Crispy Baked Mac and Cheese Balls (Vegan + Gluten Free)
Serves 30
90 mins prep
25 mins cook
115 mins total
Crispy on the outside, cheesy sauce on the inside, these baked mac and cheese balls are filled with whole food ingredients and hidden veggies and taste out of this world!
Cheese sauce:
Crispy coating:
Extras:
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To cook the veggies, I boil potato, onion, carrots and yellow pepper together in a pot of water until soft.
Make cheese sauce:
Once cooked, place the veggies into a high speed blender with the garlic, cashews, milk, vinegar, 2 teaspoons salt, and ground mustard.
Blend on high using the blenders tamper tool to help mix the ingredients around. It will be thick and hard to get going but the tamper tool will help and eventually everything will blend smooth.
Take out 1 ½ cups for drizzle and dipping, then add the last teaspoon salt and blend again.
Make balls:
Cook pasta according to package directions, but cook al dente (I cooked 2 minutes less than the package said).
Combine the sauce left in the blender and the cooked pasta in a large bowl. Mix well.
Drop spoonfuls, about 2-3 inches big, onto a parchment lined cookie sheet, making them as round as possible.
Chill for at least an hour, 2-3 is better. You want the pasta balls easy to handle and not falling apart.
Meanwhile, combine the cornmeal, breadcrumbs, hemp seeds and salt in a food processor and pulse to incorporate to make crispy coating. Place mixture into a bowl. You can also simply mix in a bowl but you wont have ground hemp seeds.
Once the mac and cheese balls are chilled, preheat the oven to 400 F (200 C).
Carefully pick up the parchment paper with the chilled balls on it and move it to the counter, then line the cookie sheet with more parchment paper. You can also simply line another cookie sheet if you’re too nervous to move the one with the balls on it.
Put the two cups of milk in a bowl. Dip each mac and cheese ball in the milk, then into the bowl of crispy coating. I use one hand to dip into the milk, then put it in the crispy coating where I use my other hand to cover it well and then place on the clean parchment lined cookie sheet. This avoids clumpy wet coating.
Once done, bake for 20-25 minutes or until the crispy coating just begins to crisp.
Then broil for 1-2 minutes until browned. Do not overbake or you will lose the creamy cheesy inside.
Devour smothered in more cheesy sauce, careful not to burn your mouth. This will not be easy as it will be very tempting to grab them from the cookie sheet and shove into your mouth.
