For National Vegan Month, Pedal Haus Brewery Chef, Zach Hunter, joins The Mix to demonstrate how to prepare Pedal Haus’s Vegan Mac N’ Cheese dish. To learn more visit pedalhausbrewery.com
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00:00 Okay, so I am a mac and cheese fanatic,
00:03 and while I like it nice and cheesy,
00:05 I mean, it's not easy being cheesy.
00:08 My last name is Romano, I'm literally a cheese.
00:10 There are plenty of vegans out there
00:13 who may want a good twist on this cult classic.
00:15 Well, Zach from Petal House Brewery is here to show us
00:18 how they can do that.
00:20 So Zach, this is, I gotta admit,
00:23 when I heard vegan mac and cheese,
00:24 I was like, "Eh, I don't know."
00:27 So give me the lowdown.
00:27 Yeah, so at Petal House, we have some of the favorites
00:30 you'd expect, you know, nachos, our pretzel, burgers,
00:35 but what we love is to also feature those things
00:38 for those that don't eat meat.
00:39 So we make our own vegan beer cheese in-house,
00:43 just like our--
00:45 Vegan beer cheese.
00:46 Yeah, just like our normal beer cheese version,
00:48 but we do a plant-based version, which is really fun.
00:51 So we can serve that with our pretzel,
00:53 we can put it all over our burger
00:55 and pour it all over our nachos.
00:56 You can still have Petal House favorites,
00:57 even if you don't eat meat.
00:58 That's so great.
00:59 So this isn't just the mac and cheese,
01:01 this is an option for multiple different items
01:04 that usually come with the beer cheese.
01:06 Yeah, it is, and in fact,
01:07 we have a vegan version of our menu.
01:10 Every dish on our menu has a vegan version.
01:12 No way!
01:14 That is so cool.
01:14 Okay, so you gotta tell me the secret here,
01:17 because I don't know if I'm a believer,
01:19 but kinda walk me through how you make the cheese vegan.
01:22 So-- Beer, vegan, cheese.
01:24 I love it.
01:25 So what we do is I start with cashews.
01:28 I'll soak them in water overnight,
01:30 so that way they soften up a little bit.
01:32 And then we just puree that first.
01:33 So that's what I have in here.
01:34 Okay, is there any way you can tip that up
01:36 so we can see in there a little bit?
01:37 So you can see, it's about a sauce consistency already.
01:41 And this is just the cashews?
01:42 Yep, this is cashews, and then I puree them
01:45 with the water that they soak in.
01:47 Uh-huh.
01:47 And it makes them, you know,
01:49 basically I put them in a blender
01:50 with enough water to cover it,
01:52 and when you puree it, it's still nice and thick.
01:55 Yeah, definitely.
01:56 So you have a good start to your cheese sauce already.
01:57 You already kinda have that body.
01:59 Absolutely, that's the base.
02:00 Yep, and then what we do is we add in,
02:04 of course, our Petal House Beer Blanche.
02:06 And you guys actually were just voted
02:08 Best Brewery of the Year-- That's right.
02:10 By the, was it the Arizona Brewers Guild?
02:13 That's right.
02:14 Congratulations, that's awesome.
02:15 Yeah, we're super proud of our brewing team,
02:17 you know, and very grateful
02:18 that we've been recognized for that awesome award.
02:20 Absolutely, and what beer did you say
02:22 this was that you just poured in there?
02:23 That's our Beer Blanche.
02:24 Okay, fantastic.
02:24 So that one has won the most medals for us,
02:28 the most awards, so it's a crowd favorite,
02:31 and it works perfect in this sauce.
02:32 It's the same one we use in our regular version
02:34 of the beer cheese sauce.
02:35 I love that.
02:36 So I'll add that, the beer in there,
02:38 and then I'll add a little bit of Dijon mustard.
02:40 That gives it that nice little zip,
02:41 that nice little tangy flavor.
02:43 I love that, really good.
02:45 And then we have, I have a mixture here that is,
02:50 okay, so when you have,
02:51 normally when you have vegan cheese sauces,
02:53 there's one ingredient that you'll almost always find
02:55 in there, and that's nutritional yeast.
02:57 You can find it at your grocery store.
02:59 It's got this beautiful yellow color, and a really--
03:02 Yeah, show them this,
03:03 'cause I've never seen this before,
03:04 so that's so interesting.
03:07 What does that do for the cheese?
03:08 Well, it actually gives it kind of a cheese flavor,
03:11 'cause it has, it's a little bit nutty,
03:13 it's a little, you know, it tastes like cheese, kind of.
03:16 Okay, so you throw that in there.
03:17 Yep, so that's gonna give it some color.
03:19 There's also some, I put some onion powder
03:21 and some garlic powder in here as well.
03:22 Gives it a little flavor, I love that.
03:24 Okay, great.
03:24 There's a little bit of salt,
03:26 and then I'm just gonna whisk that in,
03:28 and you're gonna see it's gonna turn
03:29 just a little bit of a yellow color.
03:32 Definitely, once you're done with that, could you--
03:33 And you can probably smell that.
03:35 It actually smells pretty darn good.
03:37 I mean, honestly, and like you said,
03:39 this can go on any of these cheesy dishes here,
03:42 the nachos, the pretzel.
03:43 I mean, tell me a little bit about some of the other options
03:45 that you guys have there.
03:46 I mean, obviously we're doing a vegan cheese,
03:48 but you said you can do a vegan option
03:49 for anything on the menu.
03:51 What else do you guys have?
03:52 Well, our chicken wings are one of our most popular dishes.
03:56 You do a vegan version of chicken wings?
03:58 We sure do, yeah.
03:59 We cut cauliflower the same size and shape
04:01 as a chicken wing.
04:03 We throw that right in the deep fryer
04:04 and get it nice and crispy,
04:05 and then toss it with our buffalo sauce.
04:07 Great, I love it.
04:08 All right, let's wrap up this vegan cheese here real quick.
04:10 What are the last two things we add?
04:11 The last thing in there is our vegan cheddar.
04:14 So we buy this, it's a great product.
04:17 It's gonna add in that nice, beautiful,
04:20 like cheesy kind of texture to it.
04:23 Once that melts into it, you're pretty much there,
04:25 except I add one of my favorite ingredients,
04:27 a roasted garlic oil.
04:28 And as you can see, that all comes together.
04:35 Wow.
04:35 And we have this beautiful cheese sauce
04:38 that we can pour over just about anything.
04:40 So what I like to do is-
04:41 Okay, toss it in the mac and cheese for us real quick.
04:44 Or I guess at the moment, it's just the mac.
04:47 It's about to be mac and cheese.
04:48 All right, guys, so yeah, to learn more about this
04:50 and kind of check out everything they have on their menu,
04:52 you can go to pedalhousebrewery.com
04:54 and visit them at one of their many locations
04:56 across the Valley.
04:57 There's several here in the Valley.
04:58 And I'm sorry, you gotta try
05:00 this vegan mac and cheese, you guys.
05:01 Look at how good this looks.
05:03 That actually looks like mac and cheese,
05:04 like delicious, creamy mac and cheese.
05:08 And you would never know, it's vegan.
05:10 That looks, and it smells amazing.
05:13 That's fantastic.
05:15 Jack, this looks awesome.
05:17 Vegan mac and cheese, vegan options for the whole menu.
05:20 Thank you so much for showing me how to do that today.
05:21 - You're so welcome, thanks for having us.
05:22 - Absolutely.
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