Protein mac & cheese, stove-top

Most vegan mac-and-cheese recipes ask you to soak cashews, blend a sauce, or hunt down a specific vegan cheddar brand. This one skips all of it: Pinch Cheese is built to dissolve straight into warm plant milk and go glossy and thick in about a minute, closer to a packet-sauce shortcut than a from-scratch recipe, minus the artificial everything.

Ingredients

• 200g macaroni
• 250ml plant milk, unsweetened
• 2 scoops (50g) Pinch Cheese
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard (optional, for sharpness)

Method

1. Cook the macaroni to packet instructions, drain and set aside.
2. In the same pan, warm the plant milk over low heat, don't let it boil.
3. Whisk in the Pinch Cheese until smooth, about a minute.
4. Stir in the mustard if using, then fold the macaroni back through.
5. Serve immediately while the sauce is loose and glossy.

Why it works

Cheese sauce is really a starch-thickening problem wearing a flavour costume. The texture comes from something binding the liquid, and the taste comes second. Pinch Cheese does both jobs in the same scoop, which is why there's no separate roux step here.