Vegan Nacho Cheese Popcorn

I hope you all had a great Easter weekend! Today, I'm sharing a recipe for vegan nacho cheese popcorn. It took me forever to title this post because vegan and cheese are practically oxymorons! I was hesitant to put the words vegan and cheese in the same title but I promise, this popcorn isvegan and thanks to the nutritional yeast in it, it could totally pass as cheese! This recipe is from The Fit Housewife. You can find the original HERE.

Start by popping 1/2 cup of unpopped popcorn kernels. To do this, you will need to melt 1/4 cup of coconut oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Once the coconut oil is melted, add three popcorn kernels to the pot, turn the burner up to high heat and cover the pot with its lid. When the three kernels pop, go ahead and add the full half cup of unpopped kernels to the pot. I recommend putting on oven mits and swiching the pot around (that's a technical term, right?). You'll know when all of the kernels have popped because you will stop hearing popping sounds.

When all of the kernels are popped, transfer the popcorn to a large bowl or a tupperware. I put mine in a tupperware so that I can toss the seasonings on, close the lid and shake it all together.

For the seasoning, combine 1/4 cup of nutritional yeast, 1 teaspoon of garlic powder, 1 teaspoon of onion powder, 1 teaspoon of chili powder, 1 teaspoon of cumin, 1 teaspoon of paprika and 1 teaspoon of sea salt. Once you have all of the spices combined, put them through a coffee grinder or a blender. I used a coffee grinder.

Once the spices are combined, melt about 1-2 Tablespoon of coconut oil and pour it over the popcorn. Toss the popcorn to distribute the coconut oil. Then, Pour the spices over the popcorn and toss it again to distribute the seasonings. I used a tupperware to make the tossing easier. If you are going for presentation with this treat, you could toss the popcorn in a tupperware then transfer it to a nicer looking dish, I really think the tupperware facilitates the tossing!

VEGAN NACHO CHEESE POPCORN
serves 6 people

ingredients
1/2 cup unpopped popcorn kernels
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon sea salt
1-2 Tablespoons coconut oil

directions
1. Melt the 1/4 cup of coconut oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. When the coconut oil is melted, add 3 popcorn kernels to the pot, increase he burner's heat to high and cover the pot with it's lid. Once the 3 kernels have popped add the remaining kernels to the pot and cover the lid again. Swish the popcorn around frequently as it is popping. leave it to pop until you no longer hear popping sounds. When all of the popcorn is popped, transfer it to a large mixing bowl or a large tupperware container.
2. In a coffee grinder or blender, combine the nutritional yeast, the garlic powder, the onion powder, the chili powder, the cumin, the paprika and the sea salt. Once combined, set the seasoning aside.
3. Add the 1-2 Tablespoons of coconut oil to the pot and let it melt in the remaining heat. Once melted, pour the coconut oil over the popped popcorn. Toss the popcorn to coat it in coconut oil.
4. Finally, pour the seasoning over the popcorn and toss it to distribute the flavor.

This recipe comes together so easily and makes such a great clean eating treat! I was totally buying the faux-cheesy flavor of this popcorn! Fun (or maybe totally crazy) fact about me - I like to eat cheesy chips with chopsticks. I used to eat cheetos and cheddar cheese popcorn with chopsticks. I ate this popcorn with chopsticks and it made the cheese flavor that much more believable!