Golden Macaroni Casserole - Vegetarian Recipe

This recipe from "The (Almost) No-Fat Cookbook", by Bryanna Clark Grogan, is one of my family's favorites. It's a vegan and low fat version of the traditional macaroni and cheese.

It's a very healthy alternative for those "cheese" recipes that traditionally have way too much fat. Here the tofu provides the only fat, and if you use reduced-fat tofu, it come out to only 2 grams of fat per serving or 6% calories from fat.

Sometimes I use chopped tomatoes and roasted red pepper as the optional ingredients.

Golden Macaroni Casserole - Vegetarian Recipe

Ingredients

5 ounces macaroni -- penne, or seashell pasta (uncooked)
1/2 cup chopped tomatoes -- OR roasted red pepper, sauteed sliced onions, or mushrooms (any combination you want) (optional)

Sauce ingredients

1 cup water
1 medium potato -- peeled and chunked
1/2 medium carrot -- peeled and chunked
1/2 medium onion -- peeled and chunked
1/2 cup tofu -- (reduced-fat) crumbled
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt -- (or 1 Tbsp. miso and 1/2 tsp. salt)
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Cook the pasta in a large pot of salted water until just tender. While the pasta is cooking, preheat the oven to 350 F and make the sauce. Cook the potato, carrot, and onion in the water in a small covered saucepan. When the carrot is tender, add the cooked vegetables to a blender along with the tofu, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, salt, and garlic powder. Blend until very smooth.

Drain the cooked macaroni and mix it with the sauce and optional vegetables in a casserole. If desired, top the casserole with seasoned bread crumbs. Bake for 20 minutes.

Additional Info:

Serving Size : 4
Per serving: 283 Calories (kcal); 2g Total Fat; (6% calories from fat); 23g Protein;
48g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 14mg Sodium
Food Exchanges: 2 Grain(Starch); 1/2 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 0 Fruit; 0 Fat; 0
Other Carbohydrates