A Puzzling Phenomenon

[rj_anderson]

I am thirty-eight years old, with a fairly diverse experience of national and ethnic cuisine and a love of fine restaurants and quality home cooking.

So why does Kraft Dinner still taste so good?

Comments

[mandyhubbard]

It's called comfort food for a reason. :-)

And it still cracks me up taht they call it "Kraft Dinner" like its a gourmet entree. It's mac 'n cheese. Really, it should be called Kraft Lunch.

[pameladean]

I think it must be the macaroni. I can't eat cheese, but I recently found a recipe from a collection of Depression-era recipes used by Syrian and Lebanese immigrants to Canada. It's a baked macaroni and chickpea casserole, with tomatoes and garlic and cilantro and a pretty hefty dose of allspice, black pepper, and cumin. Not much like cheese sauce, overall. And yet, it comes closer to fulfilling the comfort-food function of macaroni and cheese than anything else I've found aside from actual macaroni and soy cheese. I even used whole-wheat macaroni and it still works.

P.

[capnflynn]

Oh my goodness, that sounds delicious! Would you mind sharing the recipe at all?

[pameladean]

Of course not. It's probably easiest to just provide the link to the vegan food blog where I found it:

http://veganfeastkitchen.blogspot.com/2008/03/easy-spicy-middle-eastern-pasta-and.html

I find that fresh cilantro is much better than dried in this, and that canned tomatoes work beautifully, and that crushed red pepper works instead of a fresh chili pepper. I double the recipe because I want lots of leftovers, and make it in a 9 x 13 baking pan and just cover it with foil. Oh, and I've also usually used half kidney beans and half chick peas. I hope you like it!

P.

[capnflynn]

Brilliant! Thanks!

[sollersuk]

There are times when only comfort food hits the spot, which is why I keep bread in the freezer and baked beans in the cupboard for the occasions when I really, really have to have baked beans on toast.

[yahtzee63]

I could kill a whole box of it right now.

I don't actually much like cheese in most of its forms, but fake cheese is the bomb. Once we're talking about Velveeta or something, we're too close to genuine for my taste -- but Kraft Mac & Cheese? Nuclear orange powder? Could eat it all day.

[kizmet_42]

I can't answer that, but I can agree.