‘Definite vibes parmesan cheese’: how to cook with nutritional yeast

New to nutritional yeast? You could be forgiven for giving him the cold shoulder. For starters, it's flaky and — let's face it — it looks dull. That yellow-brown color doesn't help either. But there's more to this age-old vegan staple than meets the eye.

Author and recipe developer Harriet Birrell needs no more be convinced of the charms of nutritional yeast. She's been a fan of it since discovering it at her local health food store in 2012. Nutritional yeast (affectionately known as nooch) has become a pantry staple, featuring regularly in her plant-based recipes. Birrell's Whole and Natural Harry books have added scores to this hardworking flavor booster.

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Obviously others are starting to sit up and take notice too In July, Cambridge Dictionary saw fit to add the word nooch to its listings; US financial reporting service Bloomberg released a statement stating that the global value of the nutritional yeast market would more than double to 999, $5 million by 2032; and on Etsy, you can buy specially handmade ceramic jars. t designed to store food.

Jack Stuart, chef-owner of neo-bistro Blume in Boonah, Queensland, first encountered nutritional yeast at Fleet, the famous Brunswick Heads restaurant, which used toasted flakes in a dressing for a coleslaw and kale slaw. a clandestine diet food, but many chefs use it,” says Stuart.

Nutritional yeast flakes feature on Blume's current menu, adorning a potato hash earth sebago, a dish described by Stuart as pure comfort food.

"The nutritional yeast has an almost umami parmesan flavor to me. It's very tasty and makes a very rich and flavorful dish.Nutritional yeast is grown specifically as a food product.It is a processed, dried, inactive form of yeast, usually derived from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a yeast traditionally used in brewing. Grown on glucose, sometimes molasses or sugar cane, it is dehydrated and pasteurized. Unlike baker's yeast, it cannot be used as a leavening agent, and it is also different from dietary supplement - dried brewer's yeast - qu i have a bitter taste.

Birrell's approach to nooch is something that is constantly evolving. At first, she saw it as a ready-to-use Parmesan substitute for dishes like her zucchini and tomato gratin. Now she's more adventurous, putting the flavorful flakes to work in anything from plant-based parmesan to dairy-free...