Comments on: Veganomicon — Mac ‘n Cheese

By: Allison

Allison — Mon, 30 May 2011 03:20:51 +0000

We made Mac Daddy tonight & it was phenomenal….Looking at your pic, I wonder if you doubled the Sauce recipe? It makes a huge difference. Also, a smaller noodle might work better. It didn’t taste like Mac & Cheese – more like Chicken casserole. Next time we are going to sautee some celery & onions and mix it in at the tofu prep level, and then add some curry to the sauce, top with some scallions, chopped peanuts & raisins….and I think that might just make up for no chicken curry…Sorry you are having such a hard time. I am loving this cookbook.

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:24:20 +0000

Follow-up to my previous post: Well I made this using tofu instead of chickpeas last week, and shells instead of elbow macaroni, and it was terrible. The sauce had the consistency of chunky diarrhea, and each bite made me want to vomit. The shells didn’t work for me in this dish either, they seemed to clump together and not hold the sauce properly. Tossed it and made another batch using chickpeas instead, and it’s back to being delicious.

I veer from the recipe by *not* using freshly-squeezed lemon juice because it’s way too strong for the amounts listed (use the stuff from the little plastic lemon bottle), and I also put an extra 1/4 cup of flour in the broth mix to thicken things up a bit.

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 01:01:27 +0000

The Mac Daddy recipe is definitely an acquired taste, a very STRONG taste. I actually like it a lot — I’ve made two batches so far, both times substituting smooshed chickpeas for the tofu, and I found it quite tasty. Just finished off the last square of my latest batch tonight (with a side of garlic bread). In my opinion, it’s a little heavy on the mustard, but otherwise I like it. I’m a fan of nutritional yeast, so the heavy dose of it worked out fine for me.

The chickpea cutlets are the best though. I moisten them and bounce them around in a baggie with some vegan shake&bake type coating and fry them in olive oil. Is nice.

By: Spoony

Spoony — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:34:05 +0000

Not to revive this thread, but I am not a huge fan of this sauce either, however, I find myself making it every once in awhile because my man-friend loves it. It is also easy and cheap, and I always have the ingredients in the house. I feel like it tastes more like a light alfredo sauce at best.

Almost no cookbook could live up to the hype that V-con got, but I always say that if you get a few recipes that you absolutely LOVE from any cookbook (recipes that you make over and over) then the book was worth it. I like the spaghetti and bean balls recipe (frying them of course) because they don’t taste like fake meat, they just taste good. I think V-con is a good book for those looking for recipes that use relatively easy to find ingredients and/or inexpensive ingredients, and for people unfamiliar with basic cooking techniques. The soups are probably the strongest section in general.

On an aside note, I subscribed to Vegetarian Times for years and probably only really found five recipes that I’ve made more than three times each. I guess I’m one of those people who is fine eating the same thing over and over.

By: Lane

Lane — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 03:56:56 +0000

Hi Lexi,
Thanks for the link. Jane said she’ll give it a go. But if it’s like mac daddy, it won’t work for us. We both really didn’t like that recipe at all. We actually threw the leftovers away, something we never do in this house.
Jane’s tried a number of different “cheese” recipes based on cashews. Those are much more palatable to us.
Interstingly, we like the taste of nutritional yeast. Jane uses it in almost all of her tofu concoctions and we sprinkle it on our pasta…

By: lexi

lexi — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 09:22:34 +0000

hey, came across this post after some late night googling. sorry to hear you guys didnt like the mac daddy. i admit it was a little weird the first time we tried it too, but this recipe has totally grown on me since… i actually crave it now if you can believe that. the real reason i decided to comment here, though, was to share a recipe for a killer vegan queso. if you dont like this stuff, then youre not going to like any nooch-cheese sauce. best of luck!

http://www.postpunkkitchen.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=70450

By: Lane

Lane — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 04:41:28 +0000

Hi Carole,
Thanks for the links. Next time I have a craving for mac n cheese, Jane’s promised to try one of these.

By: Carole

Carole — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 09:52:36 +0000

I haven’t tried this recipe from Veganomicon, but I love the cookbook, there’s so many great recipes in there. If you have the patience for multi-step, many used pots and pans recipes, I’d highly recommend the Eggplant-Potato Moussaka with Pine Nut Cream. It’s blogged in step-by-step detail here with pics:
http://freshcrackedpepper.com/2008/10/13/vegan-moussaka/

So so yummy and worth all the effort. My dinner guests were very impressed with it and we’ve made it just for ourselves several times too.

If you haven’t tried the VegNews mac and cheese recipe, you really should, no nutritional yeast and fab!
http://www.vegnews.com/web/articles/page.do?pageId=40&catId=10

By: Lane

Lane — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 07:20:48 +0000

Hi Elizabeth,
I can’t say enough good things about the chickpea cutlets. Jane makes them all the time. She always doubles the recipe and we eat the cutlets in sandwiches the next few days. She bakes them and we haven’t had an issue with them being dry. (And we use canned chickpeas too.)
Good luck with the Snobby Joes. It’s nice that your hubby is willing to eat vegan food, and great that you have a back up in case he doesn’t like what he’s being fed. I always have to eat what Jane makes. I’m allowed to say I don’t want it again, but if she’s cooked it, I eat it. I’m lucky she’s a good cook!

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 17:41:38 +0000

I’m slowly making my way thru the Veganomicon cookbook and thus far, i’m really happy with it. The chickpea cutlets rock. My husband liked them on a bun with toppings like a burger, but not just to eat on their own with a little sauce (carnivore he is, i’m the veghead). I’ve made them several times but never baked them due to fear of drying them out too much. I used canned chickpeas btw.

I tried the Baja Tempeh Tacos and loved them actually. My husband even loved the flavors of this but he’s anti-tempeh so if i do it again, i’ll have to another ‘meat’ option for him. Today, I just ate those leftovers cold like a salad and it was great.

I won’t waste my time (or ingredients!)on the mac n cheese because husband hates, i repeat, hates nutritional yeast. i saw the recipe and noted to self – don’t make this ha. the only fake mac n cheese-ish dish i’ve done that he would even eat was the mac n cheese from VegNews. and i didn’t even call it mac n cheese so his expectations weren’t wrong. I just said it was a ‘pasta dish’ ha. This vegan mac n cheese has been the only one we both have really enjoyed so we stick with it and don’t venture outside of that! (BTW, that recipe does NOT have nutritional yeast! you can find it on their website vegnews.com)

I made the mexican millet a few weeks ago and we both loved the flavors of the dish and the fact it was easy/quick plus tasty! Considering making the couscous dish in the book – can’t remember the exact name of it. I know it has capers in it…

Tonight I’m going to try making the snobby joes. I hear good things about them. I’m a little worried because husband isn’t so sure he’s ever tried lentils, the main ingredient in this so – fingers crossed! I have a backup amy’s veg lasagna for him in the freezer just in case!

I’ll try to remember and update if possible.