Three dishes you can make using nutritional yeast

Nutritional yeast is a staple in the cupboard of every vegan thanks to its cheesy, nutty flavour. 

But this delicious food doesn’t have to be limited just to vegans. 

Although it might not have the most appealing name, it can be used in a lot of different recipes to add an amazing depth of flavour without any of the calories of cheese or additives of seasoning mixes! 

Here are three of our favourite dishes to use nutritional yeast in.

Pesto

Basil pesto is typically made from basil, parmesan cheese, olive oil, garlic, and pine nuts. If you want to lighten it up a little bit, you can easily swap the parmesan cheese for nutritional yeast. Simply blend some fresh basil in a blender with the rest of the ingredients (you can even substitute pine nuts for cashew nuts or almonds) and give it a taste. It’s suitable for those with dairy allergies as well as vegans and vegetarians, plus it tastes great and can be used to top pasta or even spread on to bread as a base for an amazing gourmet sandwich.

Mashed potatoes

Well, any potatoes really! You can stir in some nutritional yeast to mashed potatoes for a nice cheesy flavour, but why stop there? You can also sprinkle it on top of fried potatoes, add it to a baked potato with all the toppings, or throw it into a cheese sauce for some potato bake at your next braai. The extra savoury nuttiness of the nutritional yeast makes it a great match for potatoes in every form! We might even go as far as saying it’s better than cheese when paired with the humble potato. 

Gourmet savoury popcorn

What’s a movie without popcorn? Unfortunately, it’s hard to get a really good gourmet popcorn down, because it normally involves you melting ingredients on a pot, putting popcorn in the oven, or making some kind of complex dressing. Not anymore! If you’ve got a craving for popcorn that isn’t sickly sweet or super tangy, you guessed it - nutritional yeast. The easiest way is simply to spritz the popcorn with some olive oil (in a spray bottle) and then sprinkle nutritional yeast over it. Give it a good shake and you’ve got savoury popcorn fit for a king. If you want to step it up a notch, add a shake of some dried herbs (thyme, rosemary or oregano work well) and a twist or two of ground black pepper. You could even think about using a ready-infused garlic or lemon olive oil. Gordon Ramsay, eat your heart out. 

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