Nutritional yeast has slowly been making its way into the mainstream after years of undiscovered health benefits.

It has an interesting umami flavor, some people call it “nooch” and it provides so many health benefits.

Here is a breakdown of all of the benefits, and ways you can use it in your kitchen!

What Is Nutritional Yeast?

“Nutritional yeast is a deactivated yeast, often a strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is sold commercially as a food product,” the Wikipedia article explains.

The main difference from an active dry yeast is it doesn’t cause dough or breadth to rise. This dry yeast is harvested, pasteurized, and dried before it is turned into some flakes that look a lot like fish food.

If you want to purchase some dry nutritional yeast, look around the spice aisle at your local grocery or health food store.

What Are the Health Benefits?

Nutritional yeast is full of B12. “The B12 in yeast is either included as an additive at the end of its manufacture, or else the yeast is grown in a B12-enriched medium,” a handy “Healing with Whole Foods” book reads. “The latter method is best because it incorporates the vitamin into the living food. (Some nutritional yeasts do not contain vitamin B12; to be sure, check the list of nutrients on the container.)”

There is one thing to keep your eye on when you use it in the kitchen. From “Healing with Whole Foods”: “Yeast is exceptionally rich in certain nutrients and deficient in others that are needed for balance. The high phosphorus content of yeast, for example, can deplete the body of calcium; thus some yeast manufacturers now add calcium also.”

Here are several ways you can use yeast to improve your dishes and make them better for your body!

1. Put it in a pasta dish (with one exception)

Vegan mac and cheese gets a burst of healthy with the addition of nutritional yeast.

Nutritional yeast mixes really well with most rice and pasta dishes that we make. Just don’t use it with tomato sauce. The sauce overpowers the yeast and the taste seems to disappear. However, nutritional yeast does work with actual tomatoes.

2. Rice cakes or bread

Sprinkling a little nutritional yeast on some olive oil. Lettuce and tomato can make these options stand out drastically. The yeast just adds a bit of flavor to an average sandwich or a bland rice cake.

3. Just add some garbanzo beans

Beans are a great place to add nutritional yeast. We already mentioned rice and pasta dishes, but simple dishes like garbanzo beans and salt are a great combo for nutritional yeast to shine.

4. In Soup

Mixing nutritional yeast in place of cream in a soup can help thicken it.

Sometimes, you can use it in soup and sauces instead of cream. This will thicken the substance. This might not be your cup of tea, but it works. Also, it is absolutely amazing if you are vegan!

5. What about yellow beans and spicy curry?

Some extra nutritional yeast, olive oil, and a bit of salt on a spicy curry mix or beans is amazing. curry works the same way, and this had us wondering: Is there anything we can’t put this stuff on?

6. Tofu…scrambled

Adding nutritional yeast to scrambled tofu makes it especially tasty.

If you’ve never tried scrambled tofu with tomatoes or potatoes you are losing out! You can mix in some nutritional yeast in this dish and have a great pairing. Tofu is quite high in calcium, so it covers the blindspots of nutritional yeast. If you didn’t know, Tofu has around double the calcium that milk provides, making this pairing feels like a match made in heaven.

7. Put it on popcorn

You want to take one of the worst snack foods out there and make it a bit healthier? Just sprinkle some nutritional yeast on the popcorn, and it will hopefully help you feel better about what you are eating!

8. Just peas, corn, and carrots

Peas, corn, and carrots are a very simple combination dish, but one that can be tasty and nutritious with the right spices added. Mixing in tahini, and a plenteous amount of nutritional yeast will get the job done!

9. On your salad

Sprinkle nutritional yeast on top of any salad. In this case, the croutons are made with nutritional yeast.

(Photo: Carl Black [CC BY-SA 2.0]/Flickr)

Nutritional yeast goes great on top of a salad as another condiment. It doesn’t bring the taste of the yeast out as much, so it’s not as good of a dish as some of the other options on our list, but it will still get the job done! Adding nutrition to salads in 2020, who knew that was even possible!

10. On Steamed Kale

Steamed kale with a healthy smoothie provides an extra kick with your added nutritional yeast.

Kale has so much calcium and other good-for-you ingredients that we couldn’t keep it off the list. If you enjoy kale, consider adding some nutritional yeast to get even more health benefits out of it.

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Source: Flickr, MNN