Well Fed Buff: Popcorn With Nutritional Yeast

First, let me give you a bit of background info… I come from two hippie parents, I grew up on a massive farm, and ate (mostly) organic, well… everything. I’ve had a lot of good food in my life, many thanks to my parents (dirty hippies), but this one item, I’ve been eating since I was a tyke, and within the last few weeks, my palette had a sudden craving for it, so I wanted to share.

It’s basically your regular popped popcorn (not microwave, but the stuff you actually have to work with on the stove, and not that tin foil bag crap, either) and nutritional yeast tossed together, to give it a nifty flavoring, that is really indescribable as to what it actually is. It’s kinda like cheesy, but not cheesy, and kinda salty, but not overbearingly salty, but is just an all around good time.

What I did last week (when the craving came on pretty heavy) was to go to my local natural food store, and pick up a few ounces of Red Star (brand) Nutritional Yeast. I then combined it with 1/2 cup of Orville Redenbacher’s unpopped popping kernels, and 3 tablespoons of popping oil, and let ‘er rip on medium heat. I am sure that you know how to pop popcorn, but once the popping slows to 1-2 seconds, pull from heat.

When I pull from the heat, I immediately begin “dusting” the still hot popcorn with a tablespoon or three of the yeast (while it’s still in the pan). I toss & toss until I think it’s “coated” decently, as not all of the flakes will melt or powder like they should, so it’s a trial & error as to how much yeast you should apply.

I then transfer my popped corn into a plastic bowl (with a lid), or into a big brown paper bag (that I got at the natural foods store) and additional yeast is added, and it is tossed & tossed, until I feel that it’s coated to my liking. I do add a bit of salt, not much, just a bit to satisfy the salt hungry taste buds, simply due to the taste of the yeast being so incredibly mild.

Of course, the “dusting” of the yeast is to taste, and it can always be added on later.

Nutritional yeast is naturally low in sodium and fat, and is used as a cheese substitute for those crazy vegans. Most nutritional yeast brands are fortified with B vitamins, which makes it even better. Nutritional yeast is of course a “deactivated” yeast, so you can’t brew any booze in your belly via ingestion with popcorn–sorry.

I strongly encourage you to try it, once you try it, you’ll be hooked. It’s a great low-fat, low-sodium alternative to the crappy microwave popcorn that is out there.