Nutritional yeast has been trending for a while. It’s a quintessential pantry item for anyone who’s relatively health conscious and is 100% guaranteed to be found in any vegan’s kitchen. While we all know and love the stuff, do we actually know what it really is?

What is nutritional yeast?

Nutritional yeast, aka nooch, is a deactivated yeast. It’s not like the activated yeast you’re familiar with though, so don’t try using nooch to leaven bread. It won’t go over well. Nutritional yeast is made from sugar-cane and beet molasses and is loaded with nutrients – mostly B-vitamins and protein (it’s actually a complete protein that provides all 9 amino acids!), but also fibre and iron too.

When you buy our Be Fresh Nutritional Yeast – Don’t forget to return the bags!

How do you eat it?

People mostly use nutritional yeast as a cheesy topping or flavouring. It has a savoury, umami-ish flavour that’s both cheesy and nutty, so basically whenever you’d use cheese for flavour, try using nooch in its place. There are many ways to use nutritional yeast, but here are some of our favourites:

• On popcorn. This is a winner. Simply stove pop your kernels, drizzle with EVOO, and then load on the nooch and S&P. Toss it so each kernel is perfectly coated with the faux-cheezy salty goodness. It’s life changing.
• Kale chips. Similar to the ‘corn, this is also key. Wash, prep and cut your kale, drizzle with cooking oil (perhaps avocado oil this time), and then toss with nooch and S&P. Spread evenly on a baking sheet and cook at 300 for 15-20 mins. Boom.
• In a tofu scramble. Adding nutritional yeast is an easy way to amp up the flavour of a tofu scramble, and adds a nice yellowy colour so it somewhat mimics scrambled eggs. Trust us, it’s delicious.

Other favourites are sprinkling it on pasta, in dips, on potatoes, or tossed onto fried tofu. There are tons more though – what are your favourite ways to use up nooch?

Find our house nutritional yeast at any Be Fresh markets or on SPUD.ca!