Nutritional Yeast

I was first introduced to nutritional yeast two weeks after Hannah and I started dating by one of my friends who I was visiting for the weekend. She insisted on making for me her special Mac and Cheese which included no real cheese at all. What she used instead was the nutritional yeast and a few other ingredients. Unfortunately at the time I did not ask her what the other ingredients were and so have been experimenting to see how she made her concoction ever since. Some time in November I bought my very own first container of nutritional yeast at a natural market in Queens, and from that point on I have made many attempts to recreate this infamous Mac and Cheese.

Nutritional Yeast is a deactivated yeast, like brewers yeast, and is usually found in yellow flakes or powder. It is a complete protein and contains tons of other vitamins and minerals. The best of the vitamins it contains is vitamin B12 which is really important if you have problems with your digestive system or small intestines like Hannah does. Nutritional yeast is described as having a nutty, creamy or cheesy flavor so is often substituted for cheese and used by vegans.

My first few attempts were interesting to say the least. Firstly I was not using actual elbow pasta; instead I was using coos coos. Also my only ingredients were the coos coos and nutritional yeast. In my first few attempts I was wholly dissatisfied with my meal. After I had been at it for some time and added a few more ingredients, I finally come up with a satisfactory Mac and Cheese recipe. But this post is not really about Mac and Cheese. In fact my favorite Mac and Cheese to date doesn't even have any nutritional yeast in it at all. This post is wholly about nutritional yeast and my attempts to introduce it to Hannah.

 I have been talking to Hannah about nutritional yeast pretty much since I started dating her. I told her about it after I learned about it for the first time and then I told her about my attempts to make Mac and Cheese. Since then she has been asking me to make her something with it in it. Five months later and I have finally introduced nutritional yeast to her. It’s funny, for a little while I was carrying my container of nutritional yeast with me when I went to her place; I had it with me just in case there was an opportunity to introduce it to her. It actually worked one day. We had made pasta and sauce and instead of putting parmesan cheese on my pasta like I usually do I decided to put nutritional yeast and to my luck Hannah then wanted to try it for herself. But we don’t count that as the first time she had nutritional yeast.

My recipe which finally had Hannah trying the nutritional yeast was a recipe that I came up with myself. For a little while I have been making a potatoe, brockoli and nutritional yeast dish. I find it almost as good as scalloped potatoes.

Scalloped Potatoes and Broccoli


2 medium potatoes
1 1/2 cups of broccoli florets
1 small onion chopped
a sliver of margarine
2 Tbsp Nutritinal Yeast

Cut potatoes scalloped style, boil until tender. Place medium frying pan on medium heat. Place margarine in pan and let melt. Fry potatoes and onion until browned. In a separate pan steam or boil broccoli until cooked to desired consistency. Combine broccoli in pan with potatoes and onion add nutritional yeast add more margarine if needed, stir until yeast is combined and all vegetables are coved.
Serve hot with some ketchup for a delicious meal for any time of the day.

Hannah's Chili

Hi everyone, this is Hannah.  After reading through this lovely blog, I felt my cooking skills were being underrepresented.  So to prove that I am not a food dunce, I have decided to contribute to this endeavor.  It is true that I make a mean stir fry (which is why I always gave it as an option for meals), but I will wait to give that recipe until I have shown my other skillz. 

First, in celebration of Cinco de Mayo, I would like to present Vegan Chili Delicioso.  My grandfather had a wonderful chili recipe but unfortunately it was super meaty.  I used what I remembered from the vegetarian part of that recipe combined with some ideas I pulled from recipes I found on google (as well as just throwing in some things I had around the house).  There are a lot of places for variation depending on your taste, so feel free to experiment!

Vegan Chili Delicioso

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

1.5 Onions (I used Spanish)

3-5 cloves Garlic

3 Bell Peppers (I used one green, one orange, and one red)

1 large Zucchini

2 Vegan Burgers (This is optional but can add a nice texture and flavor.  I used the ones by Nature’s Promise because they have no eggs, corn, or mushrooms.  You can also use tempeh sautéed in a couple teaspoons of soy sauce if you’d like. If you choose to leave this option out, you may want to add some extra beans.)

3 15 oz cans of Beans (I used one black, one red kidney, and one pinto but you can use any type!)

2 28 oz cans of Crushed Tomatoes in Puree (Before pouring these into the mix, you may want to put them into a bowl to check them for unwanted bits.  Sometimes these cans have the tops of the tomatoes and some leaves that gross me out when they’re cooked into the food.)

Cumin

Cayenne Pepper

Garlic Powder

Chop onions and dice garlic.  Sautee them with one tbsp olive oil in a very large pot.  If vegan burgers are frozen, add them just as the onions and garlic begin to brown/become clear.  Break apart the burgers as you stir the onions and garlic.  Chop and remove the seeds of the bell peppers and cut up the zucchini (I cut the zucchini in half length-wise and then sliced them but if its small you can just slice it with out cutting it in half).  Add the peppers and zucchini with an additional tbsp olive oil to the onions, garlic and burgers and continue sautéing.  If the mix seems too dry and is sticking too much add about a quarter to a half cup water. 

Sautee the whole mix for about 5-10 minutes.  Rinse the beans to remove the salt used in canning and get the tomatoes ready.  Add the beans and tomatoes to the pot.  Also at this time add as much cumin, cayenne pepper and garlic powder as you’d like.  I put about three shakes of cayenne (I can’t do spicy), a healthy amount of cumin (I didn’t measure but I would say somewhere between ¼ and ½ tsp.), and a couple shakes of garlic powder. Lower the heat and simmer for about 45 minutes. 

Then serve up and enjoy! This makes a lot of chili.  Enough to serve at least 5 or 6.