Garlic Nutritional Yeast Popcorn

Thought I'd share with you a simple snack that has been rocking my world lately. Yes, it's popcorn with nutritional yeast, and, yes, even non-vegetarians (nutritional yeast is almost exclusively found in vegetarian pantries for some reason...something about B vitamins) go gah-gah for the stuff when it's sprinkled on popcorn, but I thought this would be a good reminder to all who have loved and forgotten to pick up this snack habit again, and maybe even enlighten a few who are out of the pop corn + nutritional yeast = yum loop.

The popcorn recipe has a few more flavoring ingredients than the cheesy tasting nutritional yeast; there's also salt, black pepper, and garlic powder. This combo was actually first made by a friend for a pre-hiking snack, and the only thing I could think about after eating this snack was getting back to the car to finish off the bag of popcorn. And then replicating the recipe back at home.We've been popping corn on the stove in a lidded pot with a couple teaspoons of oil in the bottom, which is so incredibly simple, if not a little scary the first time you try it. Oil + popcorn + lidded pan over medium-high heat = popped corn in a few minutes. Try it! The only way to fail is if you walk away from the stove and burn the kernels, but you'd never do that, right! (My popcorn looks burned, but it's not; the black bits are just the outside of the black popcorn kernels.)

If you'd like to skip the oil, I recently tried this trick where you stick popcorn kernels in a paper bag and throw the bag in the microwave for a few minutes (just like microwave popcorn!) and it pops right up, no oil used at all!

I find the nutritional yeast and other flavorings stick better to the popcorn if there's a little oil or butter used in the popping, so prefer the stove-top method. Also, putting the popcorn in a large bag with the nutritional yeast, salt, pepper, and garlic powder and giving it a vigorous shaking helps immensely in getting the flavor in all the nooks and crannies.

Hunker down, movie watching season is approaching, so I wanna know your favorite popcorn recipe? Garlic Nutritional Yeast Popcorn
makes 2 sit-in-front-of-TV servings

I never measure anything when making this popcorn, but did for this post. Normally, I just glug some oil in the pan or add some butter, add enough popcorn kernels to just cover the bottom of the pan, cover, and pop, then add nutritional yeast, salt, garlic powder, and black pepper to taste without any type of measuring device.

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 cup popcorn kernels
2 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
20 cranks of the black pepper mill

• Add vegetable oil to 4-quart lidded pot, then add popcorn kernels.
• Cook over medium-high heat, shaking pan occasionally to move kernels around and avoid burning. When popping subsides to about 3 seconds between pops, remove from heat. (Because I don't normally measure and often use a smaller 2-quart pot, the popped corn often does not have enough room and starts to push the lid up. Don't freak. Just have a bowl nearby to pour some of the popped corn into, then continue cooking the unpopped kernels in the pot with the lid on.)
• Pour popcorn into a large bag along with the nutritional yeast, salt, garlic powder, and black pepper. Shake the bag to distribute the ingredients, then pour the popcorn out into a serving bowl.