As someone who likes putting things inside of other things for the sake of convenience and mobility as much as I do, you’d think I own dozens of purses or sets of Russian dolls or cars that seat an excessive amount of clowns. But alas, my deep fascination with putting things in things begins and ends with foods.

Similar to one of my most popular recipes, Lasagna Bites, this little snack turns a classic non-vegan pasta dish into a handheld weapon of yum. It’s the Dansko clog of the food world for the vegan-mom-on-the-go. But like, you know, not totally fucking heinous. Just really, really sensible.

You have the option here of using two vegan wrapper options: filo dough or homemade eggless wonton wrappers. If the vegan thing is just for funzies, feel free to use regular old wonton wrappers. If you can find eggless wonton wrappers in your grocery, TELL ME YOUR SECRETS.

The little extra chunk of Daiya cheddar style cheese that you throw in your bite before baking kinda seals the deal on this recipe for me. It gives that first bite an instant comfort food moment and then everything’s just vegan gravy from there.

My analogies are becoming a bit of a problem. Especially the ones involving Dansko clogs. And clowns.

And all the other ones, too.

MAC & CHEEZ POCKETS

makes an absolutely insane amount but it all depends on how you package your stuffs

ingredients:

2 medium sweet potatoes

¾ cup unsweetened almond milk

½ cup + 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

1 tablespoon vegan butter, melted

1 tablespoon reduced fat vegenaise

1 teaspoon onion powder

1½ teaspoons garlic powder

1½ teaspoons whole grain mustard

1½ sweet miso paste

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon of salt (up to your tastes, however)

2 packages of Shirataki Macaroni noodles

2 ounces of Daiya vegan cheddar cheese style wedge broken/cut up into little pieces or just the shredded version

filo dough at room temperature or homemade egg-less wonton wrappers or regular wonton wrapppers (not vegan)

chives or scallions for fancy pants-ness

no but really, an absurd amount of servings…

Preheat your oven to 400. Bake your sweet potatoes for 45-60 minutes or until they’re soft when poked with a fork. Let them cool. When they’re manageable, peel the potatoes and toss them in a food processor. Add all the ingredients from the almond milk to the salt and adjust as you go along according to your own personal taste preferences.

Rinse the shirataki noodles under hot water for a minute or so. Put them in a microwave safe container and microwave another minute. Drain. In a large wok or deep frying pan, heat up the cheezy mixture over medium heat. Stir it while it heats up and then add the drained noodles. Toss everything around, coating the noodles completely with the mixture and cook them a couple minutes or until everything is hot. Take the mixture off the heat.

Prepare your baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper.

How you deal with the assembly part is up to you.

If you’re using a square shaped wonton wrapper or homemade vegan wrapper, place about 10g worth of noodles and cheezy stuff not quite in the center. Plop a small piece of that Daiya cheddar on top. Dab a tiny bit of vegan butter along the edge of the wrapper. Fold one half of the wrapper over to create a triangle shaped pocket. Press down along the edge seam. Do this a hell of a lot more times. Lightly mist the triangles with cooking spray.

If you’re using filo dough, get a few sheets out, say 2 or 3 layers of filo dough thick. Carefully cut the filo dough into squares somewhere in the neighborhood of 4″x4″. Spoon about 10g of noodly mixture in the center of the dough. Add a tiny chunk of the Daiya cheddar on top. Dab the edges of the filo with some vegan butter. Carefully fold up the squares into little packages. Set them on your lined baking sheet seam side down, smooth pretty side up. Lightly mist with cooking spray.

Bake, at 400, for 10-15 minutes or until whatever you made has lightly browned. After you remove them from the oven, go all Hollywood on people and tie them up with your chives or scallions or pure magic.

NUTRITION

per bite (estimation of amount filo dough): 34 calories // 7g carbs // >1g fat // 1g protein // 1g fiber // 1g sugar

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