Veganmofo: Diaya

So it's only been very, very recently that Diaya has become available here and more recently that it has made it's way into the normal grocery stores. But since that has happened the 24/7 shop has it on sale almost all the time (only 1$ off, but still). Whenever i'm there I stock up, since my first bag of Diaya the one and only thing I've ever really made has been Mac-N-Cheese.

The one form Diaya's website here

Try this delicious gluten and dairy free recipe by Daiya fan Dawn Grey in Lawrence, KS.

Servings: 4
Preparation Time: 30 mins

8 ounces gluten-free or regular pasta, any shape 3 cups Daiya style Shreds 3 tablespoons vegan butter 2 cups unsweetened (soy / rice) milk product 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast ¼ teaspoon black pepper ½ cup gluten-free bread crumbs ¼ teaspoon paprika ¼ cup vegan parmesan cheese (optional)

Cook pasta according to package instructions.  Drain thoroughly when done.  Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare the cheese sauce while oven is warming. In a small pot melt the butter. When melted, add the pepper and nutritional yeast.

Stir in the milk or crème product. Add the cheddar, and cook over low/medium heat for about 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent burning.  Stir in the macaroni and mix together. Transfer to an 8x8 casserole dish. Top with the bread crumbs and paprika.  Bake for 15 minutes uncovered, or until the cheese is bubbling and top is starting to brown.

For health purposes I served this with a salad and some lame bottled dressing from the fridge. Because if I'm going to eat salad it's normally just to round out a meal, because sometimes a salad is just a salad. Usually if I pick up Diaya the rest of this comes together with stuff I have on hand and if I happen to luck out and have a bag of salad greens or some lettuce, I'll do a salad on the side.

Veganmofo: Cheddar Onion Biscuits:Cooking from the Mofo Feed

During one of my feverous Mofo Reader comment-a-thons I came across Mo's post on Best Thing You Never Ate where she posted these amazing biscuits!

So simple and flavourful, they come together quickly. I wasn't making gravy but I wanted a flavourful biscuit for breakfasts and to round out my lunches. Plus Diaya's been on sale here recently so I have a stock pile and Green onions were 99cents!

I followed Mo's Recipe with the following changes:

• I subbed Earth Balance Margerine for Shortening (because I oddly had none left)
• And I subbed 1 cup of WW Flour for the white and used WW to roll out the dough.
• Used a sili-pad to bake them on, so I didn't bother with the greasing
• I did a soy milk brush glaze on the second batch to go into the oven as well as played with some shapes.

The almond milk didn't seem to curdle as much as I expected, but I added it anyway. I also seem to have lost my Pastry Cutter, so I used my Mezzaluna and some butter knives/forks. It worked out OK, not supper pebbly but manageable.

I used a mason jar to cut my biscuits and played with the remaining dough to make tiny hand pies and some braids to see how they'd bake up!

The first batch cut with mason jars and rolled maybe 1 inch thick? Were in for 25 minutes before I checked on them.They didn't brown a whole lot on the top, but the were pretty firm. The second free-formed batch where much bigger and I think that helped them to get a flakier texture.

Sorry about the bad lighting. But there had to be a fresh outta the oven shot.

It turns out the smaller, denser biscuits that were rolled pretty thin because extra fluffy when microwaved the next day. All and all these are super flavourful and pretty damn tasty biscuits to stuff your face with!

I used a silipat  to bake mine,