Vegan Mac and Cheeze with Garlicky Spinach

I told you guys I wouldn’t stop posting veg*n recipes.

Today’s might be cheating a little bit, since I’ve already made a post about vegan mac and cheeze, but that one was just in praise of it. This has the recipe for it. I would have a picture, because it’s awfully gosh-darned pretty, but due to a sudden, hectic change in my campus life (read: I became an RA, how the hell did that happen?!) I’ve fallen into this horrible habit of actually, really and truly, no-this-isn’t-a-cry-for-help forgetting to eat until my stomach pulls an Alien  and bursts out of my torso, all the while screaming “I AM GOING TO EAT MY OWN LINING IF YOU DON’T FEED ME, LIKE, TWO HOURS AGO!”

…It’s times like this when I think that, despite being an RA, an executive member of my school’s campus activities board, the once-a-week game room monitor, the choir’s occasional ringer alto, and taking a full course load, I still have way too much time on my hands. This also happens when I start playing The Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie” on repeat.

Anyway.

This recipe is pretty straightforward. Take your favorite non-dairy mac and cheeze recipe (I used Lauren Ulm’s from Vegan Yum Yum) and your favorite small pasta or macaroni (I used whole-wheat orrichette) and mix them together when they’re done cooking.

And then we have the spinach. For this, you will need pre-washed spinach (as much as you know you’ll eat; for me, it’s a lot. Probably two or three cups raw.), one tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, and one large clove of garlic OR two to three small ones. As another option, and to make it a little closer to the Italian-style spinach I grew up eating, crumble a few strips of tempeh bacon into the pan.

Rough-chop the garlic -chunk it up, more or less, unless you don’t like biting into chunks of garlic; in that case, chop it as fine as you like- and sautee it (and the tempeh bacon, if using) in the oil over medium-low to medium heat until it’s just fragrant, then add the spinach a few handfuls at a time. You can either wilt it or full-on cook it; I go for a happy medium between the two, where the spinach is still slightly crisp, but more than just wilted. This is all going to happen fairly quickly once your oil gets up to heat, so don’t turn your back on it or you’ll end up with green mush. Green mush is not good eats, unless we’re talking about mushy peas, and we are not. (And we never will, because I think peas in all forms except raw are Teh Ew.) Mix through the mac and cheeze, or don’t and eat them separately… Although that’s not much fun. I’m not sure a squirt of lemon juice or a dash of balsamic vinegar would hurt, either; in fact, I think that would taste amazeballs. If you try it, let me know how it tastes.