- Oh my god.
It doesn't sound like it's going too well over there.
Yeast makes things rise.
(screams)
Oh, Lordy, we need to fix that real quick.
- [Ben] I'm sorry. - I ate a whole cashew.
(laughing)
- This is terrible!
- Hello everybody,
My name is Rachel and I am here
with my good friends, Ben and Tucker.
- What's up.
- And today I'm gonna be challenging them
to make a vegan grilled cheese.
But there is a catch!
(dramatic musical flair)
Because they have to make this without a recipe.
(Tucker smacks the table) - (beep)
- So Ben and Tucker are both not vegan,
but how would you guys describe your cooking experience?
- I think I'm a pretty good chef.
You know, I'm not gonna lie.
I like to call myself Chef Boy Abiola.
- So, you know, I would say from like a one to 10,
I'm like a good eight and a half.
- Okay. I can't even cook eggs.
(record scratch) So..
- We're gonna be great.
Because this is very challenging,
I'm gonna help them out a little bit
by giving them the option to use one of three lifelines.
Phone a vegan.
The second option is to watch 10 seconds
of a prior recipe video.
And the last lifeline is to look up
the definition of an ingredient.
- We only get one?
- You only get one.
You get to pick which lifeline you want to use.
Are y'all ready for this?
(clapping) - Let's do it!
- Honestly, no, but let's do it.
- How you feeling, man?
- Oh, I feel great.
Thank goodness they put this divider.
No cheating.
- Absolutely. Hey, come on now.
You tall, okay.
Don't peek over.
- Can't for the life of me figure out
what we're doing with this bad boy.
- The carrot is throwing me off.
- So, while Ben and Tucker are attempting
to make their vegan grilled cheese,
I'm gonna show you how to prepare it the right way.
- Okay. We're going at it.
Oh my God, there's so many things.
There's so many things.
- Couple nuts, don't wanna go insane, right?
- Nutritional yeast.
(Tucker gagging) Sorry, I smelled that.
- First thing I'm gonna do is take some cashews
and some carrots that I've chopped up,
and I'm just going to cover them with some water.
Let them boil for about 10 minutes,
until they're fork tender.
So you definitely don't want to skip this step,
because it's going to help soften our carrots and cashews,
so that they blend more easily,
and our sauce can have a smoother consistency.
- I'm gonna start with blending a bunch of cashews,
because I feel like that's gotta be the base, right?
I am going... (cashew bowl crashes)
Oh my God, my cashews.
Pow!
- Okay, so these have been boiling for about 10 minutes.
So, I'm now going to transfer them over into my blender.
I'm just gonna measure 1 and 3/4ths cup
of the reserved cooking liquid into here.
Just 'cause it has a little bit
of that extra flavor and starch.
- Chop up my nuts.
(sound of blender) (Tucker speaks Gibberish)
Yeah, we're here.
We're working baby.
- Wow, okay!
- I'm making some great peanuts.
(Tucker screaming)
- So now I'm going to add some nutritional yeast.
This is going to give it a nice cheesy flavor.
Very important.
Some lemon juice, which is gonna give it a little tang.
Some garlic powder, gonna do a good amount of salt.
Just a little bit of turmeric for the color.
- Now we're doing some turmeric.
Pow! Oh I missed!
Sorry.
- [Ben] Gordon Ramsey will not be pleased.
You know, black folks, we like to season our food.
So I ain't gonna hold back.
- I'm not gonna dump all the salt in,
(wheezes nervously)
because that feels like a lot.
One teaspoon of garlic powder.
- This is starting to look like peanut butter sauce.
- Actually just getting word from off-camera
that I "should probably use a lifeline."
I wanna look at a video.
I'm a visual learner.
So I think I need a ten second video if that's okay.
Anyone, please?
- You better hope those 10 seconds are enough.
That's all I'm saying.
While he's over there trying to figure out how to cook,
I'll just keep cooking.
(record scratch) (blender whirring)
- Oh my God, doesn't sound like
it's going too well over there.
- Are you kidding me?
- So you cannot hear anything that's going on.
- Oh, who's the- the vegan musician?
- So the vegan musician is Lizzo
and you're gonna listen to Truth Hurts.
- Oh! I kind of want that.
Let's roll, let's roll.
Ooh, random.
Oh, random.
Oh, random!
Random!
Okay!
Oh, thank you, I'm great.
- He figured something out didn't he?
- Here we go, okay.
(Tucker laughs eagerly)
We're shifting gears people.
(Ben's blender clunks)
Oh my God, so is he apparently.
I couldn't for the life of me figure out
why we had this water, and now I know.
So we're gonna take those carrot out,
put them in here to cook them down.
- This is a very important ingredient.
It is the tapioca starch.
And this is what is going to give our cheese
that stretchy, pulley consistency
- Yeast makes things rise.
Whoa, we'll throw a little yeast in.
- He's using the pot already?
I gotta move on.
I think it's time to get this stove top rocking.
- Oh my God, I forgot about this!
That's for sure going in here.
- Another important ingredient is our agar agar.
And the agar agar is going to help it hold its shape.
- This has just got to gotta be for flavor.
So I'm not gonna worry about this yet.
- Now I'm gonna blend it up.
So the consistency should be nice and smooth,
and there shouldn't be any chunks or anything like that.
So the consistency should look like this.
- So we're just gonna go zero to 60 on this bad boy.
Lord, that's cooking!
- It's got some good texture, right?
Okay, now I'm gonna put some tapioca flower.
- One cup of this water we got going on here.
So we're putting that in there!
I now feel like we're onto something.
(record scratch) - I don't think
I was supposed to put the flour in the pot.
This is terrible!
- Oh, I must have used way too much water.
That's not gonna firm up babes.
That's not gonna firm up.
Oh Lordy, we need to fix that real quick.
- I'm gonna go back to what I know best.
- Oh, it looks like a curry.
Now I'm ...
(speaking morphs to angry Gibberish)
(maniacal laughter)
- Woohoo!
Yo, this (beep) look like honey mustard (beep)!
- And now what we're gonna do is
transfer our cheese mixture back into our sauce pan.
And then we're going to whisk this pretty continuously.
And what we wanna do is activate the agar agar
which is going to help this hold its shape
once we put it into the pan.
It's also going to cook the tapioca starch
and that's gonna help with the stretchy consistency.
- Got to put the gelatin flakes in.
The gelatin flakes give it like a thickness, you know?
The texture's there.
I'm so proud.
Look at the top down camera and look at my wrist.
- What, what could he possibly be doing?
- Woohoo!
(record scratch) - We're gonna spit that out.
- You're tasting your own food?
(Ben laughs)
- So now I'm just gonna spray a baking sheet
lined with some parchment paper.
- After I make this, that's where the oven comes in.
- And now what I'm gonna do
is transfer this over into my baking sheet.
And now I'm gonna spread it out,
because what we're gonna do is form one big rectangle.
Then that way we can cut it into slices.
- Here we go, we're now going to just kind of dump.
Look at that clump.
People, it's never about looks.
It's about what's on the inside.
- It's about personality. (Ben chuckles)
- [Tucker] Exactly.
- Okay, so now I'm gonna pop this in the fridge
for 30 to 40 minutes to let it harden up.
- Ben, can you close your eyes?
♪ Oh my eyes are closed ♪
Going in the fridge? - No, look away!
- Okay.
I'm gonna go ahead and call my lifeline in.
So I make sure I'm doing the right thing.
- Did somebody call a vegan?
- Hell yeah! - Oh my God.
- Bring him out, bring him out.
Put on that music. What is he listenin' to?
- What do I get? What do I get?
- Porcelain by Moby.
(boing sound effect) - Moby.
- Not as lit as Lizzo.
- No offense, but I haven't heard of you yet.
And that's on me.
- He's dancing through the pain.
- I'm here and I have a riddle for you.
- (beep) It's not gonna be easy?
You got a riddle?
- [Rachel] It's a riddle.
If you want your cheese to form a mold,
put it somewhere it will be cold.
- Refrigerator, come on guys.
I saw Tucker doing it.
I knew he was on to something.
Cheese is going in the fridge.
Be back.
(elevator music)
(laughter)
- I threw mine in the freezer for about 10 minutes.
- Yeah, I did mine for about 12.
- Pop this in the fridge for 30 to 40 minutes.
- It looks like a square of mustard.
- Mine is looking like a chicken curry vibes.
It's not giving cheese. - It's not.
- Now I'm just gonna pick up the parchment paper
and transfer it over to our cutting board.
So now I'm just gonna cut this
approximately three inch by three inch squares.
And so now you can see, we have little cheese slices.
- I'm really cutting it like cake.
Anyone want a slice?
Or did you want a little slice anyone?
- Let's put the cheese on the bread.
- Here we go.
This is cooking up.
Is it hot? Is it hot?
(screams) Ah, no, I'm kidding.
- [Ben] Have you seen a sexier cheese grilled?
No.
- One slice of butter.
- Doing the whole slice and cut.
You know, you just wanna do one of these, right?
- All right.
So now I'm just gonna butter some of our bread here
and we're gonna just place our bread
butter side down in the pan
and add on a couple of little cheese slices.
- Okay, so now we're just gonna roasty toasty
up these little breads here.
- This is some sticky (beep) cheese.
God damn.
Woo!
Boom.
- And now I'm gonna butter the other bread slice
and add that right on top.
And to help it melt a little bit more,
I'm just gonna add a little tiny splash of water
to the pan and I'm gonna cover it.
- So what I tend to do,
probably put it like 30 seconds on one side,
30 seconds on the other side.
- Woohoo!
- You want like a nice, golden brown.
- Oh yeah, this is getting...
That was such a good flip!
That's a big hunk of cheese, isn't it?
- Okay, the cheese is starting to melt a little bit.
So now I am going to flip it over.
Ooh, look at that golden color on there.
Do a little more water and cover it again.
- Okay. It's starting to roast.
I smell burning.
It's roasting, turn it down.
Down!
- Flip this thing on over.
Come on baby.
- Ooh, baby.
That is melting.
- I didn't quite leave the cheese on long enough to melt
but I figure the bread is so hot right now
that the cheese is melting
as we speak, off the stove.
- Oh, I can smell it.
It is crispy.
- So now we're just gonna give it a nice cut.
Ooh baby.
- [Ben] Oh my God.
- Okay, the knife is not quite working for me,
so I'm just gonna go a little pull here.
You have that beautiful...
(laughs)
- [Ben] Dang, hello!
- I was hoping for something a little more stretchy.
We're not mad at it.
- I want to eat the (beep) out of this.
- All right, now I'm gonna bring this
over to Ben and Tucker
and see how their grilled cheeses came out.
- [Ben] Wow, that is some burnt toast.
(Tucker's plate crashes) (Ben laughs)
- So it's time to judge.
Merle and I are both here.
The vegans have come to...
- The vegans are coming, the vegans are coming.
- We don't know whose grilled cheese is whose.
These were placed in at random.
How about we start off with this one first.
- These are both final presentation.
- Uh-huh.
- Noted.
- What's that supposed to mean?
- Oh, you're gonna find out what that means.
Over here, it looks like a grilled cheese
from a Kraft child sandwich commercial.
- We've got a lightly golden brown exterior.
Cheese doesn't look too melted.
- Kind of looks like mustard inside.
- It looks a bit like sweet potato to me.
- I got a couple things to say about this one.
This one has jam hands written all over it.
It looks like children finger painted on this plate.
- [Rachel] It's giving me chaos.
- That I agree with.
- It's matching the energy of the show.
Okay so for presentation for this one,
I'm gonna give it a seven.
- I think I'm gonna give it a six and a half.
I do like the bread, the bread looks nice.
- Okay, this one has character for sure.
I think if we're leaning into the chaos.
I have to give this one like a three and a half.
- I have to give it a one.
I'm sorry.
The presentation's bad.
- You ready to take a bite of this one?
- Yeah.
(dramatic music)
- It is so beautiful to watch your faces while you try it.
- It's like a turmeric paste in the middle.
- Yeah. - It is, right?
It is.
- Yeah. I could have used more oomph in the middle.
More cheese.
- This looks like mustard on the bread, you know?
Two.
- [Rachel] I'm gonna give it a 3
- But the bread's nice.
I like how they did the bread.
- [Rachel] Okay, let's try this one.
(dramatic music)
- I just ate a whole cashew.
I ate a whole cashew!
(laughter)
- I would rather eat this one because
I could scrape the burnt bits off and deal with it.
This is a pure turmeric sandwich and I can't.
I'm gonna give this one a five point five.
- [Merle] Okay, I'm gonna give it a point five.
- Wow! - That is not good.
- [Rachel] Time for the real thing, baby.
So this is the one that I made earlier today.
(all exclaim)
- [Merle] Oh, it's melty on the inside.
Definitely better.
- I think it's definitely better than these two.
But that being said, I think my recipe could be improved.
I do, I think it could be improved.
- Wow.
- But I still will say, this is pleasant to eat.
- So let's rate.
So this one visually, yes, much closer.
Just for the bread though.
Cheese, not very close.
Because this has like some gooey-ness to it.
Taste wise, not close.
I'm giving this a six.
- Color is closer.
Bread is closer.
Flavor couldn't be further away.
I'll give it a five.
- Why not?
- [Rachel] This one, I think visually it's a no.
The texture I got from the cheese was a little gooier,
ever so slightly than this one.
I'm gonna give it a 6.5.
- Visually, the neon color of this does not match this.
But the flavor, you can find a little bit
of a path beyond the turmeric in this one.
So I'll give it a six.
- All right.
So let's reveal to us who made which one.
- Who's the winner?
- Thank you so much.
(all exclaim) - [Tucker] No, that was his!
- Ben is the winner!
- Woo woo!
- [Tucker] You're telling me this didn't win?
- [Ben] Grilled cheesey easy.
- Should we learn what it's supposed to taste like?
- Okay.
- After you. - Oh, thank you so much.
Oh, that tastes so good.
It's a grilled cheese.
It feels like my mom literally just whipped it up.
(record scratch) Do you not like it?
- Ben hates it!
- You're not spitting this one out
compared to your turmeric sandwich?
(laughter)
- Thank you so much for watching.
Let us know in the comments down below
what you'd like to see Ben and Tucker make next,
vegan, without a recipe.
And Merle and I will come back and give it a judge.
- [Tucker] Woo!
(clapping) - Bye-bye, everyone.
(upbeat music)