Hello beautiful cats! How are you? Here it’s finally starting to get colder and today was such a lovely day that I went for a walk with a friend: we went on an old path to an abandoned house and it was so peaceful although a bit eerie, too! Anyway, done my 10k steps for the day, had a lovely chai tea (just from a teabag, not the homemade one) and half a cinnamon bun (got it from a bakery that makes so many different vegan stuff and so it happens that their cinnamon buns and a bunch of other pastries are vegan – and they are massive!), so I am totally at peace with the world.

Yesterday, there was also a Christmas Market so I went to see what was there (had to go at lunchtime as I was working) and there was one fully vegan stall! Obviously, you should know that your girl here went a bit mad: got two different types of sausage rolls, one mac&cheese pie, one Moroccan pie, one mince pie and choc chip shortbread. Also they were selling some of the Honestly Tasty cheeses so I got myself a Shamembert as I never tried that! The thing is, these are going to be my lunch/dinner for the next couple of days, or can go in the freezer as they are freshly made. So I am going to have some tasty food to look forward to! However, usually, when on the last day of the working week (either Friday or Saturday) I usually have a bit of pasta for lunch – it’s basically my treat – and after seeing some videos of the Korean Vegan, I started making cheesy pasta with kimchi: never I thought in my life to combine these two things, and yet here we are, now it’s one of my favourite pasta dishes. So, here it is the delicious Kimchi Mac&Cheese by TheKoreanVegan! This is the more complete version, while if I am on my lunch break I would just make a cheesy sauce in the pot, add some kimchi and then the cooked pasta.

Ingredients

• 5 tbsp vegetable shortening (or oil)
• 1 small onion (chopped)
• 1/2 russet potato (thinly sliced)
• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• 1/2 jalapeno (sliced)
• 1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce
• 1 tbsp gochujang
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp Korean chili powder (or paprika)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup cashews (soaked in water for 4 hours to overnight)
• 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 1 tsp pickled jalapeno juice
• 2 tsp kimchi juice
• 1 box brown rice pasta
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• 1/2 tbsp + 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp agave
• 1/2 tbsp gochujang
• 1/2 cup kimchi (ripened)
• 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds

Method

1. In a small pot, melt vegetable shortening and add onions and garlic.  Cook until softened.  Then add potatoes, jalapeño, chipotle, gochujang and seasoning.  Stir until potatoes start to soften and all vegetables are evenly coated.
2. Deglaze the bottom of the pot with water and bring to boil.  Cook until potatoes are tender.
3. Empty contents of pot into high powered blender.  Add remaining ingredients and blend on high for a few minutes, until creamy and smooth.
4. Cook pasta until al dente.  Reserve ~1/4 cup of pasta water before draining.  In the same pot that you cooked the pasta with, add pasta and cheese sauce, as well as a little pasta water in case sauce gets too dry.  Scoop pasta into oven safe container (I used two cast iron pans).
5. For breadcrumb topping, mix breadcrumbs, salt, and 1/2 tbsp sesame oil until breadcrumbs are nicely coated.  Sprinkle over the top of the pasta.
6. Place in 450° oven until breadcrumbs are golden brown (15-20 minutes).
7. In the meantime, heat up 1 tbsp of sesame oil in a small skillet.  Add kimchi, gochujang, and agave and saute until kimchi is caramelized.
8. Add caramelized kimchi to baked pasta.  Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.

Enjoy!

Love,

TVCL xx