The annals of the Librarium Arcanum are full of stories about a strange form of magic called a roux. Prior to specialization in plant magic, I had tried to make such a thing several times with various animal drippings, and each time ended with a giant mess of burned stuff in the bottom of a pan. My apprentice days were rather dreary with the washing up. I was only reunited with the roux again by accident, by trying to make a plant magic “cheeze” sauce for macaroni in an attempt to capture the wonderful/terrible magic of boxed mac & cheese!

I recently had occasion to try re-purposing the sauce when I found really great-looking recipe here. The variety of vegetables and the flavor combination sounded delightful, but there was too much reliance on cheese! So, a couple of tweaks, including the cheeze roux for this cheese sauce (which is much easier with cold almond milk than with hot animal fat), and we have this savory one-pot meal!

Quinoa is the primary source of protein for this dish, which makes it light enough to be a side dish for veggie burgers, and versatile enough to bring as a vegan option to a potluck. The whole thing comes together in less than 20 minutes (though, if you’re making quinoa fresh, it might need a head start!) You may want to adjust the nutritional yeast, garlic, and mustard to get the flavor and color of your cheeze just right, but this sauce really holds together a nutritional, flavorful, and pretty dish!

Cheezy Quinoa and Veg (+4 mana, +4 health, +5 stamina)

Ingredients:

For the sauce

• 3/4 cup unsweetened, unflavoured almond milk (or more as needed to thin out)
• ½ cup nutritional yeast
• 1 Tbsp Earth Balance or olive oil
• 1 Tbsp flour
• 3 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• salt to taste

For the rest:

• 2-3 cups prepared grain (quinoa works great!) either warm or reheated if using leftover
• 1 medium zucchini, grated
• 2 medium carrots, grated
• 1 red bell pepper, finely diced

Instructions

1. In a sauce pot, melt the Earth Balance or heat oil over medium heat.
2. Add milk to the pot and whisk continuously while adding the flour a little bit at a time.
3. Once flour is completely integrated and free of clumps, add nutritional yeast, mustard, garlic and salt, and allow to simmer over low heat for 5-10 minutes until somewhat thickened.
4. If your pot is big enough to mix everything into it, add all other ingredients to the pot, if not, add the other ingredients to a large bowl, and pour the hot sauce over it all, and stir to combine!