Vegan Green Mac & Cheese

I will apologize in advance for lack of photos here, but I wasn't planning on blogging about this recipe until I tried it and just had to share! I went to my kitchen with the idea that I'd make some sort of spinach-y pasta and this was born. If you have a blender and can boil water, you can make this, I promise. 

Ingredients: Serves 2-4

4 oz of fresh spinach - you could also use kale or chard 

Handful of dry, unsalted cashews - I think any nut would work here

1 clove of garlic - for those Italians out there like me, suppress your urge to add more, 1 clove was perfect

Approximately 4 tbs of olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Lemon zest - optional, I just had a lemon on hand. I probably used 1/2 tsp

Water to blend

Put some water in a pot to boil for your pasta, and then throw all the other ingredients into the blender and have at it.  We have a very basic blender, so this took a bit of poking the spinach down to the blades and adding water to thin it a bit. Look at how rich and creamy the result was!

As you can see, I scrambled to write this all down while it was still fresh in my brain. 

Once the pasta is cooked and drained, return it to the pot and pour in some of the spinach sauce to heat it.  No need to turn the burner back on, the heat from the pasta and pot are enough. Seriously though, this had the same consistency and flavor of mac and cheese, and I was so pleasantly surprised. This would also work well as a dip - just use a food processor instead and leave out some of the oil and water so it's thicker. And for those meat-eaters - pour this sauce over your chicken, fish or steak, I bet it would be amazing. 

--Heather