Plant Based Mac n Cheese Bites with Jalapeños
These mac n cheese bites are wickedly crispy on the outside but chewy and cheesy on the inside! The jalapenos are the perfect touch to spice up this American appetiser.
Servings 6 people
Cost $15
Ingredients
- 1 brown onion diced
- 1/4 cup vegan margarine
- 5 garlic cloves minced
- 1/4 cup jarred jalapenos diced
- 1 cup raw cashews soaked in boiling water for 15 minutes and drained
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder or granulated onion
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
- 1/2 cup vegetable stock
- 1 tbsp miso paste
- 1 cup soy milk
- 2 tbsp plain flour
- 225 g dry macaroni cooked to packet instructions
- vegetable oil, for deep frying
Coating
- 1.5 cup panko bread crumbs
- 1 cup plain flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 400 ml can of chickpeas' liquid (aqaufaba)
Instructions
- Add margarine to dutch oven until melted. Saute onion for 3 minutes, then add garlic and stir for 1 minute.
- Add jalapenos, drained cashews, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, nutritional yeast, miso paste and flour. Stir quickly to combine, then add vegetable stock to deglaze the base of the dutch oven.
- Add soy milk and simmer on low heat until mixture has thickened. Remove from the heat and transfer to a high speed blender. Blitz until smooth.
- Return the sauce to the dutch oven and mix with cooked macaroni. Spread the mixture into two ice cube trays and freeze for a minimum of 4 hours.
- Once the macaroni has frozen, prepare your crumb toppings. Drain chickpeas, reserving aquafaba. Mix the flour and salt in a bowl, and panko crumbs in a seperate bowl.
- Remove the macaroni cubes from the ice cube trays. Dip them into the aquafaba, then flour, then back into aquafaba to form a sticky coating before rolling them in the panko crumbs.
- Heat vegetable oil in large pot or dutch oven until it reaches 170C. Using a spoon, carefully place the mac n cheese bites into the oil and fry in batches so as not to crowd the pot.
- Drain on paper towel, then toss in salt and serve immediately with a tomato relish, sweet chilli sauce, aioli or dipping sauce of choice.
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