Macaroni Cheeze with Cherry Tomatoes, Spinach and Spring Onions

I'm clearly on a creamy pasta kick these days! Like the one below this one also calls for faux cheese - sorry if you can't find it where you are or if they are not your thing!! My son's birthday is this thursday so I promise a rather decadent over the top cake recipe soon :)

Anyway! This recipe is featured in this months Sainsbury's Magazine, as soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to veganize it, it just looked sooo good! In order to make vegan I used vegan margarine, swapped the milk with a mixture of soy cream and rice milk, and swapped the cheeses with cheddar and mozza cheezly. It worked out perfectly :) We had this for dinner last night, all of us - it's perfect for kids, and then I made it again for lunch today. Not just so I could get a nice picture in the daylight you understand, I really wanted it again!!

Hands down my new favourite mac and cheeze recipe, the spring onion gives a really nice flavour and I can't recommend enough getting really good cherry tomatoes here. I picked up some 'piccolo' cherry tomatoes on the vine from Tesco and they are amazing. So full of flavour, especially when roasted in this, and a perfect counter to the fairly rich sauce. I got 4 small servings out of this as we did have a side salad with it, as a main you would probably be better off with 3 servings, OR if you have a rather massive appetite, 2. ;)

Macaroni Cheeze with cherry tomatoes, spinach and spring onions:

175g elbow macaroni (easier to find over here these days!)

25g vegan margarine

25g plain flour

1/4 tsp fine sea salt

few grinds of black pepper

6 spring onions, thinly sliced (white and green parts!)

1 large clove garlic, minced

250ml soy cream

250ml rice milk

65g mature cheddar cheezly (I have also used the super melting mozza here, just as good)

2 1/4 tsp dijon mustard

100g baby leaf spinach, optional

125g cherry tomatoes, halved

50g super melting mozza cheezly - for the topping

Preheat the oven to 180C and 'butter' a 1.25 litre ovenproof dish - set aside. Cook macaroni according to package instructions but leave it a little firm - it will cook some more in the oven. Meanwhile, melt the margarine in a saucepan and gently fry the spring onions and garlic. Mix together the flour, salt and pepper and add to the margarine. Fry gently 1 minute then slowly add the soy cream and rice milk, a little at a time, stirring well after each addition. When all liquid is added turn the heat up and bring to a gentle boil. Add the cheddar cheezly and stir well until all melted. Now stir in the mustard, reduce heat to a minimum and season to taste.

Add the drained pasta to the sauce and gently stir until all coated in the sauce. Add the spinach and stir until wilted. Scrape everything into your prepared dish then scatter the tomatoes over the top, followed by the melting mozza cheezly and some freshly ground black pepper.

Pop into the preheated oven for 20 - 30 minutes. It will be bubbling up the sides and the cheeze on top will have melted and be golden.

Let sit for 5 minutes then serve. (Please note the 2 pictures above are just 2 servings - I halved the recipe for lunch the next day.)

We had this with just a simple leaf salad with my all time favourite balsamic dressing - just omit the puy lentils for a side salad.

♥

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