Vegan Cheesy Beans and Grains

The cheese sauce is from vegancoach.com. I added the beans and grains to it for a surprisingly good dinner. I'm not vegan, but this looked good--and it was. It's not just like regular cheese because it isn't regular cheese...but it's creamy, flavorful, delicious and sure has a lot of nutrition. If you're using canned beans, you can omit the salt in the sauce. Of course, you can swap out the grains for others (such as brown rice), or use all of one. Just keep the proportions the same. This can be a main dish or a side.

• Ready In: 40 mins
• Serves: 7
• Yields: 2/3 cup

Ingredients

• TO MAKE THE CHEESE

• 1 (15 ounce) can cannellini beans (rinsed and well-drained, or cooked from dry beforehand)
• 1⁄2 cup pimiento (pieces, drained)
• 1⁄2 cup nutritional yeast
• 3  tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2  tablespoons tahini
• 1  tablespoon miso (I used mellow white)
• 1  teaspoon onion powder
• 1⁄2 teaspoon yellow mustard (such as French's)
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt

• FOR THE BEANS AND GRAINS

• 1 (15 ounce) can black beans (rinsed and drained)
• 1⁄4 cup Bulgar wheat
• 1⁄4 cup barley
• 1⁄4 cup quinoa

Directions

1. Rinse and toast your quinoa. Add 2 cups of water to the skillet where the quinoa is toasting, and add the barley and bulgar. Cover and simmer on low approximately 30 minutes, or until grains are done to desired texture (I like mine just a touch al dente for this recipe).
2. While grains are cooking, puree cheese ingredients until smooth.
3. Add cheese to skillet of grains, add beans, mix well. Serve!