the best vegan cheese sauce i’ve ever had

was one night in my kitchen, totally scrambling to salve a deep craving. i have no approximation, really, as to the proportions, but it contained:

potatoes, parboiled (i think) for their thickening properties, and for the gooey-ness they create when their starches are broken down (a lesson i once learned the hard way, trying to make quick mashed potatoes in the blender)

gojuchang, for color, for a little spice, for umami and depth of flavor, for the tang of fermentation that “cheese” often lacks

marmite (just a dash) for umami

nooch (obviously)

and spices. i’d assume paprika and perhaps a dash of turmeric; i think i must have thrown in some better than bouillon unchicken broth with the water; maybe almond milk, if i had it. probably red pepper flakes, maybe some bragg’s. maybe some apple cider vinegar, for fermented tang?

i’m not sure. I threw this all in the vitamix, added some instant potato flakes (i love bob’s red mill) to maintain the thickness. maybe added some cornstarch too, but i’m not sure. just because i overblended and added too much liquid.

this picture is not of this amazing mac n cheese, but of a drastically subpar one.

the gist

blogs aren’t really my jam.  I’m just not posi, i’m not in it for followers, I can’t keep up with curating my life beyond keeping all my instagram posts horizontally framed and somewhat aesthetic. I’m a total mess, a slipshod disaster, and I’ve got no desire to promote an image of myself as anything but.  With all that in mind, I often make really rad food (which I photograph terribly, since I’m halfway nocturnal and only motivate to cook in the middle of the night) and I have a lot of thoughts on the chaotic disaster that humans have brought upon this earth.  So I’m gonna share them, perhaps, from time to time.  But there’ll be no posi, cheery, blog-esque behaviors. It’s a blog, but it had better not feel like one.