of one egg, you could use 1/2 avocado, 2 tablespoons tahini, 2 tablespoons nut butter, 2 tablespoons bread crumbs, or 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast. Anything viscous and thick enough to hold things together without changing the taste will work. The dry replacements work best in mixtures with a liquid element.

Milk

This is probably the easiest of the bunch, because there is a hot market for dairy-free “milk” these days. Peruse the health section aisles at your grocery store and choose from the array of rice, almond, hemp, coconut, and soy milks. Avoid brands with too many additives – sugars, flavoring or preservatives.

Whenever I have the ingredients on hand, I like to make my own almond milk. All you need is 1 cup raw almonds, enough water to soak them in overnight, 1/2 teaspoon sea salt, and 3 cups water. Soak the almonds in the salt and water overnight. The next day, rinse them and toss into a blender. Blend them with 3 cups of water until thin. Separate the almond milk from its fibers with a cheese cloth. Drink immediately and store in the refrigerator.

Cheese

Dairy cheese can be replaced by any store-bought soy or rice-based cheese, but these often include strange ingredients that are necessary to achieve the same texture, taste, and look of cheese. They are also not much more forgiving in terms of calories and fat.

Luckily, these vegan alternatives make things a bit more interesting and are easy enough to make on the regular:

• white cheese dip
• sweet potato cheese
• basil cashew cheese

Keep in mind that when it comes to cheese, nutritional yeast is your most trusted accomplice. It has a cheesy flavor that, when paired with a creamy base, can mock cheese to the T (or C).

Gelatin

Ever wonder where gelatin comes from? It’s a protein obtained by boiling animal bones, tendons, ligaments, hooves, and skin. Not necessarily the kinds of things you associate with jellied candies, toaster pastries, cereals, and Jell-O.

Alternatives include carrageenan, agar-agar, fruit pectin, and locust bean gum.

Butter

In sweet recipes, you can replace up to 3/4 cup butter with applesauce. Replace the rest with a vegan butter substitution, such as Earth Balance. In cooking, where butter is scant, use a vegan substitution.

Oil

Oil has little benefit when it is cooked, literally, to death. Oil biochemically changes when it is heated, and it loses many of its nutritional benefits. Opt to enjoy oils in their raw, extra-virgin states. The healthiest raw oils include olive oil, grapeseed oil, avocado oil, walnut oil, sesame oil, flaxseed oil, and peanut oil. When cooking, use coconut oil – it has a high burning temperature and can withstand heat.

Buttermilk

To replace buttermilk, simply combine 1 tablespoon of white vinegar with 1 cup of vegan milk, such as almond, soy, coconut or rice milk.

Sugar

In baked goods, marinades, and sauces, maple syrup is a great replacement for sugar. In fact, I find that it gives the dish a deeper, more complex flavor, making it more unique and enjoyable to eat. You can replace every 1 cup of sugar with 3/4 cup of maple syrup. This requires that you reduce the dominant liquid in the recipe by 2-4 tablespoons, for consistency’s sake. Pick and choose with the liquids – you don’t want to sacrifice an important taste, so don’t reduce the oil or vinegar measurements when you have 2 or 3 cups of milk to take from. To offset maple syrup’s slight acidity, you may choose to add 1/4-1/2 teaspoons of baking soda. If the recipe calls for sour cream, buttermilk, or sour milk, skip the baking soda.

In tea and coffee, there is no need to reach for sugar anymore. Stevia is the only sweetener out there that has a zero-glycemic level and zero calories – to say nothing of its a-little-goes-a-long-way poster child status. Stevia is 300 times sweeter than sugar and if you find a brand that fits your tastes – I am a NuNaturals fan – you won’t be able to leave the house without it! I prefer liquid stevia, because it’s seamless to use and easy to carry around in my purse. A few drops later, and my beverages taste like liquid gold. One 2-ounce bottle tends to last me 3-4 months.

Some manufacturers have come out with powdered versions that can replace sugar in recipes. There are also sugar and powdered stevia mixes that aim to reduce sugar, but not completely nix it.

ALSO CHECK OUT: 

Vegan Chocolate Mousse with Sea Salt

Make Your Own Vegan Salted Caramel Ice Cream

Recipe: Vegan Avocado Alfredo Sauce

Aylin Erman currently resides in Istanbul and is creator of plant-based recipe website GlowKitchen.

Images: Furry Scaly, Robert S. Donovan, Tétine, Jeffrey W, MRBECK, Aylin Erman

The post 8 Substitutions for the Most Common Kitchen Ingredients appeared first on EcoSalon.

A little professional help for your cheese plate. 

No matter how you slice it, mainstream cheese is inefficient fare: Almost 10 pounds of milk are needed to make a typical 1-pound wheel. But you need not forsake your favorite Gouda. Just choose a brand that takes sustainability into account. We asked five experts to name their favorites.

JEFF ROBERTS cofounded the Vermont Institute for Artisan Cheese. His Atlas of American Artisan Cheese was the first book to comprehensively survey small-scale cheese makers.

“Long before sustainability was celebrated, LAZY LADY FARM in northern Vermont utilized green practices. The farm operates completely on solar and wind power, while the hillside aging caves take advantage of ambient temperature and humidity to make a diverse array of seasonal and organic goat’s and cow’s milk cheeses. La Petite Tomme, a bloomy-rind disk from goat’s milk, is a signature product. The soft surface yields to a moist interior with hints of mushroom, milk, and nuts.” $11 for 6 ounces, available seasonally at gourmetlibrary.com

Affineur WENDY WU is the cheese expert for Classified, a European-style cafe and retail chain in Hong Kong known for selling artisan foods. Time magazine named Classified one of its top five restaurants for cheese lovers.

The post Best Artisan Cheeses: 5 Professionals Weigh in on Their Favorites appeared first on EcoSalon.

Taking an odd ingredient and finding even more unusual uses for it.

It’s not so much that the following uses are particularly unusual, but rather that nutritional yeast itself is an odd ingredient. It’s gaining popularity among foodies for its cheesy taste and nutritional benefits, but it still has a way to go in terms of becoming the pantry staple it’s meant to be. Nutritional yeast (nooch) is one of the only non-animal sources of vitamin B-12. It only takes 1/2-1 tbsp of nutritional yeast to get the daily requirement for B-12. Nutritional yeast is also an excellent source of iron, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, chromium, selenium, and other minerals as well as 18 amino acids, protein, folic acid, biotin, and other vitamins.

And don’t worry about the yeast fermenting in your gut. It’s deactivated, so it will not give you the bloat. This is what distinguishes it from Brewer’s Yeast, which has not been deactivated.

Pop Corn

As if popcorn couldn’t get any more addicting, nooch had to get involved. Sprinkle the powder along with a drizzle olive oil and a dash of sea salt onto popcorn just popped for a cheesy touch. Add other spices, such as garlic powder, dried thyme or dried rosemary for an even more gourmet experience.

Pizza

Skip cheese and sprinkle a light layer of nutritional yeast onto pizza just after it leaves the oven. Cheese is hard to digest, especially when cooked, but that doesn’t mean you have to cede the taste completely. If you top a pizza with diverse textures and flavors, such as a robust marinara sauce, roasted vegetables and nutritional yeast, the cheese component is unnecessary.

Vegan Cheese Sauce

The food blog world is bursting with vegan “cheese” recipes – some simple, some elaborate – with nutritional yeast as the key ingredient. Check out Angela’s Low-Fat Vegan Cheeze Sauce on her blog Oh She Glows for a 5-ingredient approach. Head over to Epicurian Vegan for a heartier vegan cheese sauce that gets some extra bulk from cashews.

Bread Crumbs

Replace bread crumbs with nutritional yeast in any mixture requiring holding power. This cuts down on the carbs and adds an extra bite. Try using nutritional yeast to hold together veggie burgers or any other patty that would normally require bread crumbs.

Kale Chips

There’s nothing wrong with the standard kale chip recipe. But, nutritional yeast takes kale chips to a whole new level – a level that merits obsession and daily consumption. Try your hand at the Spicy & Cheesy Kale Chips presented by the blog Eating Bird Food.

Macaroni & Cheese

We’ve already given macaroni and cheese a serious makeover, and nutritional yeast was an crucial player in this feat. Not only is this recipe vegan, but thanks to nooch, it offers cheesy comfort to a creamy, sweet potato base.

Pasta

Skip the grated parmesan and sprinkle nutritional yeast atop warm pasta along with some garlic powder and a drizzle of olive oil. The combination of flavors makes for a dish that doesn’t miss a thing.

Mashed Potatoes

Stir nooch into mashed potatoes, not only saving calories by nixing cheese but also cutting down on the sodium. Indeed, mashed potatoes can be healthy.

Bean Dip

Emily Malone of the blog Daily Garnish makes a fabulous bean dip using nutritional yeast. If serving this at a party, no one would even be able to tell its vegan.

Roasted Vegetables

One of my favorite go-to meals is roasted vegetables topped with shredded cheese. On days I’d like to skip the cheese and opt for a healthier alternative, I stir nutritional yeast into the finished vegetables instead. When warmed by the vegetables, the yeast smoothens out and creates a creamy sauce with help from the vegetable juices and oils.

Roasted Nuts

Roast nuts that have been tossed in some nutritional yeast. The roasted flavor will be augmented and the nuts will have a slightly cheesy coating on the skin.

Onion Rings

Nutritional yeast has been showing up in onion ring recipes, and for good reason. It helps to increase the nutritional benefit of onion ring batter and adds an edge to each bite. Make the baked fat-free onion rings featured on vegan blog My Whole Deal.

Sauce Thickener

Much like flour and butter are used to thicken a sauce, nutritional yeast can replace the flour to do the same thing.

Gravy

Keeping your health on track during the holidays is all about cutting corners in small ways. Nutritional yeast can redefine gravy. Bring this simple recipe to the table and the cheer will only heighten.

Salad Dressing

Sneak in your B12 quota is by adding a tablespoon of nutritional yeast to a homemade salad dressing like the Hollyhock Salad Dressing, which you can find on A Passionate Plate blog.

French Fries

Want some added nutrition, crisp, and kick to a homemade version of baked French fries? Drizzle olive oil over cut root vegetables and then toss them in a few tablespoons of nutritional yeast. The flavor is out of this world.

Creamy Cooked Greens

Cooked spinach pairs well with cream and cheese, but you can replace those heavier add-ins with a tablespoon or two of nutritional yeast and then watch as the bare spinach suddenly becomes decadently creamy and bold in flavor.

Vegan Quiche

Experiment with this No-Soy Vegan Quiche recipe from blog Triumph Wellness. It’s the perfect example of where just a little bit of nooch makes a big difference.

Dog Food

Dogs need their vitamin B12 too, especially if your dog is on a plant-based diet. Mix some nutritional yeast in your furry friend’s nibbles and he or she will benefit in a major way.

Baby Formula

If a baby is using formula in place of breast feeding, it is recommended to add nutritional yeast to the infant formula.  Nutritional yeast provides B12, iron and folic acid, which are essential to growth.

Aylin Erman currently resides in Istanbul and is creator of plant-based recipe website GlowKitchen.

Photo Credit: Artizone, Acquired Life

The post 20 Unusual Ways to Use Nutritional Yeast appeared first on EcoSalon.

A childhood favorite revamped.

There’s something incredibly nostalgic about macaroni and cheese. Even if you rarely ate the meal as a kid, you most certainly recognized the commercials for the box brands and knew what it was. For me, mac & cheese was an after-school staple, a weekend lunch, a quick dinner that never fell short of filling the carb and cheese quota I necessitated as a youngster.

But it’s no nutritional powerhouse. Sure, advertisements can skirt the overall lack of nutrition with a “high in calcium!” banner, but last time I checked, just because something includes dairy ( e.g. ice cream, crème brûlée, pizza) doesn’t mean it’s a nourishing and balanced meal. Across the board – in both store-bought and homemade versions of it– macaroni and cheese has a lot of room for improvement in terms of nutritional benefit.

Using Kraft Macaroni & Cheese as an example, box brands include the likes of whey, milkfat, milk protein concentrate, salt, sodium tripolyphosphate, citric acid, sodium phosphate, lactic acid, milk, calcium phosphate, yellow 5, yellow 6, cheese culture, and enzymes. Artificial coloring and preservatives prevent the assimilation of nutrients and with often over 500 milligrams of sodium, box brands are blood pressure’s natural nemesis.

And while homemade macaroni and cheese both is better for you and can cut the sodium, enzymes and preservatives from the mix, the classic recipe made from scratch will include the following: white pasta, butter, plain white flour, milk, and grated cheese. White flour is essentially the result of having stripped everything useful from wheat, adding synthetic vitamins, and bleaching it. The vitamins in white flour are toxic, and because the flour is devoid of fiber, it passes slowly through the intestine, giving more time for the body to absorb the toxicities. The bleaching process also increases the flour’s gluten content. Additionally, the butter and cheese are by no means used scantily in homemade macaroni and cheese, so you can be sure the result is high in artery-clogging saturated fat, sodium, and the hard-to-digest animal milk protein, casein. To say the least, homemade macaroni and cheese is also no poster child for health.

Today, it’s hard to justify eating macaroni and cheese when little is to be gained (except for taste, of course). I’m all about eating what gives you pleasure, and if you are craving little white flour noodles flavored with powdered cheese every now and then, don’t hesitate to dig in! But there are times when the conscience outweighs the desire and when part of me wishes there were a healthier alternative. So, I created one.

This recipe is a vegan version of macaroni and cheese. The cheese has a sweet potato base. Skeptical? I was too until I tried it. The sweet potato is baked and mixed with mustard and nutritional yeast to give it the “cheesy” taste. Nutritional yeast is one of those ingredients that has changed my life. It’s the only plant-based source of vitamin B12, which is music to vegans’ ears. It is super versatile and one of the few ways to match the taste of cheese without using dairy. Combining the “cheese” with whole-grain or whole-wheat pasta, the result is a rich, satisfying macaroni and cheese experience, without the food baby to show for it.

Whole-Wheat Macaroni & Sweet Potato Cheese

Serves 1

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of cooked noodles (according to package instructions)
• 1/2 baked sweet potato
• 1/4 tsp mustard
• Juice of half a lemon
• 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• Dash of salt
• Dash of freshly ground pepper
• 1 tbsp of nutritional yeast and 1/2 tbsp of olive oil for crust

In a medium-sized bowl combine the sweet potato half, juice of half a lemon, mustard, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, olive oil and salt and pepper. Mix until thoroughly combined.

Fold 1 cup of cooked noodles into the sweet potato “cheese”.

Place the mixture into a serving-size baking dish.

Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of nutritional yeast over the dish and drizzle with 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil. This will allow the top to crisp while cooking.

Bake in the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes, or until the top begins to brown. Serve and enjoy!

The result is super soft and creamy. Its flavors satisfy the sweet, salty, sour and bitter taste buds, making it a decidedly complete dish without you craving anything else, except for maybe more of what you just ate!

Bon Appetit!

Aylin Erman currently resides in Istanbul and is creator of plant-based recipe website GlowKitchen.

Image: Pink Sherbert Photography

The post Nutritional Breakdown: Macaroni and Cheese Gets A Sweet Potato Revamp appeared first on EcoSalon.

Treasure hunt or travesty? It depends on your attitude.

Non-professional foodies express envy when I tell them I’m going to the Fancy Food Show. I guess because it sounds so, well, “fancy. I don’t know what people imagine: small, exquisite plates of foie gras and caviar arranged vertically; exotic grains cooked with pristine baby vegetables; elegant finger sandwiches with the crusts cut off; and petit fours.

It’s none of that, though I did try some bourbon-infused, sustainable California caviar that struck my fancy. And yes, there are fancy (and incredibly delicious) cheeses, but you have to find them among a great number of booths filled with wheels of commodity queso.

There are also tiny gems of companies working hard on making delicious food from good, thoughtfully sourced ingredients. But you just might miss their small displays hiding behind the enormous Hormel booth or the flashy celebrity chef launching his or her latest product line.

The yearly show in San Francisco takes place in both buildings of the Moscone Center, over three days. Walking the whole floor in one day, as I did, is a challenge. There’s no way to taste anywhere near everything, so the key is to look at it like a treasure hunt, and keep moving. Here are the highly subjective results of my personal trek.

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

Things That Shouldn’t Exist:

Business names like this one

Processed foods like this one that proclaim “it’s now even easier to eat fruit!” When has eating actual fruit ever been taxing?

Overbaked Trends:

Bacon: Why won’t it die? I tried a bacon marmalade spread that made me desperate to wash my mouth out with the (fortunately placed) microbrew across the aisle.

Greek yogurt: It’s great and everything, but at the end of 2012 will there still be room on the grocery shelves for regular yogurt? You know, the tangy stuff that doesn’t taste like whipped cream?

Chips that aren’t chips: Call me a crank, but some of these new snack chips made from beans, lentils, and alternative grains have too many flavors (sun-dried tomatoes, sesame, basil pesto, chipotle anyone?) and their textures are either like cardboard or (in the case of the puffed versions) greasy, rancid, Styrofoam. Stop it and give me a potato chip, a corn chip, or even a sweet potato chip. Please.

An Old Favorite That Still Delights:

Laura Chenel’s line of cheeses are fantastic. Soft goat cheese has become ubiquitous in grocery stores nationwide, but it wasn’t always so. Laura was the first to make this French style cheese in the U.S., and today she continues to break ground with cheeses like the Tome, and the Mélodie, which I was told is now made in Sonoma County, CA, after a stint of production in France while the company’s new cheese facility was under construction.

Greenest Surprise:

Gone (mostly) are the thousands of tiny plastic spoons. In their place, many exhibitors are using clever, compostable, scoops called EcoTensils.

Favorite Moment:

The passionate owner of Vin Tucci Wine Infused (and utterly delicious) Cookies treated me to an unexpected moment of poetry in articulating his food philosophy. “There are some things we eat in life, like raw oysters, juicy peaches, and fresh mozzarella, that tell us to slow down and pay attention,” he said, adding, “We have to wake up when we’re eating, or we’re just consuming calories.” Words to live by!

A Few Random Favorite Bites:

Susan Feniger’s Edamame Green Siracha Hummus was the bomb. You may remember her from early food TV in the show, Two Hot Tamales. She’s launching a line of products to go along with her new book, Street Food.

Oren’s Kitchen Slow Roasted Artisan Nuts are perfectly seasoned (rather than “flavored”) fresh tasting, and elegant. No acrid spices or rancid oil like you might find in so many commercial nut products. Owner Arnen Oren is a classically trained chef who has worked in some fine restaurant kitchens, and it shows.

Oregon Growers and Shippers makes seasonal preserves and jams from locally grown fruit. The jams are good, but even better are the company’s efforts to support the farmers in its region. Oregon is home to so much fabulous fruit, including strawberries, pears, and marionberries, and I like the idea of the farmers who grow them having a local outlet for their produce.

Canaan Fair Trade sells wonderful olive oil from centuries-old olive groves in Palestine, as well as other goods like spices and grains. All the farmers are represented by the Palestine Fair Trade Association and receive Fair Trade premiums. This social venture is providing a much needed opportunity for farmers who have a very difficult time staying on their land, finding markets for their wonderful products, and supporting their families.

Community Grains brings heritage grains grown and processed in California into the marketplace with artisanally produced polenta, pastas, and whole grain flours. This is a great example of how a food business can preserve biological diversity while strengthening the regional food economy.

Sierra Nevada Cultured Butter is sweet and tangy and incredibly full-flavored. I could almost give up cheese if I could eat butter like this on my bread every day.

Image: Embajada Ecuador

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