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.