Chili-Macaroni Bake

This recipe is from the cookbook Vegan Planet by Robin Robertson.

 

Recipe: see page 376 of Vegan Planet.

This dish combines two popular American dishes, chili and macaroni and cheese. The vegan 'cheese' in this case is made by Daiya and contains no dairy.

I liked this because it was easy and I was able to use the leftovers of the Three-Bean Chili recipe on page 314 that I made the day before. The macaroni is added to a roux made from flour, onions, salt and cayenne, and that forms the bottom layer. Then the chili and vegan cheddar 'cheese' are layered on top of that and baked in the oven until the 'cheese' melts.

This was the first time I have tried Daiya cheese, and I was impressed. A couple of the local pizza chains, Red Brick Pizza and zPizza, offer vegan pizzas made with Daiya brand, so I thought I would give it a shot, thought I'm not a fan of vegan 'cheeses'. I don't know if I would be hungry enough to eat it straight out of the package, but it combined with the other flavors in the dish and melted nicely.

Ingredients: (Three-Bean Chili, page 314) sweet yellow onion, green bell pepper, garlic, hot chile (serrano used here), tomato paste, chili powder, crushed tomatoes, black beans, pinto beans, dark red kidney beans, water, salt, black pepper. (Chili-Macaroni Bake, page 376): elbow macaroni, olive oil, onion, unbleached all-purpose flour, soy milk, salt, cayenne,vegan cheddar cheese (Daiya used here), vegetarian chili (the Three Bean Chili on page 314 is used here).