Chicken Run, Cheese Sauce & Living in the North as a Gravy Hater...........

Sooo I have a confession – and I will just come straight out with it. I really don’t like gravy. Shock horror! Even more surprising is that I live in the North where gravy is served with everything and to not to would be a sin but yet I am still not a huge fan. If I had to eat it I would manage a veggie one maybe but watching my dinner float around in lumpy brown lagoon of meat juices is not what I would call a good time. And for the record a jus, reduced sauce or anything else like that is just a posh word for gravy! My dislike of sauces runs to mayonnaise, BBQ sauce and various salad dressings – you could go as far as to say I am just not a saucy person. However there are two sauces I could not live without, tomato sauce (homemade and bottled in recycle glass jars please!) and cheese sauce.  Many of my childhood memories stem from my mum’s cheese sauce, spooned over cauliflower and browned under the grill, layered between sheets of lentil lasagne and of course my all-time favourite macaroni cheese. Since being vegan and gluten free I have scoured the web for a decent cheese sauce recipe and my goodness they are like gold dust! If they didn’t contain nutritional yeast (that does not taste like cheese at all) it was make your own cashew cheese (who has the time and money for that?!) All I wanted was a cheap, easy and tasty cheese sauce recipe I could throw over a pan of quinoa pasta on a wet Wednesday night. Surely that is not too much to ask?! The universe was as always listening and I stumbled across a fab blog called http://eathealthyeathappy.com – a wonderful writer called Gin came up with what she called ‘life changing cheese sauce’ and my goodness she wasn’t wrong. Closely adapted from Oatmeal with a Fork's Cheese-Less Cheeze Sauce this recipe will be your new favourite*……

Life Changing Cheese Sauce (serves 2)

•2 c peeled, cubed potato

 •1 carrot, chopped

 •water for boiling

 •4 Tbs olive oil

 •½ c unsweetened almond milk

 •3 tsp lemon juice

 •½ tsp garlic powder

 •½ tsp onion powder

 •½ tsp salt

 •½ tsp smoked or regular paprika

 •4 tsp mustard (Dijon or brown work well)

 •1 tsp lower sodium soy sauce or tamari

 

How To -

 1.Combine the potato and carrot in a medium saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 20 minutes, or until fork-tender. Drain and transfer to a food processor or power blender.

 2.Add all the other ingredients to the food processor and process for about 2 minutes, or until totally smooth.

 3.Serve over veggies, potatoes, rice or pasta for a healthy meatless meal. Enjoy!

 * My lovely man aka head food tester and carnivore extraordinaire declared this delicious, that’s -HOW- amazing it is....