If you haven't run into a plant based
recipe calling for nutritional yeast just yet, you will, and probably pretty often. I'm going to explain exactly what
this strange sounding food is, tell you why in the world
anyone would want to eat it, and I'm going to show you two quick
and delicious recipes using it! So let's get to the good stuff first… why would you want to eat nutritional
yeast? Well, it's the flavor.
It's nutty and so cheesy tasting, and it brings this incredible richness
to any dish that it's used in. And on top of that, it has
protein, fiber, and B vitamins. So what is it anyway? Well,
simply put it's deactivated yeast. It's typically cultured using
sugar cane or beet molasses, and then once it's ready, they
harvest it, wash and dry it. And then this is what it looks like.
Pretty cool, right? The first time I ran into a recipe
that called for nutritional yeast, I had no idea what that was, and I
certainly didn't know where to buy it. So let me save you a little time, and I will tell you that if you
are at a regular grocery store, not necessarily a natural market, but
just a regular chain grocery store, if they have it, most likely, it will be in their bulk food
section in one of those bins.
And it will just be
labeled nutritional yeast. They may also have it on the baking
aisle next or next to spices in a, in a canister or a bag.
That is a possibility. If you are at a health food
store or a, a natural market, chances are they will have the canisters
and/or bags, somewhere in the store. And you can ask someone who works there
and they will most likely know exactly what you're talking about. Also
check the bulk food section. It is definitely less expensive there, as is everything. So, and
then what I would recommend, is maybe go on Amazon and
type in nutritional yeast, and it will bring up the different
brands and their different packaging.
And that way, you know, you'll know kind of what you're
looking for when you get to the store, you'll know what type of
packaging you're looking for. And what you can do once
you get it home is… it does keep for quite a long time, so you can store it in
an airtight container, either in your cupboard
or in the refrigerator, and just make sure it's airtight
and you'll be all set. Okay, so let's get to the recipes. I'm going to show you the ingredient
list for both of these recipes, but if you don't want to write
it down, you don't have to, I have created a little recipe, cheat sheet and link to it in
the description area below.
And you can just click on that. If you want me to shoot you off a
free copy of that, it's no problem. This first recipe, I
call it a pasta topping, although I use it on so many things and
I know a lot of other people do too. And I got this particular recipe from
a book called Unprocessed – it's a cookbook and it's written by Chef AJ, and I have linked to that as well
as some of her YouTube videos in the description area below as well. Okay, so here we go. So you'll have just three
ingredients for this recipe. The first one is one
cup of unsalted walnuts, and you could certainly use one
cup of unsalted cashews or unsalted almonds in place of the walnuts, if you prefer.
You'll need a
half a cup of nutritional yeast, either the large flake or the
small flake, doesn't matter. And then one and a half
tablespoons of salt substitute. And you could certainly use real salt
in place of that if you prefer – I would start with a smaller amount, maybe
one teaspoon, see how that tastes, then you can always add
more if you need to.
You'll want to be careful with that –
I'm not sure of the exact measurement for actual salt. So then you're going to throw those
three things into either a high-speed blender or better yet a food processor
and just turn it on for maybe 20 or 30 seconds until everything is flaked
together really nicely, and that is it! Pretty easy, right? All right. So once you've
got it all made up, you're gonna probably have
enough to last a little while, so you can store it in an airtight
container in the refrigerator. Because it has nuts it is probably
better to keep it in the refrigerator, especially since they're ground up. And then I usually always keep some
in a little shaker like this guy here, and that way, it's just real
handy. And as I mentioned, I eat it on all kinds of things and
I would recommend trying it on baked potatoes, steamed
veggies, over a rice dish, on popcorn – you can honestly, I don't know that you can run out of
the things to put it on.
It's just, it's so yummy! So if you have
any questions about that, please do let me know in
the comments section below, I'd be happy to answer them as best I can. Now we're going to get into a salad
dressing recipe. It is very yummy! It only has four ingredients,
and it has NO oil, so that's pretty exciting! I
found this recipe, first of all, in a cookbook called Prevent
and Reverse Heart Disease, and it's by the Esselstyn's and it's
an excellent, excellent cookbook.
I highly recommend it. I took the recipe from there and I
tweaked it a little bit to make it my own. You should do the same. That's
what it's all about, right? Tweak it until it's just perfect for
you. So let's go ahead and get into this. The ingredients you'll need for this
salad dressing are two tablespoons of white vinegar, two tablespoons of nutritional yeast,
either the large flake or the small flake, one tablespoon of Dijon mustard, or you can substitute it for different
types of mustard if you prefer. And one tablespoon of pure maple syrup. Now the recipe I just showed you makes
enough for one salad or maybe two, depending on the size of a salad
and how much dressing you like. But what I usually do, is I
either quadruple or at least
triple that recipe when I make it, and then I just whip it
up in a little bottle like this one, and it makes it really easy.
I'll just stick it in the fridge, and I'm all set for several days.
And
I would recommend trying that also. So there you go! Two fun,
new recipes to try out. I really hope that you like them, but I also hope you'll take and play
with them, adjust them a little bit, make them to suit your own personal
preferences. That's what it's all about. If you would like me to send you a free
copy of that recipe spreadsheet that I mentioned earlier, again, the links
are just in the description area below. If you enjoyed this video,
and I hope that you did, please be sure and let me know by
clicking on the like button below, share it with your friends
if you think they'd enjoy it, and if you would like to receive more
content on plant-based basics for beginners, be sure and subscribe to the channel –
there'll be lots of good stuff coming along. Thanks so much for hanging out
with me. I hope we do it again soon. Take good care!.
