Nutritional Yeast Popcorn Seasoning

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A healthy popcorn seasoning made with Nutritional Yeast! Popcorn with Nutritional Yeast is healthy, low in calories, low in sodium, and high in vitamins and minerals.

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If you’ve never had popcorn seasoned with nutritional yeast, then you need to add it to your list of snacks to try!

We eat A TON of popcorn in our house, and sometimes I’ll even serve it with a smoothie for a light lunch.

Since I’m usually giving it to my kiddo (she’s crazy for popcorn too), I want to make sure it’s packed with as many nutrients as possible.

Nutritional yeast makes a fantastic and healthy popcorn seasoning. It adds a nice touch of savory and tasty flavor to an otherwise bland snack– without adding a bunch of sodium and other funky ingredients.

For this recipe, I bump up the flavor even more by adding a touch of salt and a little bit of garlic powder for zip.

Nutritional yeast is full of vitamins and minerals, and is a great source of protein too!! Who knew right?

Here’s a little bit more info for ya:

What is Nutritional Yeast?

Nutritional yeast actually comes from the same type of yeast species that is used to bake bread or brew beer.

However, it’s processed completely differently.

Nutritional yeast is grown and fed a sugar rich diet for several days, and then it’s heat treated to deactivate the yeast. That’s what sets nutritional yeast apart from brewing or leavening yeasts–which are purchased alive. Nutritional yeast is not alive.

After harvesting, the yeast is washed, dried, broken up, and packaged for distribution.

Nutritional yeast has a very nutty and savory flavor–a lot of folks claim it has a “cheesy” flavor. This is why it makes a fantastic healthy popcorn seasoning!

Nutritional yeast is low in calories, sodium, and is fortified with nutrients. It’s also vegan, gluten free, and dairy free!

Info sourced from healthline.com.

Is Nutritional Yeast Good For You?

Fortified nutritional yeast is the typical variety we see in stores and it is very nutritious!

It contains a good deal of riboflavin, thiamin, and B Vitamins and it’s also a complete protein!

Nutritional yeast contains all nine essential amino acids that our bodies can’t make on their own. Adding nutritional yeast into food is a great way to get good protein into plant-based diets!

The brand I use contains 5g of protein per tablespoon!

Nutritional yeast also contains trace minerals that can help with immunity, growth, and metabolism!

Non-fortified varieties will still pack in hefty amounts of B Vitamins, protein, and minerals because it naturally grows in yeast!

So whether you select fortified or non-fortified, you can’t go wrong.

Just make sure to read the labels to best decide which yeast will work for your dietary needs!

Info sourced from healthline.com.

How to make Nutritional Yeast Popcorn Seasoning

Makes enough for two generous bowls of popcorn

Ingredients:

• 8 cups popped corn (1/3 cup of kernels, stovetop instructions below)
• Olive oil for popping
• 2 teaspoons fortified nutritional yeast
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder (NOT garlic salt)
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Instructions:

In a small dish, combine your salt, garlic powder, and nutritional yeast. Set aside.

To make stovetop popped corn:

Pour 2 tablespoons of olive oil into the bottom of a heavy bottomed saucepot, 2 quarts or larger.

Add 1/3 cup of popcorn kernels to the oil and swirl it around, making sure the kernels are coated with the oil.

Set the pot on the burner, put the lid on and turn the burner to high heat.

Once the popcorn starts to pop, give the pot a shake every few seconds to prevent burning on the bottom.

*I have an electric stove, so I actually lift the pot off the burner to give it a good shake. Make sure to keep the lid on the pot!

Once the popcorn starts to pop furiously, turn off the heat and continue to pop and shake until there is a 1-2 second delay in between each pop.

Remove pot from the burner and pour the popcorn into a bowl.

Sprinkle on your Nutritional Yeast Popcorn Seasoning and give the popcorn a toss with a spoon to coat evenly.

Add more salt, garlic, or yeast to taste and enjoy your simple, healthy popcorn snack!

Making sure your stovetop popcorn pops:

I’ve definitely found myself wondering “why isn’t my stovetop popcorn popping?”.

It turns out the biggest culprit has been old popcorn kernels!

We eat A TON of popcorn in my house, so a lot of times we buy kernels in bulk.

I’ve noticed when we start getting to the bottom of the container, the kernels just won’t pop. So fresh kernels equal success!

It’s also important to keep the pan moving so you don’t burn the popcorn before all the kernels pop!

I keep the pan on the burner for just a minute to get the popcorn really popping and then I actually remove the pot from the direct heat, keep the lid on, and continue shaking the pot while holding it above the hot burner.

I’ll continue this until I hear only one to two kernels popping at a time, and then I’ll pour the popcorn straight into a bowl.

How to get your spices and nutritional yeast to stick to the popcorn

For this recipe, I pop my corn in olive oil on the stovetop.

When I pour the popcorn out into my bowl, there’s usually extra oil from the bottom of the pot coating the popcorn. I sprinkle on the seasoning and it seems to coat everything nicely.

But if you’re using microwave popcorn or pretty dry popcorn after popping, you can spritz the popped corn lightly with cooking spray and then add your seasoning.

…and of course you can always use melted butter!

What can I put on my popcorn instead of butter?

You can warm a little olive oil or coconut oil in a skillet with your nutritional yeast, garlic, and salt and drizzle it over the top of your popped corn.

A little tip: try to drizzle the oil around the sides of the bowl and then toss the popcorn–instead of pouring the hot oil directly on top of the popcorn. This helps to keep the popcorn from deflating and getting soggy.

You can also spritz your popcorn with a little cooking spray–like an olive oil or coconut oil based spray.

Other Recipes You Might Like:

Chocolate Covered Popcorn

Chex Snack Mix In The Crockpot

Homemade Mexican Seasoning Blend

Easy Nut Free Trail Mix

Tools You May Need:

Nutritional Yeast

Popcorn Kernels

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