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Cheesy Easy Vegan Mac and Cheese– you’re going to LOVE this creamy pasta dish that’s completely dairy free but still a great way to satisfy your cheese craving! It’s made with easy to find ingredients and comes together in no time.
Oh HELLO creamy vegan pasta of my dreams! I grew up eating varying degrees of mac and cheese: the powdered cheese Kraft kind, the creamy orange cheese kind, and occasionally, the homemade freshly grated cheese kind. I loved ALL of them as a kid.
This particular vegan mac and cheese that I’ve created is kind of a mixture of all 3 of those originals and I LOVE it for that :D
You can use whatever kind of pasta you want in this dish. I went with classic macaroni noodles for this. The smaller noodles are also easier for my toddler to eat (fyi- she LOVED this vegan mac and cheese!).
So, what’s in my vegan mac and cheese?
- Soaked cashews
- Steamed carrots
- Nutritional yeast
- Vegan butter
- Broth
- Spices
- Pasta
Super basic. Super creamy. SO DELICIOUS!
How to make vegan mac and cheese:
Soak the cashews: The most difficult part of this recipe is remembering to soak the cashews in time (I pretty much always forget). I’ve found that you get the most creamy sauce when you soak the cashews overnight but if you DO forget, here’s a work-around: place the cashews in a small pot and cover with water. Bring the water to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and let sit 15 minutes. Then just drain, rinse, and use as usual!
To make the mac and cheese: cook your pasta according to package instructions.
For the sauce, simply combine all of the ingredients in a blender and blend until creamy and smooth. I’ve found that it can take a couple of minutes to really blend all of the cashews and to get it super creamy. It’s totally worth the wait! :)
Once everything is ready, simply pour the sauce over top of the pasta and stir to combine. EASY PEASY!
To make this recipe gluten free, simply use a gluten free pasta. There are SO MANY good ones on the market these days. I would love to know what your favorite is!
See how to make the BEST Vegan Mac & Cheese here:
Vegan Mac and Cheese
Ingredients
- ½ pound of dried pasta of choice
- heaping 1/2 cup raw cashews soaked overnight and then drained & rinsed, or see notes for quick soaking*
- 1 large carrot, peeled
- ⅓ cup nutritional yeast
- ½ cup veggie broth
- 1 tablespoon of vegan butter, softened
- 1 tsp salt
- ¼ tsp smoked paprika
- ½ tsp of garlic powder
- ¼ tsp onion powder
Instructions
- Start by steaming your carrot. Cut it into smaller pieces (I cut mine into about 6 pieces) and then place it into a pot. Cover with water and bring to a gentle simmer. Cook until fork tender. Let cool.
- Cook your pasta according to package instructions.
- In a food processor or high speed blender, combine the soaked cashews, steamed carrots, nutritional yeast, broth, salt, paprika, garlic powder, and onion powder. Blend until creamy and smooth.
- Once pasta is done, drain and rinse and then pour the cheese sauce over top. Stir to combine and season with additional salt and pepper as needed.
- ENJOY!
So Yummy! Didn’t have any carrots to use but it still came out great. Very easy to make and I put a little chipotle sauce in mine for some spice and topped it with bread crumbs. My daughter is wanting me to make this everyday and she’s not vegan. Added this to my favorites 👌🥰
I’m used to the potato and carrot mac and cheese but the cashew and carrot mac and cheese is the CREAMIEST ever!!!! this combo is so out of this world! This is my new go-to recipe for mac and cheese now! thank you so much!
I added almond milk, 1 tsp of Dijon mustard, and some buffalo sauce because I made this into a buffalo mac and cheese with crispy buffalo tofu!
Wow this was soo delicious! Mac and cheese is one of my top fave foods so it felt so so good to find a recipe that is plant based (which is how I’m eating for health reasons at the moment). Thank you!
I loved the recipe, and my non-vegan family too!
Its so EASY to do, and Im pretty bad at cooking hahaha
Greetings from Chile ???
Best vegan mac n cheese recipe EVER! I have made it several times. Sometimes when I don’t have carrots I use red bell pepper instead and it is just as good!
I have also used almond milk instead of broth with equally amazing results. tonight I made the cheese to top some oven french fries and it was SO GOOD!! thank you so much for this yummy recipe! I will make it again and again, so creamy and delicious I don’t even miss cheese anymore.
So glad that you liked it, Ash!! And thank you so much for coming back to let me know!
Delicious! This is a great vegan alternative to dairy Mac and cheese!! Very simple and tasty ? I saved some of the cheese sauce to add to other meals (or even as a dip) Thanks for sharing the recipe !
Turned out so well! I doubled the recipe because sauce recipes usually don’t make enough for two people, but holy moly did I end up with a lot of sauce! Definitely not a bad thing though, I’ll at least have extra for work this week ?
I did end up adding soy milk and extra butter because it ended up pretty salty. I should have used low sodium veggie broth.
Thanks for the great recipe!
OMG yay! So glad that you liked it! And there’s really no such thing as too much cheese sauce! LOL
Really good! my only changes were because it’s what I had on hand. I added three small baby potatoes peeled which I steamed with carrots then for the cheese part I added a little mustard, lemon juice, pepper, brown rice miso 1/2 tsp with 1/4 cup water and subbed oat milk to reach 1/2 c instead of veg broth.
yay! so glad that you liked it! love those changes and thank you for coming back to tell me about them!!
This is very really unique helpful information.I learn so much from you as well! Thank you so much for sharing your helpful information. Keep it up.