Mac ’n’ Cheese with Lobster Mushrooms Recipe

Lobster mushrooms give vegan mac and cheese a savoury, faintly seafood-like flavour that cashew sauce alone cannot reach. Despite the name they are not really a mushroom at all: Hypomyces lactifluorum is a parasitic fungus that colonises a host mushroom, turning its surface bright orange. Rehydrated, chopped and simmered with shallots, they fold through the sauce like shredded crab.

The rest is a vegan cheese sauce built on cashews and miso, sharpened with plum vinegar and lemon and baked under breadcrumbs. Roasted garlic does a lot of the heavy lifting, so do not skip it. There is another mushrooms recipe here for the rest of the bag.

What is a lobster mushroom?

Hypomyces lactifluorum is a fungus that attacks other mushrooms, most often a Russula or Lactarius species. As it takes hold it coats the host in a hard, pimpled orange crust and reshapes it, which is why lobster mushrooms rarely look like a tidy cap and stem. The flesh underneath is dense and firm rather than spongy, so it holds its shape through a long simmer where an ordinary mushroom would collapse.

MindShift Mentors · 7 nights free

It’s 9pm and you’re not even hungry

The kitchen light goes on anyway. Fifteen minutes of guided audio a night, aimed at the pattern rather than the willpower.

Try 7 nights freeThat’s me, most nights

The flavour is mildly savoury with a shellfish edge, and it gets stronger as the mushroom dries. Dried pieces rehydrate into something chewy and a bit meaty, and the soaking water carries a lot of that flavour, which is why this recipe puts a quarter of a cup of it back into the pan.

One point on sourcing. Because the fungus takes on the shape of whatever it colonised, the host is not always identifiable, and not every possible host is safe to eat. Buy dried or fresh lobster mushrooms from a reputable supplier or grocer rather than foraging them yourself without expert identification.

How to make lobster mushroom mac and cheese

Dairy-Free

Servings: 4-6

Ingredients

For the lobster mushrooms

• 1 oz. (30 g) dried lobster mushrooms, soaked overnight in water

Cheese-like sauce

• 1 cup (250 ml) cashew nut milk
• 2 tbsp coconut oil, refined
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 tbsp roasted garlic, mashed
• 2 tbsp plum vinegar
• 1 tbsp miso
• 1 tbsp lemon juice, squeezed
• Dash of salt

For the mac and cheese

• ½ pound (225 g) uncooked tubular pasta (cavatappi)
• 3 shallots, sliced thinly,
• ¼ cup (60 ml) liquid from mushroom soaking, strained
• ¾ cup (180 ml) water
• 2 tbsp breadcrumbs
• About 1½ tbsp neutral oil, for the shallots and the crumb topping

Directions

1. To cook the mushrooms, take and squeeze them out of their soaking liquid and place them on a strainer. Rinse the mushrooms and take off any grits. Cut into bite-size bits and keep them aside.
2. Strain the mushroom-soaking liquid through kitchen paper and keep it aside. To cook the macaroni, fill a big pot with water and bring to a boil. Cook according to the directions on the package, and pull it a minute short of al dente so it does not go soft in the oven.
3. Drain the macaroni, keep some water, and return into the same pot.
4. To prepare your cheese sauce, add the oil, cashew milk, yeast, roasted garlic, vinegar, miso, lemon juice and salt to a blender. Process until smooth and creamy. You can make this vegan cheese in advance in the fridge for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. In case it has gotten thicker, add a bit of water and combine well.
5. Preheat your oven to 350F (180C, or 160C fan-forced). Put a 3-quart (3 L) baking dish on a half sheet tray. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a cast-iron or nonstick pan. Once it starts bubbling, add the shallots and salt and saute until clear, for about 5 minutes.
6. Place the sliced mushrooms onto the shallots and whisk around. Add in the reserved mushroom liquid and water and allow to simmer. Simmer uncovered, occasionally whisking until the mushroom liquid has steamed off and the mushrooms have tenderized. On dried mushrooms this usually takes 10 to 15 minutes, and you want the pan almost dry before the sauce goes in.
7. Pour the shallots/mushroom mix and the prepared cheese sauce over the macaroni. Gently combine everything together with tongs. Add a bit of water if necessary to make the sauce nice and silky. Make it slightly looser than you think it needs to be, because the pasta keeps drinking sauce in the oven.
8. Transfer the mixture to the baking dish. In a separate small bowl, mix the breadcrumbs with the ½ tbsp oil, working everything together until the oil is completely blended with the breadcrumbs. Add to the top of the macaroni and cheese mixture.
9. Bake in the oven for half an hour or until the top is crunchy or golden brown. Let cool down for 10 minutes.

Notes

You can find dried lobster mushrooms at good grocers and specialist mushroom suppliers. They rehydrate easily, but opinions on the use of the soaking liquid vary, because gritty bits can remain.

To avoid that, strain the mushroom liquid through a paper towel, once or twice, and use it in the cheese sauce, or leave it out and replace it with water or vegetable broth.

Miso and plum vinegar do more work here than they look like they do. Miso brings the salty, fermented depth that stands in for aged cheese, and the vinegar and lemon juice keep the cashew sauce from tasting flat. Cut the acid back and the whole dish goes dull.

How long does it keep?

Covered in the fridge, the baked mac and cheese keeps for 3 to 4 days. It firms up as it cools, so loosen it with a splash of plant milk before reheating, either covered in a 180C oven for about 20 minutes or in bursts in the microwave. The crumb topping softens by day two, and a few minutes under the grill brings it back.

Can I use fresh lobster mushrooms instead of dried?

Yes, and you will need roughly 250 to 300 g of fresh mushrooms in place of the 30 g dried. Brush and trim them well, as the pitted orange crust traps grit. Cut into bite-sized pieces and dry-fry them first to drive off moisture, then continue from step 6, using vegetable stock in place of the soaking liquid.

What can I use instead of lobster mushrooms?

King oyster mushrooms, shredded lengthways, give a similar chew, though the flavour is milder. To get closer to the seafood note, add a small piece of nori or a pinch of kelp granules to the simmering liquid. Hearts of palm, drained and pulled into shreds, is another option, but it will not stand as long in the pan.

Like and share if you liked this recipe; also, write me in the comments about how this vegan lobster mushrooms recipe with mac n cheese turned out.

• Lobster mushrooms recipe
• Vegan lobster mac n cheese
• how to make vegan mac n cheese
• mac and cheese vegan recipe
• mac n cheese vegan
• vegan lobster mushroom mac and cheese