- This is some of the best macaroni and cheese
I've ever had in my life hands down.
- I'm getting some, like, serial killer
vibes of this honestly.
The way that you've made these rows.
- Hello everybody its your girl Merle
and today I'm going to be having
my friend Q on the show.
Q loves mac and cheese but he's lactose intolerant.
So, I know he suffers for it.
I want to prove to Q that there is a vegan version
of mac and cheese that can satiate that need
and that want that he has.
So we're gonna go out there and we're gonna find the best
vegan mac and cheese that we can in L.A.
and then I'm going to bring him back here
and we're gonna make our own homemade version.
Then he's going to see which one he likes more.
So, lets go get Q.
What are we waiting for?
- Merle, what is up?
- Well, ya know, I'm always up to something weird and vegan.
- I'm actually kind of nervous
cause every time I do a video with you
it's something crazy.
- This is actually not gonna be like that.
I've heard through the grapevine
that you love yourself some mac and cheese.
- Oh (bleep), yeah, I definitely love mac and cheese.
My mom is the ultimate mac and cheese maker.
It's like no one in my city
like, if someone is making mac and cheese for the party
my mom is gonna make the mac and cheese.
- In your city?
- In the city.
- Yeah.
- I'm telling you its popping.
It's like 5 cheeses in there.
It's baked, has some burnt pieces on it.
- Oh!
- It's just so many layers to it that makes it so good.
- Clearly you love mac and cheese.
You love your mom's mac and cheese.
So, today, I'm going to Sage Vegan Bistro
and we're gonna get some bomb mac and cheese.
Rachel did a research day
where she drove around on the companies dime,
taste testing all the different
vegan mac and cheeses that L.A. has to offer
and she said this one's the best.
- That's a pretty high bar we're setting here.
- I don't need it to be better than your mom's
I want it to be comparable.
- How is that gonna be possible?
Like, what do you substitute?
- Listen to me, Q
vegans are the MacGyvers
of the culinary world.
- Okay.
- We find a way!
- I mean, I'm open.
I feel like a healthier way to eat
mac and cheese is always a good thing.
Sorry mom, but I mean, like, after the fifth plate
you definitely start to feel like (bleep).
But, hey!
It's a good (bleep)!
Love you mom, I'm sorry, I didn't mean that.
(bright funky music)
- I wanna know how Sage Vegan Bistro started.
- I wanted somewhere that everybody
is going to have something that they are familiar with
and they feel comfortable eating
but, it doesn't have any of the
animal products in it.
Eighty percent of our guests are not
vegan or vegetarian so, I'm very excited about that
because I believe it's a numbers game.
I'm not about telling everybody they should be vegan.
There is always going to be vegans
and there's always going to be meat eaters.
And, to me, it's how can we get our global
consumption of meat pared down
to something that the planet can sustain.
So almost everything that you're eating
as far as produce, was grown within sixty miles of here.
For me, it's a big disconnect when people say
"Oh, I'm a vegan for the animals, I don't care
if it's local or if it's a family owned farm."
To me, we have to care about the animals
the environment, and human beings.
- How do you make your macaroni look so not vegan?
- We use a mixture of a vegan cream cheese,
Daiya cheese, mix that with nutritional yeast,
melt it together and then pour it over
the par cooked noodles
and then I put the breadcrumbs on top
with the Follow Your Heart mozzarella
and it gives you that, crispy on top
and gushy, and delicious inside.
When one little noodle starts to burn
- That's it!
- That's how you know it's ready to come out.
- I knew I could trust you!
- Okay.
- I know I can trust you.
- For you.
- Thank you so much!
This looks like real cheese.
- Whoa, whoa!
I completely forgot this was vegan.
- Oh (bleep), I shouldn't have said anything!
Oh my, look at that!
- Smells good.
- Oh, my goodness!
- I feel like I'm in shock right now.
- I can't even look at you right now.
This is so incredibly delicious!
Its so creamy!
Remember when you were talking about layers?
- Yes.
- [Merle] You got the crust, you got the goo.
- This is some of the best macaroni and cheese
I ever had in my life, hands down.
That's not a question.
- So, I set the bar very high.
I'm regretting that a little bit now.
But but but, I'm gonna make it all from scratch.
- Okay, I like that.
If it's gonna come out something like this, or better,
people, listen to your girl.
- Here we are in the kitchen.
I'm gonna do my best to give you an even better
mac and cheese version that you can make at home.
- I wanna believe in you, I do believe in you.
But, Sage was fire.
- I'm gonna rise to the occasion.
- Okay.
- I'm gonna exceed your expectations.
- Okay.
- The first thing you're gonna do is
you're gonna roast yourself a little head of garlic.
You're gonna cut the head off of your little garlic guy.
- Yeah.
- Just like a half an inch.
So, I'm gonna add some oil.
All right, we got that puppy all lubed up.
And now, we're gonna add some salt, can't resist sometimes.
Oh, he's Salt Bae in the house.
Good-bye now, into the oven you will go.
Just roast this for like thirty-five
to forty minutes.
- Okay.
- Fortunately, planned ahead.
We've got one done, right here.
- This smells amazing!
Like, I wish I had some fries!
- All right, so, you want this to be fork-tender.
- Is this fork-tender?
(bleep)!
She tender!
- This is the fun part!
Starting from, like, the bottom you just push it out.
Yeah, oh my, that's very satisfying!
For Aria, I made a cashew milk
to go with his chocolate chip cookies.
- Interesting.
- So, we're gonna be doing the same kinda dealio here.
- Time out.
- Yeah?
- Did you just say that we're gonna use this
cashew plus this garlic
to make cheese sauce?
- Listen, the cashew is a very powerful nut.
It is fatty, it makes things creamy.
- And what about, like, the yellow, cheesy look?
- Ah, all in good time.
- Okay.
- See these fatties?
I soaked these for about four hours
so they're engorged right now, in liquid.
Which makes them softer
which is going to make them easier to blend.
- Okay, definitely.
- No, you just pull the whole thing off.
- Oh, okay.
- Wow, I am teaching you everything.
So, let's put the cashews in,
you can put the garlic in.
And then, we got about three cups of water here
and then we're gonna blend it up so it's nice and smooth.
(blender roaring)
- Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!
(bleep)!
Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!
Gosh!
- So, this is looking really good.
It's all formed together
so, it's a nice kind of milky situation
we got going on.
Yeah, that garlic is poppin' off in there
I'll tell you that much.
You're gonna put some oil on that pan right there.
Put the panko bread crumbs-
you're all the way in.
- I'm all the way up!
- Paprika, add a nice little smokey flavor.
And then, of course, our best friend, salt.
- All right, so we're gonna give this
a quick little stir, yeah?
- Every thirty seconds or so, we'll zhuzh it up.
So, Q, I've heard through the grapevine
and directly from you
- Directly from your mouth, to my ears.
- That, you are trying to
incorporate a little bit more of a plant based
diet into your life.
Is that true?
- Yes, a hundred percent.
So, I feel like once I seen all the celebrities
not eating this stuff, I knew that was my time.
- Are you serious?
- That was my time to change my ways!
They know something that we don't know!
So, at that point, I'm like, you know what Q,
follow the celebs.
- Yeah, you know what, they do have the inside word.
- Going forward, I just don't wanna eat
that much red meat.
And, I feel like this would be a good move for me.
- Just cause I'm doing it a hundred percent
doesn't mean everyone has to do it a hundred percent.
- I agree.
- I think baby steps are just as important.
- Honestly, I feel like I'm killing it right now.
Like, if this is what being a chef would be.
- I'm getting some, like, serial killer vibes
off this, honestly.
The way that you've made these rows.
You could just move it around, like this.
You're like, "Sleep tight, my dearies."
Not the feeling I get from you!
Now, you can transfer this to the bowl.
And, in the same beautiful pan
we're going to make our roux.
We got two different kids of fats over here.
We got vegan butter, and then a little bit of olive oil.
Then classically, some more garlic.
You never have enough garlic.
- Honestly
(glass thuds)
- It's an exciting day!
- I love cooking!
- Sizzling it up!
- That's vegan butter, baby!
- A roux is equal parts fat and flour.
And it's commonly used to thicken sauces
and that's what we want it to do for us here.
Mix that all up.
So, ultimately, what we want is for it
to look like the consistency of wet sand.
- We're pretty close already.
- We're getting there!
Do you cook a lot for yourself?
- I really do enjoy cooking.
I'm meal prepping--
- "Keep whisking"
- You see this, double-tasking?
I'm a cook.
- Now, you've done such a great job here.
I'm gonna add the cashew milk we made earlier.
Keep stirring that until the roux is combined
nicely with our cashew milk, so it's nice and creamy.
Let's add nutritional yeast
which is gonna give it more of that
cheesy flavor that we obviously know and love.
This is apple cider vinegar, don't worry.
When it all comes together, it's like a symphony.
- You can wash your dreadlocks in apple cider vinegar.
- Really?
- It gets out everything!
- Apple cider vinegar's a beautiful thing!
- Yeah!
- So, that's turmeric.
But, that's gonna give us that
yellowy, orange, cheesy looking color
that you were asking for.
- This is staring to look like it, for sure!
A little pepper?
- Pepper, fresh, ground black pepper!
And, we're gonna add some salt.
Now, we're gonna turn the heat down to low.
And, we're gonna let this bad boy simmer.
And, in the mean time, it's time for
some vegan trivia!
- I'm like, "What is it time for, tell me, now!"
- Hello and welcome to vegan trivia.
According to a climate report from the EWG
cheese produces how many times more
CO2 emissions than tofu?
- Two.
- Seven times!
- Now, that's crazy!
That's a very crazy fact.
- I think, a lot of the time, people will equate
beef with methane emissions.
But, if you think about it, dairy also.
You're dealing with cows, right?
You need cows to produce the milk.
- Yeah, cow fart.
- Yeah, basically, yeah.
It all boils down to cow farts.
- Yeah, change the world.
One fart at a time.
- That's the slogan this show needs!
Now, you might notice that our sauce
is thickening up quite nicely.
- Most definitely.
- If, for some reason, it gets a little too thick
you just add a little bit of water
and that'll loosen that puppy right back up.
We got some elbow mac and cheese.
This seems only appropriate for a classic mac.
Ooh, look at that!
- This is definitely looking like
what mac and cheese should look like.
- This looks so freaking creamy!
- Like, we can stop this video right here and say, yo.
- But, we're not gonna do that.
We're taking it beyond.
- We didn't go the same direction.
- Try to evenly distribute it as much as you can.
- I'm a perfectionist!
- Oh right, I saw the way stirring earlier.
Let's do it, why wait, you know?
I'm hungry, man.
(bright funky music)
Looky here!
- Whoa!
- Woo!
- You gotta spoon it out
because you're a professional.
- A professional spooner.
- I wanna get every aspect of this macaroni and cheese.
It's game time.
- I can't look!
- That's good!
- Is it?
- Yeah!
It's not like a, 'pull it and there's, like
something in the middle
but like, it's macaroni and cheese!
- Yeah!
- I taste that garlic in here for sure.
And, I feel like it's a game changer.
I think it has everything that you need in a macaroni.
All we're missing is that burnt piece.
- The burnt piece!
- I think now, all we have left to do if for you to rank it.
We've even prepared your mother's special recipe
of mac and cheese.
- You guys called my mom?
- Lovely lady.
Yeah, we're tight now.
- It's time for the moment of truth!
- Oh!
- We have, dear sweet mother's mac and cheese.
You know, this, the gold standard, of course.
We've got the Sage mac and cheese
that we had earlier today
and then, of course, we have the homemade one
that we just made.
You're not gonna rate your mother's
cause, she's gonna win.
- Yeah, that's a ten.
- It's your mother's.
- Yeah, that's a ten.
That took me right back to Thanksgiving.
Let's move on, before I cry.
- Sage is great.
It visually looks a lot more like my mom's macaroni.
They cook it a very similar way.
This one is much more, like, cheesy
cause they used the vegan cheese.
- Okay.
- But, also, vegan cheese is not
readily available everywhere.
- Correct!
- So, what I like about what we made today
is that everything is natural.
Anybody can make this recipe.
This is definitely very creamy.
The crumbles threw me off visually
but it tastes amazing.
- Good God, what are you gonna rate it!
I need to know!
- So, this is a ten
this is a 7.5
this is gonna be an eight.
- Yay!
Oh, my God!
(clapping)
- Yeah, like, I could see this with some collard greens.
This is my favorite.
- Yeah, of course!
- Nothing is ever going to top that.
- Of course.
- But, I feel like, this is for a special occasion.
I cannot eat this every week.
I can eat this every month.
I feel like, for just every occasion
when I wanna make macaroni outside of holidays
and, just, you know, just some regular weekend
type of thing.
These options are definitely worth trying out.
It's way more eco-friendly, way more health conscious.
I am a hundred percent down to start going for
vegan macaroni and cheese, like, not a question.
- Yay.
_ You did good today.
- You did great!
(high five)
(cheering)
Well, thank you for watching!
I hope this was fun and informative.
Let us know in the comments below
who you wanna have on the show next
so I can veganize something for them.
Invisible maracas, yeah?
That's very exciting!
(bright uplifting music)
- [Q] Is my mom here, seriously?
- [Merle] Can you bring her in, please?
No, she's not here.
- [Q] Oh!
- Sorry, was that cruel?
- Nah, yeah, definitely.
( bright uplifting music)