Nooch!
Or Nutritional Yeast
Nutritional Yeast (aka ‘nooch’ or ‘savory yeast flakes’) is a wonderous ingredient. It has a delicious nutty, cheesy flavour often used as a cheese substitute ingredient. In fact nutritional yeast can replace cheese in almost every single recipe that calls for it. Adding just a small amount of nutritional yeast enhances the flavour of soups, gravies, and many other dishes.
It is super rich in nutrition – particularly B-complex vitamins, folic acid, iron, selenium, zinc, and ‘complete’ protein (meaning that among the 18 amino acids it contains, nine are essential ones that your body cannot produce). It’s low in fat and salt, is gluten-free, with no added sugars or preservatives. Nutritional yeast also provides the compounds beta-1,3 glucan, trehalose, mannan and glutathione, which are associated with enhanced immunity, reduced cholesterol levels and cancer prevention. Some nutritional yeast brands will provide all your daily B vitamin needs in just half tablespoon!
Nutritional yeast is made from a single-celled organism named Saccharomyces Cerevisiae (a member of the fungi family). It is grown on blackstrap molasses and then harvested, washed, and dried to deactivate it, therefore it has no leavening properties like baking yeast.
Some delicious ways to use ‘nooch’:
- Drizzle coconut oil and a large handful of nutritional yeast over freshly popped corn
- Blend ‘nooch’ with a pinch of salt and cashew nuts for an instant vegan parmasean (store in air tight container in the fridge for weeks)
- Homemade dairy-free pesto
- Sprinkled on anything potato (stir into mashed potato, sprinkle onto roasted jacket potatoes whilst baking, make a cheesy dairy-free sauce for potato bake)
- Everything ‘eggy’ (eggless omelette, quiche, tofu scramble)
- Dippy plant-based cheese
- Your pooch will love ‘nooch’ too – just sprinkle on their dinner!
Nutritional Yeast can be purchased at most health stores and even many large chain supermarkets nowadays. Not all brands contain B12 so be sure to check the label and try to get the fortified version. Nutritional yeast is not just for vegans and vegetarians – I reckon it should be a staple in all kitchens!
