The Best Vegan Mac and Cheese You'll Ever Eat
The BEST vegan mac and cheese recipe with a deliciously creamy vegan cashew cheese sauce! This easy vegan mac and cheese can be made in a few simple steps, has a hint of spice and will be your new favorite plant based comfort food.
Servings 6 servings
Calories 470cal
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups raw cashews*
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
- 1 1/4 cups unsweetened almond milk (or neutral dairy free milk of choice)
- 1 jalapeño, chopped (you can deseed if you are sensitive to spice)
- 3/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 3/4 teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 pound shell (Conchiglie) pasta* (or sub any kind of gluten free pasta you’d like!)
- To garnish:
- Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- *To make the cashew cheese sauce: soak the cashews in 4 cups of water for at least 2 hours; otherwise I've found that you can easily speed up the process by adding the raw cashews to a pot with water and placing over high heat. Bring water to a boil, then immediately turn off the heat; let the cashews sit for 30-45 minutes in the warm water, then drain.
- Once the cashews have finished soaking you'll be ready to make the sauce: add drained cashews, garlic, nutritional yeast, almond milk, jalapeno, turmeric, paprika, onion powder, dijon mustard, salt and black pepper to a high powered blender. Blend until a thick sauce comes together. If you want a thinner sauce, add a bit more almond milk. Taste and adjust seasonings as necessary.
- Cook the noodles according to the directions on the package, until they are al dente. Drain noodles, then add back to pot and stir in your cashew cheese sauce. Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary. You may need more salt! Garnish with freshly ground black pepper. Enjoy!
Notes
To make gluten free: feel free to use a gluten free pasta if you’d like.
See the blog post on how to make fun versions of this mac and cheese, such as chili mac, taco mac, adding veggies, or even baking it!
To make ahead of time: this vegan mac and cheese can absolutely be made a day or two ahead of time, however I do suggest adding 1 cup more milk to the vegan cheese sauce to account for the liquid that will get absorbed as it sits in the fridge. Simply make everything and then add mac and cheese to a 9x13 inch pan and cover with foil. Store in the fridge. Once ready, you can bake the mac and cheese covered at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes or until reheated.
Nutrition
Serving: 1serving (based on 6) | Calories: 470cal | Carbohydrates: 66.3g | Protein: 16.7g | Fat: 15.8g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Fiber: 5.7g | Sugar: 3.5g