Vegan Mac and Cheese Recipe (2024)

A bit dry but doubling the sauce ingredients works great, especially as pasta soaks up the sauce overnight. Have been searching for easy and delish vegan mac and cheese and this is it!

According to Natural News, it takes some 2,000 gallons of water to produce one gallon of Cow Milk, roughly twice as much as that required to produce a gallon of Almond Milk.

@JN, oat milk requires very little water and has a low environmental impact. I also think it is really good!

Raizel compares nut milks to cow's milk as using more water to produce, not bringing up the fact that cow's milk also impacts the environment on land usage and the amount of food it takes to feed the cows. There is no debate or argument that even the worst environmentally impacting nut milk doesn't come close to the impact of using cow's milk. Which isn't even mentioning the cruelty... Don't use part of the facts to justify what makes you feel better about your choices.

What can be used for vegan dishes like this other than nut milk? I just can't stomach the environmental costs. https://sustainability.ucsf.edu/1.713

This is a favorite recipe in our house. The amount of cheese sauce this yields isn’t enough for 16oz of pasta for our taste so we always make more sauce. A couple suggestions for the recipe:- After toasting the cashews, allowing them to soak for a few hours in the milk yields a less grainy texture- Adding a little less than half a lemons worth of lemon juice opens up the flavor and makes it more cheese like- Liquid aminos provide a great alternative to the soy sauce for this recipe

JN - oat milk is very creamy, or you could go for good old soy milk. Hemp milk, flax milk, rice milk (probably the least creamy, though) could all also be options. Ripple pea milk is supposed to be closest to cow milk molecularly and mild tasting. I probably wouldn’t use banana milk... If you want to substitute the cashews, sunflower seeds work well. There are a lot of option to avoid nuts.

Made this today with doubled sauce and it was ok. A whole cup of nooch flattens out the flavor a bit, so I decided to make it into lemon pasta by adding lemon zest and nutmeg and now it's much better. The best vegan mac of all time imho is Isa Chandra Moskowitz Chipotle Mac, but this is good if/when we aren't in the mood for spice.

I disagree. I was craving mac & cheese, but I'm recently vegan. So I searched, "Vegan Mac & Cheese," and this great recipe came right up. Think about how people search for foods they want to eat within a search bar. "Pasta shells with creamy sauce" is not SEO friendly and no one would ever search those words.

I listened to Shawns advice, but increased by 50% instead of doubling. I substituted miso when soy-sauce/tamari was needed, and I really liked the outcome. When mixing pasta water, sauce and cooked pasta only a 1/4 cup used. Will surely make this again!

Fresh herbs truly help brighten up this rich dish. We used chopped, flat-leafed parsley after a few initial bites and highly recommend it.

Can the cashew cream be made ahead of time? I'd like to make this for my vegan sister for Thanksgiving but with all the other cooking going on I'm looking for something that can be prepped ahead of time.

This was delicious. I omitted the onion powder since I didn't have any. I highly recommend going with the Panko breadcrumb topping which I don't consider optional.

Nutritional yeast (aka "nooch," and not similar to the yeast used in bread-making) is a savoury substance that can be used in place of Parmesan cheese. Although it doesn't taste like parm, it is delicious and it adds that umami element.

This is not mac and cheese but it's really good!It's a good idea to soak the cashews in the nut milk for a few hours or overnight after you've roasted them.I used dijon mustard (didn't have dry mustard) and added paprika, red pepper flakes and a few dashes of worcestershire sauce. Next time, I'll reduce the amount of nutritional yeast. Big flavour enhancement by adding fresh lemon juice.

I soaked the cashews overnight and blended with the almond milk instead of roasting. It makes for a creamier sauce. I definitely recommend doubling the sauce. I added shallots and fresh lemon juice. I served with roasted Brussels sprouts, roasted red peppers and steamed kale. Next time I would bake in oven at 350 for about 20 minutes before broiling.

now this is old school vegan mac and cheese!! it’s exactly what i was looking for but if you’re interested in a richer, more traditional southern mac and cheese, i’d recommend tabitha browns recipe

Very tasty, even pleased the non-vegans in the family (so everyone else, lol). Made this for Thanksgiving dinner. I can't remember making any substitutions, but would recommend serving right out of the oven after toasting the breadcrumbs. Understandably, it tended to be less creamy (even in a warming drawer/low temp oven).

Agree with the person who recommended Isa Chandra's chipotle mac and cheese as an alternative. I followed their advice for substitution and the result was delicious. You can find the recipe on the ppk.

Add smoked paprika to blender

Deglazzed the pan with wine after the onion saute. Perfect!

If you "Cook the pasta according to package instructions until al dente" and then go through steps 6 and 7, your pasta will be melted by the end. Cut the pasta cooking time by at least 30%!

Who says a vegan diet can’t consist of highly processed and loaded with chemicals ingredients. Yum yum nothing like a mouthful of calcium carbonate and gellan gum

If you replace the olive oil with a bit of nut butter + water, you can improve the heart health of this recipe. Taste and texture will be the same but not oily.

The recipe is fine. Too many of the notes sound like the minutes from a town meeting at a particularly oppressive commune. Let's stick with the food and save the lectures for a different forum.

As others have said, this is DELICIOUS but it does not taste at all like Mac and cheese. I’ve made it multiple times now (with several adjustments at the suggestion of other commenters) and each time it has been delectable! Definitely does not taste anything like Mac and cheese though, there are other vegan Mac and cheese recipes out there that better resemble the real thing.

made tonite using people’s suggestions: added some lemon juice, splash worcestershire, paprika , doubled the amy cashews- DELICIOUS. Don’t skip the broiler with topping !

Love this recipe, but I make it with a small twist- I make the sauce as written, but combine it with a vegan bechamel made with flour, earth balance, and oat milk. Gives it a really nice texture and creamier flavor. Plus, it doubles the amount of sauce without needing more cashews ($$).

I love this recipe, but this time I didn’t have cashews so I subbed 1/3 C almond butter. Very good! A darker deeper nuttier taste.

I added Dijon mustard, cayenne, and a splash of apple cider vinegar to give it more of a tang that was missing without cheese. My non-vegan friends loved it!