Description
This is the best vegan mac and cheese! It’s creamy, flavorful, easy, and ready in 30 minutes. The pasta is tossed in a “cheesy” sauce made with simple + healthy ingredients. It’s a delicious vegan comfort food that’s secretly loaded with nutrition!
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 lb pasta (elbow, cavatappi, rotini, or shells)
- 2 cups chopped carrots
- 1/2 cup raw cashews, soaked
- 1/3 cup nutritional yeast
- 1 cup water
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tbsp mellow white miso paste
- 4 slices tamed jalapeño* (from a jar)
- 3–4 cloves garlic (or 1–1.5 tsp garlic powder)
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 tsp ground turmeric (optional, for color)
Instructions
- Soak cashews: Bring 2 cups of water to a boil. Add cashews to a bowl. Pour boiling water over the cashews. Soak for 20 minutes, then drain the water.
- Cook carrots: Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to a boil. Add chopped carrots and cook, covered, for 10 minutes or until fork-tender.
- Cook pasta: While the carrots are boiling, cook the pasta according to package instructions. After, drain and rinse the pasta.
- Blend ingredients: Add cashews, carrots, nutritional yeast, water, lemon juice, tomato paste, miso paste, pickled jalapeño, garlic, onion powder, salt, pepper, and turmeric to the blender. Blend until smooth and creamy.
- Combine: Transfer cooked pasta back into the pot. Pour “cheesy” sauce over the pasta and mix together. Cook until warm. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
- *Use tamed jalapeño, NOT fresh jalapeño or hot jalapeño.
- Read blog post for ingredient substitutions.
- Nutrition information below reflects the use of chickpea pasta.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/5 recipe
- Calories: 423
- Sugar: 12g
- Fat: 10g
- Saturated Fat: 1g
- Carbohydrates: 63g
- Fiber: 16g
- Protein: 28g
Keywords: vegan mac and cheese, vegan mac and cheese cashews