Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Nooch, It's What's for Dinner or Nooch, It isn't Just for Vegans Anymore

For those of you who don't know about what has become known as "nooch" in the vegan blogging world, you are missing something. Nooch is shorthand for nutritional yeast. Nutritional yeast has been a vegan darling for decades. There are complete cookbooks dedicated to the stuff. The reasons vegans are crazy for nooch include the ample B-vitamins (even the allusive B12), high protein content, and the "cheesy/nutty" flavor. It is also very versatile stuff. For nutrition, you need to look for "Red Star Vegetarian Support Formula". What has amazed me over the past ten years is the number of omnis who have asked me about nooch and how to use it. Many people are sensitive or allergic to dairy so nooch is of interest to them so they can prepare "cheesy" dishes without the cow mammary secretions. Also, more and more people are becoming aware of the many reasons humans would not want to consume milk from a non-human animal, allergy or no allergy. But even if you eat dairy, nooch is a great food in its own right and you should give it a try.I was using some nooch the other day and thinking about how many things I use it for and what a wonderfully versatile food it really is. It is great for sauces, but also on popcorn, as a thickener in soups, sprinkled on pasta dishes as one would use Parmesan cheese, in the crust for calzones, on pizza, in grits, as an ingredient in crackers, and above in mashed potatoes and as a breading for fried tofu. We buy it by the 6 lb. container and it has a great shelf life, but we can go through the container in six to eight months. I recommend the flakes over the powder.

Someone (Rob) really needs to fix my poor camera! I mean the pictures have hit an all time low and they don't look this dark on the camera when I preview them...something is very, very strange. It probably has something to do with a 12 month old getting her hands on everything in the house. Last night I used the leftover Chickpea Gravy and made some mashed potatoes (with nutritional yeast), lightly fried some tofu, and sauteed the rest of our kale with garlic and olive oil. I also made a chocolate peanut butter smoothie with the rest of my Chocolate Nutriva Hemp Shake powder, leftover red grapes, leftover watermelon, chocolate rice milk, and crunchy natural peanut butter.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Yep, "nooch" aka "Rita Cheese" is definately not just for vegans. Even though we can and do consume milk and egg products now, we still love NY. Dh has taken a shaker of it to work. He puts it on everything!

Do you have one of those NY cookbooks laying around that you could lend out ;)?

VeganLinda said...

I love the name Rita Cheese. LOL I will pull a NY cookbook out for ya.

Lisa -- Cravin' Veggies said...

Where do you get 6lb containers of it??? I have only found one or two places around me that sells it and it is in 5oz shakers, which we go through every few weeks. And I find myself being stingy with it, which I wouldn't have to be if I had 6 POUNDS of it!!! LOL

Lisa

VeganLinda said...

I buy the 6lb containers (unfortunately plastic) through our co-op. I love having enough so I can share and introduce people to the lovely world of nutritional yeast. LOL.

Emmy said...

Linda - I've been buying it at common ground (the bin with the scoops...). Is that where you are getting it?

(Emmy from art class this summer)

VeganLinda said...

Hi Emmy, I special order the 6lb container from the co-op or another buying club/co-op in town. I like getting my own container instead of getting a little at a time form the bulk bins.

VeganLinda said...

Lisa, I just noticed the 6lb and a 10lb! container are now available online through Vegan Essentials.