Vegan Mac n Cheese

Ingredients:

2 cups butternut squash – cut into small pieces
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cups unsweetened almond milk
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp turmeric
Salt and pepper
2 tbsp Tofu Ricotta (or plain tofu if you’re lazy)

1 package elbow macaroni (I used Banza Chickpea Pasta, my favorite)
EVOO, Salt, & Water for cooking

Directions:
1. Peel & Cut up butternut squash into cubes or buy already crinkle cut butternut squash from Trader Joe’s. You will need 1 package or 2 cups. You already know which way I went…

2. Saute the b’nut squash in a saute pan over medium – high heat for about 15 minutes flipping over every so often to get it nice and brown on all sides.
3. When your b’nut squash is fork tender but not quite cooked through, pour 2 cups almond milk into the pan and bring down to a low heat. Cover and let simmer.

4. Once it’s almost completely softened and falling apart in the pan, add nutritional yeast, turmeric, smoked paprika, salt and pepper and stir well. Then add Tofu Ricotta and stir until it’s well incorporated. This will look horrible, don’t worry!

5. Turn off heat and set aside to cool down. Once it’s completely cooled throw everything in a blender/nutribullet and blend until it’s silky smooth. Add more liquid if needed to get the smoothest texture possible.

6. Now the fun part! Get yourself some Banza Chickpea pasta here or regular elbow macaroni. Bring water to a boil, add salt and olive oil. Drop in your pasta and stir every so often for 3 – 5 minutes. Yup! That’s it 3 – 5 minutes is all it takes to cook up this amazing protein packed chickpea pasta!

6. Throw your pasta back in the pot and pour your CHEEZY B’nut sauce over it. Mix well and heat on low until sauce is bubbly and hot again.

7. If you like your mac n cheese baked, you can just throw this into an oven safe casserole dish, top with panko bread crumbs and bake for 10 minutes at 425 degrees and broil on high for 5 minutes until the tops are toasty & browned.