Fusion Comfort Food

Today I had another meal for Feeling X. I’d been hoping to find a good vegan mac and cheese recipe to cook for it, and when the universe knows you are looking for something, it provides.

On the walk to the subway after yoga, my friend Y told me about a vegan mac and cheese recipe with pumpkin that she was making for dinner.  She scribbled it down in the back of my notebook at the subway entrance right before we parted ways with some other friends we were walking with.

It’s super simple and only requires 4 main ingredients: flour, oil, soy milk, and pumpkin puree. I bought a few pumpkins on my way home from class in preparation for making the meal sometime this week.

My two favorite comfort foods are mac and cheese and dukbokki. When I was in college I used to get my dukbokki fix from the hole-in-the-wall Korean Ramen Restaurant at the Asian Ghetto. When I was in Jochiwon, I used to stock up on the blue boxes of Kraft mac and cheese to eat when I didn’t feel like cooking a big meal.

So today I had a genius and decided to mix the two! I’d been using dukguk duk as a pasta/ carb replacement in my curries and soups recently. Before I went out to buy macaroni noodles, I remembered I had a bit left in the freezer. I decided it would go well with the mac and cheese sauce since dukboki is nice and chewy.

IT WAS AMAZING. I think it was, by far, my favorite Year of Quitting meal yet. I don’t know if any one has ever made mac and cheese dukbokki before. I know sometimes cheese is added as a topping into regular dukboki, but that is not quite the same.

If it’s not a thing yet, I’m making it a thing. It’s now officially my thing: Vegan Mac &Cheese Dukbokki. There Patented.

It’s definitely going in my Year Of Quitting Cookbook that I’m planning to make. Maybe it will become my signature dish. Who knows? But for now, here’s the recipe so you can try it out for yourself.

Vegan Mac &Cheese Dukbokki

Ingredients
1.5 Tbs flour
1.5 Tbs coconut oil (or other oil)
1/2 cup soy milk (or other nut milk)
1/2-1 cup pumpkin puree (or other squash)
salt
pepper
minced garlic to taste
2-3 handfuls  Dukguk duk (comes in oval shaped slices)

Directions

1. Soak your duk in a bowl of water while you prepare the roux.
2. Make roux by mixing flour and oil.
3. Cook roux until golden brown. Stir constantly so it doesn’t burn.
4. Add milk to roux a little bit at a time until the desired consistency is achieved. Keep stirring.
5. Add pumpkin puree.
6. Add salt, pepper, and garlic to taste.
7. Set aside while you cook the duk.
8. Drain duk and add to a separate pot of boiling water.
9. Cook for a few minutes, until duk is soft, and drain.
10. Mix duk and sauce. Enjoy!