- This mac and cheese is just not only vegan,
it is delicious.
Now this is what mac and cheese
is supposed to look like, all right?
Hey guys, I'm Chef Joya and I am a expert
at transitioning non vegans to vegan food.
Today on the menu the cheesiest
vegan mac and cheese you've ever tasted.
All right, so we're gonna start
with a pot of rapid boiling water,
and you want to make sure you always flavor your water.
I like to use vegetable bouillon cubes,
or if you have powder vegetable bouillon you can use that.
If you have vegan chicken bouillon you can use that,
but whatever you do,
you wanna make sure you season the water
because your noodles are going to absorb the flavor.
And if you don't have any vegetable bouillon cubes
you can use salt,
but don't just use plain water whatever you do.
All right, so we're gonna go ahead and add our pasta too.
We're gonna use elbow noodles.
So you wanna make sure you use regular elbow noodles.
I know a lot of times you see the jumbo elbow noodles.
No, don't use that.
You're gonna add your top back to the pasta,
we're gonna cook it about eight to 10 minutes.
So about al dente is there in between.
(upbeat music)
Let's go drain it, you following?
You comin' with me or no?
No?
I'm by myself?
Okay.
So we're gonna add our butter.
Now you can use as much butter as you want.
There are no rules on butter, the more butter the better.
So we're gonna dump that all into the pan,
and then we're gonna allow that to melt down.
Once our butter is melted we're going to add
our all purpose flour.
And you wanna make sure that your heat is on medium low
because you don't want this to burn at all.
Next, we're gonna add our tapioca starch.
You may also see that the tapioca starch say tapioca flour,
those are the exact same thing
so you can use that as well.
We're gonna go ahead and whisk this.
Now you're gonna need a lot of strong arm motion
because this is a lot of stirring, okay?
So we're gonna mix this until it's well incorporated.
And that's why it's good to leave that residue in it
because it's getting some of that flavor as well.
Now this is another one you can use as much as you want.
There is no rules on it, just whatever your heart's desire.
Just go until it tells you stop all right.
(laughing)
I'm gonna blend it all the way down.
So once your cream cheese is melted down,
you're gonna go ahead and add your slices of cheese.
This time I wanna add about six slices of my vegan cheese.
And if you feel like using more cheese, use more cheese.
And this is where our vegan cheddar is gonna come in.
(upbeat music)
Just gonna add that here.
Now we're gonna go ahead
and add our unsweetened cashew milk.
Now you wanna make sure that you use unsweetened milk.
That is the worst to have a mac and cheese
that's super sweet.
I don't think anyone would like that.
And we're gonna add our milk in a little bit at a time.
And you want to also make sure
that the milk is already at room temperature.
You don't wanna put super cold milk into your pan
because it actually will seize the cheese.
So we're gonna give this a nice little stir.
And like I said, you gotta get your manpower up
'cause we're gonna do a lot of stirring.
So once that's absorbed like this,
we're gonna add a little bit more milk.
(pouring milk)
And trust me, it is a lot of standin' over the pot,
but it is worth every moment.
At this point our cheese is still meltin' down,
but it's at the point to where
we needed to add our seasonings.
So we're gonna start adding some flavor.
We're gonna go ahead and add some black pepper.
We're gonna add a little bit of sea salt,
a little bit of garlic powder.
And yes, you have to have garlic powder.
Now don't go addin' fresh onions to this.
It's not what you need,
it's not what you need at all.
Somebody come here and open all these.
(laughing)
So we're gonna add our onion powder.
Add enough until you about coverin' the pan.
And you're gonna see that your cheese sauce
is startin' to boil even more,
and it should be thick, almost like pancake mix.
You see that?
'Cause you wanna make sure that all those flavors
are getting incorporated into the cheese sauce.
(upbeat music)
And remember you can always add, but you can't take away,
so that's why we add a little bit of milk at a time.
Next we're gonna add our nutritional yeast.
And this is used to give pretty much all the vegan food
their cheesy flavor.
If you use way too much of it, it tastes really chalky,
and I know a lot of vegan mac and cheeses are very chalky.
They're not good.
So you wanna make sure that you don't use
too much of that nutritional yeast.
Next we're gonna use a little bit of hot sauce,
now trust me this is not going to make
your mac and cheese spicy at all,
but it is going to amplify the flavor.
Trust me, I know.
If you can't find vegan worcestershire sauce,
you can use tamari, you can use coconut aminos,
you can also use soy sauce,
but you wanna make sure you use a very little bit of it.
Just a little bit.
Give that a nice little stir.
Let's add some more milk in between there.
(upbeat music)
Remember when I said don't use any
sweetened plant-based milk,
that's because you're going to add
a little bit of sugar into it.
You can use any raw sugar that you like,
but you're gonna use a very little bit.
Not a lot, just a little bit okay.
So we're gonna give this a nice stir.
(upbeat music)
And it's almost there.
Look at that pull, we are getting there, look at this.
Now this is what mac and cheese
is supposed to look like, all right.
So the last spice that we're gonna add to this
is a little bit of Creole seasoning.
Now I'm making a more traditional
soul food baked mac and cheese.
It is going to be super creamy and cheesy,
but we're gonna actually put this in the oven.
This cheese sauce is gonna attach to the noodles,
it's gonna thicken up so it's almost like a pie.
It's like a thick, cheesy, gooey, crusty, thingamajiggy
that you just wanna love.
Here we go.
All the clumps are almost out.
If your mac and cheese don't look like this,
I don't want it.
I am for real.
All right we're gonna add our bouillon to our cheese sauce,
and we're gonna make sure we mix that really well.
Let's spread the love.
All in there.
(squeals)
I'm excited, I am so excited,
you see how good this looks?
This is for real, this is really good.
Oh oh, yes.
We're gonna take our pasta noodles,
and we're going to season it
with a little bit more creole seasoning.
I like to use Creole seasoning.
When I first learned how to make vegan mac and cheese,
I used like salt, pepper, garlic powder,
onion powder, paprika.
But the thing about it is Creole seasoning
has all those flavors, all those spices in there and more.
Creole seasoning is a one stop seasonin' shop,
and it has everything in it that you need.
All right.
So we're gonna go ahead and take our seasoned pasta noodles,
and we're gonna add this to our mac and cheese sauce.
Like you need your noodles to be drowning,
it needs to drown in all of this cheese sauce.
If your noodles aren't drowning you need to make more sauce.
You don't want to save these noodles, they need to drown.
So let's drown the noodles, add 'em to the pot.
And we're gonna mix that in there.
You may gotta poke a little bit holes in it,
push it down to the bottom.
(upbeat music)
So you wanna make sure that you taste your mac and cheese,
because once you put it in the oven,
you can't add any more seasoning to it.
So you wanna go ahead and grab it.
Ooh, make sure, ooh look at that.
(eating)
I'm like in mac and cheese heaven right now.
(giggling)
Now we're gonna take our bakin' dish,
and we're gonna make sure that we grease it
with a nonstick spray because this is going to be ooey,
and gooey, and it will stick, and burn,
and we don't want that to happen.
So we're gonna go ahead and add that,
just pour it right into the pot.
Ooh look at that, ooh.
(laughing)
Look at that magic, ooh.
We're not done yet 'cause we're gonna add more cheese.
The way we're gonna do it is we're gonna
fold it up like this and we're gonna tuck it in here.
So it's kinda like hiding in there.
And I actually got this from my cousin
when she used to make the original style
of mac and cheese, she used to stuff cubes of cheese
at the top of her mac and cheese,
so I just do it with my vegan mac.
That's what you want,
you don't even want it to be able to move.
You want it to just be like this, like real stiff.
Next we're gonna layer it with more shredded cheddar cheese.
You want this fully covered with our shredded cheese.
(upbeat music)
Oh my gosh, look at that.
All the bubbles and cracks, all that spillage,
you want all that spillage.
That when you know it is really done.
This isn't good vegan food,
this is good food.
Whoa.
Oh goodness.
That is so beautiful.
(upbeat music)
Cheese pool.
(upbeat music)
It's like an entire party in my mouth.
This is super creamy, super delicious.
Doesn't taste what you think is vegan.
This is just the best, cheesiest, mac and cheese ever.
Like (beep) good.
I know I can't say that.
(laughing)
Now that you have the secrets
to the cheesiest vegan mac and cheese,
let me know if there's anything else
that you would like for me to veganize.
Comment below.
For more delicious recipes, you can follow me
at cookingwithjoya on all social media.
You can also find more vegan soul food recipes
and my soul food cookbook called "It's Soul Mahmazing"
at cookingwithjoya.com.
See you guys soon.
- [Man] Oh yes.
(upbeat music)