If someone tried to coax me a year ago with a “vegan mac and cheese” recipe, I would have politely said, “no, thank you.” First of all, I actually don’t really like mac and cheese. Not the boxed kind and not even the homemade kind. Weird, I know. And sad for my husband who looooooves it. I used to have to make him the famous “Ronald Reagan’s favorite mac and cheese” recipe all the time when we first got married. Tons of butter, cheddar cheese, milk, stomach ache for me. Just not my thing. It’s now the 21st century, and we’re both eating differently and I am open minded to alternative recipes.
Although open minded or not, I’ve always felt if I’m not going to like the real deal, why would I like something pretending to be the real deal? And most vegan mac and cheese recipes call for fake processed cheese or nutritional yeast and they’re just not that tasty, in my opinion. Are you with me? Well, according to myself and according to Mr. Picky who still doesn’t like cheese except Pecorino Romano in some soups and on pizza crust, this mac and cheese is the bomb. I think it’s better than mac and cheese and he likes it because he has watched me make it and is confident there is not a morsel of cheese, real or fake, anywhere in this dish.
The only trick with this recipe is that you have to follow it exactly! No eyeballing measurements. No leaving things out. Anytime I have guesstimated an amount with this recipe, it hasn’t worked quite as well, especially with ingredients like cayenne, lemon juice (you can leave this out, but just don’t add more than indicated) and garlic. Some of the images on this post were taken of light spelt macaroni and some of whole spelt macaroni. My family much prefers the light spelt pasta with this sauce, but you should use whatever suits you. I have also tried this with brown rice pasta and a corn-quinoa pasta — both super! Once I threw some small cauliflower florets into the pasta pot two minutes before the pasta was done and made a cauliflower mac and cheese. (See above.) I’m sure broccoli and kale would be great, too! Can you see how much fun we are going to have with this??!!
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Vegan Mac and Cheese
Ingredients
- 8 ounce package elbow macaroni pasta, I like spelt.
- 2 slices bread, torn into large pieces (whole grain works!)
- 6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, not vegan or organic Earth Balance (vegan), divided
- 1/4 teaspoon paprika
- 2 Tablespoons chopped shallots
- 1 cup about 7 ounces chopped Yukon gold potatoes (you can leave the peel on)
- ¼ cup chopped carrots, about 1 small carrot
- 1/3 cup chopped onion
- 1 cup water
- ¼ cup raw cashews, soaked for 1-5 hours and drained if you your blender is weak
- 2 teaspoons sea salt, use 1 ¾ teaspoons if using Earth Balance
- ¼ teaspoon garlic, minced (about 1 medium clove)
- ¼ teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 Tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice, optional
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- pinch of cayenne pepper
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, add the shallots, potatoes, carrots, onion and water and bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer and cook, covered, for 15 minutes, or until vegetables are very soft. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Cook the pasta in salted water until al dente, drain and put back into the pot.
- Put the bread pieces, 1 Tablespoon of butter and paprika in a food processor fitted with a metal blade and process until combined to a medium-fine texture, set aside.
- Place the cashews, salt, garlic, 5 Tablespoons butter, mustard, lemon juice, black pepper, and cayenne in a blender or food processor. Add the softened vegetables and cooking water to the blender or food processor and process until perfectly smooth.
- Pour the “cheese” sauce over the cooked pasta and combine until completely coated. Spread the mixture into an un-greased 11 x 8 casserole dish, sprinkle with prepared breadcrumb mixture. Bake for 30 minutes or until the sauce is bubbling and the top is golden brown. If you add veggies (such as 1 or 2 cups of blanched cauliflower or broccoli) to the macaroni, cook in a 13 x 9 dish.
Notes
Like this recipe? Rate & comment below!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! This has become a family favorite recipe/sauce. I have 2 out of 3 kids with dairy allergies and they finally can have mac and cheese that they love again. My oldest who can have dairy says that this is better than the kind in the “blue box” 🙂
Better than the blue box — LOVE it! And I have to agree! 🙂
Also, for those of us who can’t have potatoes (nightshades) I bet Japanese white sweet potatoes would work as a sub.
I bet you are right! Excellent suggestion. Thank you!
Amazing! I have been missing cheese and couldn’t wait to try this! I will have to make a batch without cashews for my son and see how that turns out as he can’t eat cheese anymore either. Can’t wait to share THIS one.
I make a version with just a milk alternative (rice milk), coconut oil, grainy mustard or prepared mustard, nutritional yeast, pepper and salt. I add turmeric for color, and a pinch of paprika. 🙂 you could try that for your son also~ Lots of nutritional yeast! And mustard to taste. It adds that sharp cheddary flavor 🙂
I am so excited to try this. I am not vegan, nor have allergies, but my family and friends all have different sensitivities and I like to collect recipes to have on hand for them. My question is… do you think I can make this casserole and freeze it. has anyone tried to freeze it before baking, or even after baking it. Can’t wait to make it
I have tried freezing just the sauce, and it was not a success. I have not tried freezing the whole casserole though, although I’d like to know if it works.
I freeze my potato/carrot vegan cheese sauce all the time. The trick to getting it to turn out right is to do one to 2 things: completely reheat on stovetop, stirring frequently (if you don’t let it boil for a little bit, there will still be textured crystal particles in it) OR let thaw partially then reblend with a little extra water. Every time I make this, I make up a double recipe of my version (without cashews, +some nutritional yeast) and freeze half in a plastic container. It’s super nice to be able to pull it out of the freezer and have it ready to go for casseroles, lasagna, nachos, baked potatoes, enchiladas, pizza, burritos, you name it!
Super helpful tip, Christy! I need to try that because I only tried freezing it once and it was not great! Thank you!
I never leave comments on blogs, but this was AMAZING!!! My cheese-loving children went nuts for it and asked for seconds (and thirds, but I had to cut them off…lol)!
Well, I’m so glad you broke tradition and chimed in! So happy this was a success!
I don’t normally leave comments on recipes, but wow! This cheese sauce is amazing. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Hey, you’re welcome! Now you have to try the vegan queso dip, which is a twist on the mac and cheese sauce. Insane!
Thank you for telling me about that one! I had no idea you had that on your website. This cheese sauce is out of this world. I’ve made it so many times. I even used it on a loaded baked potato as you suggested – YUM!
I am obsessed with the sauce on baked potatoes!!
Oh my god. This is literally life changing. Tried another cheese recipie yesterday and it was truly terrible so I didn’t hold out much hope for this but I was so SO WRONG
Thank you so much for sharing this amazing dish!!!!
Haha! Love your comments! Thanks!
This tastes frighteningly similar to cheese!!! I mean that in the best way possible.
My poor boyfriend, who due to a health issue can eat pretty much nothing (no red meat, nightshades, alcohol, refined sugar, almonds, soy, dairy, egg and most grains), thought I was being vengeful by cooking myself a giant pot of mac and cheese to eat all to myself.
I used sweet potato rather than yukon golds (a nightshade) and only 1 TBS of olive oil rather than butter/roux/vegan butter subsitute and added 1 TBS of nutritional yeast. It was delish! It even went well as leftovers which usually doesn’t work with rice pasta- it gets too dry.
The sweet potato gave it even more of a “cheddar” appearance.
Definitely on our “make again” list! Thank you!!!
Super excited by your comments!! I cannot wait to try this with sweet potato! Why didn’t I think to try that?! Love all your substitutions and they are so helpful for people who also can’t have this or that. Thank you so much!
this was the greatest thing i’ve ever tasted. my 6 year old had no idea it wasn’t real cheese. INSANE.
I have to say, I think this is the best mac and cheese, even though it’s not real cheese. SO glad you loved it! 🙂
For those with nut allergies what could be a substitute for the cashews? Can’t wait to try this!! Cheddar cheese and many others are amongst a long list of allergies and Mac and cheese has been on the cravings list for awhile now!
I need to try this without cashews for nut-free people. I have no idea how to do it, but I’ll probably try adding more potato or some white beans.
You can easily add more potato and carrot and leave out the cashews. I do it all the time.
I just tried this recently with more potato to sub for the cashews and it worked, but the potato flavor was pretty prominent. I need to see if I can fidget with the other flavors to make up for that.
Hey! We used sunflower seeds instead of cashews, and also butter beans instead of potatoes (we were out of both potatoes and cashews, night before a shopping day lol!), and it worked great! I used a little extra beans. Probably would have been creamier with cashews, and I intend to make it as written at some point too, but it was still great and I’m sure it would be fine just leaving out the nuts if you can’t do seeds either, and adding some extra potato or beans, like she said:) Anyway, my six year old sister loved it.. she isn’t usually a dinner girl but she ate the whole thing, so I think it went well
I am so excited to hear about these substitutions! And they’re so helpful for people who are nut-free (and out of potatoes!) I am certain that cashews would make the sauce creamier, but if sunflower seeds get the job done — awesome!