It’s my pleasure to introduce you to this wonderfully creamy, silky, and buttery vegan mac and cheese that is totally delicious and completely nut-free! This is such a fun and supremely yummy recipe – I love it so much. comment icon 64 more comments Some vegan mac and cheeses involve boiling and puréeing sauces. Some use nuts (like raw cashews) to create the creaminess. But this one has no puréeing, no nuts, and comes together in a very Easy Mac type of way: a “cheeze” powder with the best cheesy flavor whisked into the plant milk of your choice to create a silky vegan cheese sauce, poured over macaroni noodles, and mixed all together with a knob of vegan butter. VOILA. First lunch, second lunch, after-school snack, midnight noodle craving… it checks all the standard mac and cheese boxes.
What Is This Vegan Mac and Cheese Made Of?
Here’s our very short ingredient list:
NoodlesNutritional yeastCornstarchSome spices for flavor and color – like onion powder, garlic powder, turmeric, and paprikaNon-dairy milk of choice – I like soy milk or oat milkVegan butter to make it extra luxe
All the dry stuff is going to make an Easy Mac-style cheeze powder which looks like this: AND HOLY BUCKETS LOOK AT WHAT IT BECOMES. A creamy, luscious sauce that coats every nook and cranny of your macaroni noodles and brings you to the mountaintop of the macaroni and cheese experience with minimal time, minimal effort, and maximal delight.
How To Make This Vegan Mac and Cheese Recipe
Pull out your blender and your favorite pot and let’s go! You’re literally just 10 minutes away from the vegan mac and cheese magic. That’s it. You’re done. Magic, right?
Okay, But Does It REALLY Taste Like Mac and Cheese?
All vegan mac and cheese has its own flavor based on what you use for the sauce, but this one is pretty straightforward. Texture-wise, it’s super, super similar to just a regular box of mac and cheese, which is just a wonderful gift from the mac and cheese angels Flavor-wise, the nutritional yeast drives the bus with a nutty, umami-ish, salty cheeze vibe, and the taste of the sauce will vary slightly with the type of milk you use. But the best news of all is that I find that this truly tastes buttery in the best way with the addition of a little knob of vegan butter melted in at the end. Obviously we are no strangers to true cheesy goodness combined with noodles over here at Pinch of Yum (see here, here, and here), and I personally eat mostly everything, including real cheese, but I love having a good plant-based option in my back pocket and this one is just glorious.
Prefer To Watch Instead Of Read?
Watch Lindsay make this Vegan Mac and Cheese on Stories!
Source Notes: I got this idea from The School Night Vegan blog! I had literally never heard of anyone making vegan mac and cheese by making a dry cheeze powder until I came across his blog post. It’s such a smart idea! His cheeze powder used a few ingredients that I don’t normally stock, so I just made it a little more pantry-friendly for what I normally have on hand. But the cheeze powder method is his genius idea – and he has a super fun website with lots of vegan recipes that is worth some perusing if you like plant-based recipes!
More Delicious Vegan Pasta Recipes
Creamy Red Pepper Pasta with Blistered Tomatoes (5 stars from 27 reviews!)5 Ingredient Vegan Vodka Pasta (4.6 stars from 50 reviews!)Burst Tomato and Zucchini Spaghetti with Avocado Sauce (4.9 stars from 43 reviews!)3 Ingredient Creamy Tomato Shells (4.7 stars from 34 reviews!)Red Pepper Cashew Pasta with Roasted Cauliflower (4.8 stars from 62 reviews!)
4.3 from 15 reviews
1/2 cup nutritional yeast 6 tablespoons cornstarch 1 tablespoon onion powder 2 teaspoons garlic powder 1 tablespoon coarse salt 1/4 teaspoon turmeric and paprika (for color)
The Mac:
1/2 box elbow macaroni pasta 1 1/2 cups non-dairy milk (unsweetened almond milk, soy milk, or oat milk are my favorites) 3 tablespoons non-dairy butter teensy squeeze of lemon juice (optional)
