Nateur Cooking with Denai Moore: One Pot Vegan Mac

Nateur Cooking with Denai Moore: One Pot Vegan Mac

Eating healthy doesn’t have to be boring. It’s still possible to indulge in your favorite foods, while nourishing your body at the same time. Here we share clean versions of delicious recipes that will leave you feeling and looking incredible and not to mention, insanely satisfied!

Name: Denai Moore 

Instagram:  @dees_table

Job description: Chef/Recipe Developer

Favorite dish to serve at a dinner party: 

Seasonal Roasted Veg with Vegan Whipped Feta !

Favorite food ingredient and why

The humble potato. They’re so versatile and in the right hands can be transformed to something incredible. I’m obsessed with smashed roasted potatoes with rosemary salt!

Top three Instagram accounts for inspiration: 

@schoolnightvegan

@alisonroman

@carolinagelen

Must-have cookbook:

Right now I’m really enjoying Dessert Person by Clairre Saftiz. Her flavor combinations are very interesting and I feel like I learn a lot from her techniques.

Three kitchen supplies you can’t live without:

Microplane

Electric Scale

High Speed Blender

I use my microplane every single day. This is the tool that I recommend the most to any home cook. It makes your life in the kitchen so much easier and will last you a long time. 

Three things you always keep in your refrigerator:

Vegan Block Butter

Hot Sauce of many varieties

Plant Milk 

When I first went vegan the block butter options were non-existent. Now there’s so many and I'm truly thriving in the bounty of options. For baking it’s night and day. It makes so much difference in the results of treats. I’m the kind of person that has a hot sauce for various different dishes and times of the day. One that I prefer for breakfast and ones that work well on top of a nice lunch bowl.

Favorite online shop for kitchen supplies and / or specialty food items: 

Sous Chef is foodie heaven. In lockdown when everything felt really hard and impossible. I would treat myself to some cool new ingredients to play around with on sous chef. I discovered this umami bomb of an ingredient called ‘liquid koji’ last year, and it lifts any dish and takes it to another planet. It’s also good for stuff that you can’t get in supermarkets, like really good corn tortillas.

Go-to quick, healthy meal:  

Some kind of fridge raid grain bowl with seasonal veggies and a quick mustard agave dressing. That’s my day in day out one.

Favorite healthy treat:

Dark chocolate. Or Dates with almond butter and a sprinkle or flaky salt, heaven.

Skincare mantra: 

Keep it simple.

Eat this recipe for: 

A nice comfort dish 

Recipe: My One Pot Vegan Mac

Serves 3

Ingredients:

200g Macaroni or small pasta of choice (orzo works really well)

350g Non-dairy Milk

125g Water

65g Vegan Mature Cheddar (Grated)

Knob Of Vegan Butter (Optional)

Pinch of Fresh Nutmeg (Optional)

Salt and Pepper to taste

‘Cheese Sauce’:

150g Non-dairy Milk

1 Tablespoons Sundried Tomato Oil from Jar

2 Sun-dried Tomatoes from Jar

1 Tablespoon White Miso

3 Tablespoon Nutritional Yeast

1 Tablespoon Mustard

1 Tablespoon Apple Cider Vinegar

Good Pinch of Salt

Add all cheese sauce ingredients into a blender, and blend till smooth.

Add 350g of milk, 125g water in a saucepan with a pinch of salt, allow to come to a boil. Add pasta, then drop the heat to medium/low. Allow to cook for 6-7 minutes covered, stirring occasionally to avoid sticking. After 6-7 minutes the pasta should be cooked/al dente. Add the cheese sauce, and cook on medium/low for another 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally until you get the desired thickness. Finally add the grated cheese, vegan butter, black pepper and nutmeg. Stir off the heat to melt the cheese and serve up.