I’ve had quite a few enquiries asking about nutritional yeast that I used in the vegetarian ‘mince’ recipe, this is one of my favourite seasonings, it has a cheesy, slightly nutty, earthy creamy flavour which makes it perfect for making dairy-free cheese and for a cheese substitute when flavouring meals. Most organic and natural food stores sell it and it’s not very expensive, I bought mine from one of my favourite stores, Bulk Foods in Mount Eden, it was $15.50 for 500g which will last me for several months.
Nutritional yeast is a deactivated yeast (it won’t make your bread rise) made from Saccharomyces Cerevisiae most commonly grown on molasses, it provides all nine essential amino acids that your body can’t make on its own. It’s also a complete protein: two tablespoons will give you around nine grams of protein and four grams of fibre, and it’s a great source of B Vitamins, iron, selenium, and zinc.

Selenium is in short supply in our soil here in NZ (take a read of this article from Dr Libby for more info) so topping your baked potato or tomatoes on Vogals with nutritional yeast instead of cheese is one way to up your daily intake.

Another big plus for nutritional yeast is that it’s soy, gluten and dairy free, there’s also very little sodium and fat, and I found out that it lacks Candida albicans which is the type of yeast that’s known to aggravate candidiasis, a type of unpleasant fungal infection.

On the internet nutritional yeast is often called Nooch, no one seems to be sure why, perhaps it’s simply because Nooch is a catchy name. Try enticing your whole family to eat by making this totally addictive recipe for Nooch Popcorn … you’ll never want regular popcorn again!

Nooch Popcorn

The best way to make healthy pop corn is in a pop corn maker, just add the kernels and air pop your corn with no additives. I’m not a fan of microwave popcorn for many reasons, the main one being they often contain palm oil, flavouring and colouring.

Once you’ve popped your corn (as per the instructions on your corn popper) place the lot into a bowl and drizzle with olive oil, you’ll want it lightly coated but not so much as it goes soggy. Start off with a tablespoon or two and toss though out the popcorn, then add more if needed. Next sprinkle over with ground sea salt (to taste) then sprinkle with Nooch (nutritional yeast) Toss gently again and eat!

Tags: , , , , ,