Cheesy nom noms --nooch

The spiritual person must eat. Ya know... food. For survival. Two types, really. We've got our mindfulness and alertness to our spirit type of food and then we've got the nom noms that fill our belly kind of food.

At least for today I'm going to chat a bit about a nifty ingredient I found to make the body more healthy and give vital nutrients a chance to combat all the other crap we come into contact with on a daily basis. I am in love with this stuff. (I have a serious article on the way, folks, no worries. It's one that a few people have asked me for. It's grating on my brain, though, because it's such a tricky subject to research or write about. Hermes Trismegistos. I am working hard on it, though.)

My husband was a real piece of entertainment the first night I tried this new ingredient at dinner. 

I told him it was cheesy. He scoffed. I was just going to use it on my plate but he was being pushy. He wanted to investigate this new stuff. I knew he was leaning toward wanting to condemn it so that just made his reaction even funnier.

I had him sniff the bottle. He squinted and frowned.  "Put some on this chip," he said. 

So I sprinkled a bit on. He ate the chip. He then grabbed the container from me and liberally dowsed everything on his plate. It looked like a cheese storm. After dinner was done he(caveman beating of chest) licked the plate. I'm talking serious tongue-on-plate action. I was appalled. Pleased, but appalled just the same. I really shouldn't have been. If it's cheesy, he's going to go after it.

Ok. So the husband now likes this new ingredient, although he loudly protested for days beforehand, saying that I was such a weirdo and 'why do you need that crap?!' 

We've been together for around nine years and it still ticks him off that he likes the vast majority of the 'weirdo' things I bring into the kitchen and onto our plates to eat. But he's much better natured about it now. He just acknowledges that it's good and 'gimme some more.' Good enough for me, especially if it's such a powerhouse of vitamins. 

So what is it? Nutritional yeast! Yes, if you were weirded out by reading that then you read correctly. Say it again with me- nutritional yeast!!! YES! ... and not the same thing as brewers yeast or bread yeast or any other type of yeast. Just, nutritional yeast. It is an ingredient unto itself. 

For the yeast-initiated it's referred to in slang as 'nooch.' NUTritional yeast... nooch. get it?

Red Star's nutritional yeast flakes in a shaker, is what I've recently grown to love. I think I need to get a smaller shaker to refill for my purse when I go out. Sprinkled on fish it tastes like a blend of Romano/Parmesan cheese. You can also make a 'cheese sauce' with it and drip or mix it with anything you like, for example: french fries, steamed broccoli, nachos, or noodles. It's a little more difficult to make 'cheese' that'll stick to noodles from what I understand so I'm still investigating recipes for that. People even sprinkle it on popcorn. You can put it on anything. Sandwiches, soups, whatever. Oh and it's heavenly when sprinkled on freshly fried over easy eggs with lots of real butter. (are you salivating yet?)

I had to call around to various stores here in town to find it since it is something of a specialty item. Found it at Publix for $5.85 for a five ounce shaker. That's over $93 for five pounds and with as much as I foresee my family eating this stuff.... eh. I think I'll go with ordering it in bulk online at Whole Foods. It's $32.59 there.

So why would I purposely search high and low for such a weird grocery item? I have intense reactions to vitamin supplements, in general. I get achy and dizzy from anything that has rosehips in it for the vitamin C. It's the salicylate content, I know that now. Vitamin B shots, pills, or sublinqual drops make me jittery and then I crash and burn like a drug addict. And that's with a small dose. As you can see from those two examples, I'm sensitive. 

So nutritionally, what's a person to do with all the nutritionally deficient food available but who still needs additional vitamins? You have to supplement with high density, nutrient rich alternative foods. That's really the only other thing to do if you can't get your hands on a good supply of non-GMO foodstuffs. Here's Red Star's nutrition profile. 

Holy impressed!

Amount on left is per serving and the number on the right is % of a daily value
.

Thiamin (B1)	9.6 mg	640%
Riboflavin (B2)	9.6 mg	565%
Niacin	56 mg	280%
Vitamin B6	9.6 mg	480%
Folic Acid	240 mcg	60%
Vitamin B12	8 mcg	133%

This is just a super short list of the highest ranking vitamins I chose out of that list I linked above. It has zinc, selenium, and phosphorus, and other things. That's not counting the 17% protein!  And I have to say that even with the high amount of niacin, I haven't felt any flushing so far and I'm not exactly skimpy when I use it. 

I found the Red Star nooch in the flour and yeast section of Publix. Some carry it and some don't. I had to call around to three Publix's here in my city alone to find one that did and the manager told me that it's only because they have a few local vegetarians who come by regularly to get it.  Some stores carry nooch in their vegan/vegetarian health section. That's actually where I expected it to be here at this local store and probably why I missed seeing it the handful of times I did search for it. You just have to ask the manager, is what I've discovered. It's an odd product that even most of the stock people overlook so they forget about it and what it is let alone where to find it. 

Bob's Red Mill nooch is a little cheaper than Red Star but I've read that Red Star tastes the best so I figured I'd give myself the best chance at liking it. And I(we) do so maybe I'll go check out Bob's in the future. 

So do you like nooch? Have you heard of it before today?