Vegan Jalapeño Mac and Cheese Balls
These Mac and Cheese Balls are not your average snack! With a flavourful crumb made of vegan ‘frazzle’ crisps and plenty of spice from pickled jalapeños, this is an irresistible finger food!
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Crispy fried balls of mac and cheese make a brilliant party snack, and this recipe makes an especially tasty treat.
They get a super kick from pickled jalapeños, but if you don’t like it spicy, adjust the amount of jalapeños, or leave them out entirely. Serve with a simple salsa or a selection of dips.
How to fry vegan mac and cheese balls
It’s important to place the balls into your frying oil carefully. This isn’t just to avoid splashback – you need to prevent your mac and cheese balls from falling apart, too!
To avoid any crumbly mishaps, make sure your mac and cheese mixture is nice and sticky so it holds together well. If in doubt, you can chill the balls before crumbing them to help them set.
Ensure your oil is nice and hot before you start cooking – too cold and your mac and cheese balls will go soggy. Give the balls plenty of room in the pan, cooking in batches if necessary.
What if I can’t find vegan bacon crisps?
Bacon rasher-style crisps give these vegan mac and cheese balls an extra flavour boost, but if you can’t find them, there are other options.
A different maize-based crisp would work as well, and you could even experiment with flavours – you may find something you like even more.
At a push, you could also keep your crumb plain, just double the quantity of panko breadcrumbs and leave out the crisps entirely. They’ll still taste great!
Total Time: 50 minutes
Servings: 4
Rating:
Total Time: 50 minutes
Servings: 4
Ingredients
Method
Ingredients
(Servings: 4)
- 50 50 g macaroni, cooked according to pack instructions
- 0.75 0.75 Tbsp pickled jalapeños, chopped
- For the cheese sauce
- 0.25 0.25 potato, peeled and diced
- 0.25 0.25 carrot, peeled and diced
- 0.125 0.125 onion, roughly chopped
- 0.5 0.5 cloves garlic, peeled
- 10 10 g cashews, soaked in hot water for 15 mins
- 0.5 0.5 Tbsp nutritional yeast
- 0.25 0.25 Tbsp garlic powder
- 0.25 0.25 large pinch salt
- 0.75 0.75 tsp Dijon mustard
- 0.25 0.25 Tbsp tapioca starch
- For the breadcrumb coating
- 25 25 g panko breadcrumbs
- 25 25 g bacon flavour rasher crisps
- 1.5 1.5 Tbsp plain flour mixed with unsweetened soy milk
- 1.5 1.5 Tbsp plain flour
- sunflower oil, for deep frying
- hot sauce, to serve
- salt and pepper, to taste
Method
- Place the vegetables for the cheese sauce into a pan of boiling, salted water, and cook for 10 minutes or until tender.
- Reserving 115ml (per 4 servings) of the cooking water, drain the vegetables and add them to a high performance blender with the rest of the sauce ingredients.
- Blend until very smooth and pour into a small pan. Heat very gently, stirring continuously, until thickened with a stretchy, cheese-like consistency.
- Mix the sauce with the pasta and jalapeños, and set aside to cool.
- While the pasta is cooling, pulse the bacon crisps in a food processor to resemble coarse breadcrumbs. Mix these with the panko crumbs in a large bowl.
- In a separate bowl, mix the flour with enough soy milk to make a thick, yet runny consistency. Season this with salt and pepper. Add the remaining plain flour to another bowl.
- Taking a tablespoon of the pasta mixture at a time, roll it into a ball, coat in the flour, then the flour batter, and finally the bacon breadcrumb mix. Place the balls on a paper lined baking tray until you have used all of the mixture.
- Fill a heavy based pan 1⁄3 full with vegetable oil and place over a medium high heat. When the oil is hot and shimmering on the surface, begin to add the pasta balls, using a spoon to lower them into the hot oil. Take care not to overcrowd the pan – you may need to fry them in batches.
- Once the balls are golden brown and crisp on all sides, remove from the oil with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper to remove the excess oil. Serve warm, with salsa for dipping and plenty of napkins!
Putting on a buffet? Take a look at more vegan party food recipes
