Cheeseless Nacho Cheese - How'd I do that?

While shopping in the Whole Foods Bulk aisle, I made an astonishing purchase:  Nutritional Yeast.  Wait, what?

Nutritional Yeast is inactivated yeast fortified with B vitamins that is rich in protein. Its sold in flakes or powder.  If you're a vegan and you're not eating this, you probably should be. It has a nutty, cheesy aroma and if someone just told you it was cheese sauce mix, you'd probably believe them.  Its shockingly flavorful, and its used in a lot of cheese additions.

I know you've had vegan cheese before, probably to your disappointment. This recipe, with some changes, is amazing as nacho cheese.  It fooled even me, and I made it.  I replaced 2/3 of the water with almond milk, rather than soy as many people had suggested, and added the tumeric.  Soy margarine was used this time but could probably be replaced with either oil or butter.

The result of this recipe will have you baffled.  Its so damn close to cheesy sauce you might not even miss it.

Lemon Sorbet

Lately I have been experimenting with a Donvier ice cream maker I bought at Goodwill last winter.  Its the kind where you freeze the cylinder overnight and then add your ingredients and turn the paddle.  Its a little difficult to get to know at first, and your freezer must be on the coldest setting possible.   Not doing so has resulted in one ice cream disaster (last Halloween), and one coconut sorbet disaster (last week, we still ate it, it was good but chunky.)

This time it worked!

Behold my latest summer dessert:  lemon sorbet.  Its an excellent treat for a summer evening.  No fat, filled with fruit juice and quite an excellent taste.   This recipe has half the sugar of the previous coconut one, which I found much too sweet.  So if you find yourself with an ice cream maker, or if you want to make sorbet with a blender or food processor, I highly recommend this one!

Don't like lemon?  Here's my Coconut-lime sorbet(vegan):

1 can Coconut Milk
Zest of 1 lime
1 tsp lime juice
1/2 - 1 Cup sugar
1 Cup water

Add the sugar to the water and bring to a boil.  Simmer until the water is reduced by half.  Remove from heat add the coconut milk. Put the lime zest in a tea ball and let it sit in the mixture that you have just created. Chill in the refrigerator.  Remove the teaball.  For extra lime-y flavor and tang add a little of the lime juice.  Pour into your sorbet-creation device.

recipe for lemon sorbet
no ice cream maker? no problem.