Meatless Monday Manfood: Chipotle Chili Mac & Cheese

If you’ve been following the Meatless Monday Manfood series for a while, you’ve probably seen that Soon-to-be-J.D. doesn’t exactly veer from a dietary path of pasta, pasta, and pasta.

To be fair, it’s not always the same kind of pasta. Sometimes there’s tomato sauce. Sometimes it’s a mac & cheese sauce. Sometimes there are frozen ravioli straight from the freezer.

OK, that’s not exactly fair either. Soon-to-be-J.D. has been in law school for the last 3.75 years (graduation in May is imminent!) and works full-time at a real deal law firm. At the same time! That’s a lot of work, a lot of class 4-5 nights a week, and a lot of dinners at 9 p.m.

I think he’s allowed a few frozen dinners.

Since we don’t exactly share the same taste in food, it’s hard to make just one meal and have us both enjoy it. Plus, my dietary path doesn’t exactly veer from smoothies, chia pudding, and kale salads.

We sometimes (rarely) meet in the middle and share meals, but when there’s little time and minimal willingness to stray from our favorites, Soon-to-be-J.D. does what he always does: makes himself a giant pasta meal to last the week.

This week’s sustenance is…

mac & cheese.

Chipotle Chili Mac & Cheese!

In between bites of last night’s raw arugula pesto and zucchini noodle dinner (recipe coming to the blog soon!), I stole a bite. Or two. And it was good. Really good. I’ll probably stick with the zucchinis, but I’m glad mac & cheese makes him happy.

Hope it does the same for you.

Chipotle Chili Mac & Cheese

(vegan)

(serves 7-10)

Sauce Ingredients:

• 1 1/3 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 1/3 unsweetened cashew milk (sub any non-dairy milk)
• 1/3 cup Bragg’s Liquid Aminos
• 1 cup canola oil
• 2/3 cups water
• 3/4 of a small can of tomato paste (a classic Soon-to-be-J.D. measurement; I would guess it’s about 1/4 of a cup)
• 2 T ancho chili powder
• 1 T cumin

Other Ingredients:

• Orange pepper, deseeded and chopped into bite-sized pieces
• Poblano pepper, desseded and chopped into bite-sized pieces
• 1 onion, peeled and chopped into bite-sized pieces
• 1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
• 1 package Field Roast Chipotle Chili sausage
• olive oil
• dash of salt & pepper
• 1 box of pasta, undercooked by 1-2 minutes
• Panko breadcrumbs (he used whole wheat)

1. Place all sauce ingredients in a blender and blend until combined. Set aside.

2. Preheat oven to 375. Chop veggies, place in a large bowl, and coat with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Spread coated veggies on a lined baking sheet and roast for 15 minutes.

3. Cook the pasta, making sure to undercook just a bit.

4. Crumble the field roast sausage either by hand or in a food processor. Brown in a frying pan. Once you’ve removed the veggies from the oven, return veggies to the same bowl you used to coat them in olive oil. Add sausage to the veggies.

5. Add half of sauce to the bowl and stir to combine. Add pasta and add the remaining sauce. Stir to combine.

6. Pour bowl contents into a large casserole or baking dish. Cover with panko breadcrumbs. Bake for 20 minutes.

7. Let it rest for 5 minutes before digging in.

Share with your loved ones. Even if they’re eating something different.