Vegan Mac N Cheez
- Total Time
- 30 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
Advertisement
Ingredients
Yield:Serves 4
- ½ large sweet potato, scrubbed and cut into large chunks.
- 1medium carrot, top and tailed, washed and cut into thick slice
- ½ small onion, peeled and halved
- ¼ red bell pepper, thickly sliced
- ½ cup broken cashew pieces (pre-soaked for 2-4 hours, or overnight)
- ½ cup of nutritional yeast
- ½ teaspoon turmeric
- ¼ teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1tablespoon sweet white miso
- 1teaspoon Dijon mustard
- Juice of ½ small lemon
- Non-dairy milk, preferably unsweetened
- Whole grain pasta
- Salt to taste
Preparation
- Step 1
In a vegetable steamer, steam the sweet potatoes, carrots, onion and red bell pepper until fork-soft, about 15 minutes. When the vegetables are half cooked, put the water on to boil for the pasta. Salt generously.
- Step 2
When the veggies are soft, put them in the blender with the remaining ingredients, then blend, adding milk until you obtain a thick pouring sauce. Stop blender once to scrape down the sides blend a little longer to get the sauce really smooth and creamy.
- Step 3
Drain the pasta and return to the pan. Pour the sauce over the pasta and stir over a low heat for a few minutes to warm through and combine thoroughly.
- Step 4
Serve with kid-friendly greens of your choice.
Private Notes
Leave a Private Note on this recipe and see it here.
Cooking Notes
Hannah211
If there is one thing I've learned about making vegan cheez, replacing sweet potatoes with turnips helps tone down the sweetness and makes it taste more like a sharp cheddar.
SonomaSMB
I'm not a vegan & don't have kids, but was curious about this substitute for Macncheese.
I'm surprised by the negative comments from people who I suppose are looking for this sort of pasta. I found it to be surprisingly satisfying & very tasty.
It was a little on the sweet side, so would substitute squash for sweet potatoes, but otherwise the seasonings were great. Loved the taste of yeast & turmeric especially, & the veggies & miso. A 5 star for creativity!
CosmoBrown
Mine came out delish! I served this as as part of a large feast that also in involved, I am sad to say, a lamb roast. It was a hit! I mixed in the Vegan Mushroom Make-Ahead Gravy and people liked it even better. I suggest doing that or adding your own sautéed mushrooms and onions to give it an extra kick. My guests found this to be a welcome, smokey addition to a mid-winter Sunday supper,
Hannah211
I am a dairy free lady trying to develop non-sweet nut free cheez alternatives. This I know so far from experimenting with this recipe: 1. Replace sweet potato with a mix of turnip and white or yellow potato. 2. Add turmeric, red miso, and nutritional yeast to taste. 3. Salt is your friend in cheez. Add as much as you need. 4. 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds can replace 1/3 cup cashews without sacrificing creaminess.
Elizabeth
Too sweet as is. Upped the yeast by 200% and added some Maggi, and taste was good.
David s.
gets points for color and texture. The flavor however, is not at all reminiscent of mac 'n cheese and it fails to convince even a bit. The sense is of a sweetish (potato,carrot) vegetal (onion and pepper) flavor and it would be quite nice as a sauce for creamed broccoli, whipped cauliflower or as a binder for a casserole of some sort. Presenting it as a mac 'n cheese substitute is false to anyone who has had the real deal. Your average 3 yr old vegan is another matter.They will enjoy
Beth
Made this with roasted instead of steamed vegetables and used canned coconut milk and 16 oz of pasta, which was perfect. Looked like mac and cheese, but flavor was pretty mediocre. Too sweet and bland. 3.5 year old refused to eat it. 6 year old had a few polite bites. Wouldn't make it again.
Kathryn
I would imagine that you have your choice of soy, almond, coconut, hemp, etc. My preference is for almond milk, but you should try using what you like.
Christa
No kidding--what does just "whole-grain pasta" mean? I mean, how far can one reasonably expect the sauce to go? Thank you for your suggestion of 16 ounces.
Thomas
This was well received by vegans and non vegans alike. Followed recipe exactly as written and it came out wonderfully.
Ashley
No indication of how much pasta to use, so I did 16 ounces and I still had a bit of extra sauce.
Kristina Wilson
have you tried nutritional yeast? it has a cheese dust flavor to it that is supposed to make it a ton better. Or you could add daiya or other vegan cheese. I'd say other because when daiya melts it gets very gooey.
Sophie
Adding salt to the "cheez" sauce helps fix the unintended sweetness!
Lloyd
As someone who was vegan for two years, this recipe feels like it still won’t deliver the same punch. Try Susan’s recipe at the fat free vegan blog, it’s absolutely fantastic. Five years after going back to a carnivore lifestyle, we still make that recipe as it’s the bomb!
Christa
My experiences is that these are basically interchangeable.
Chris
Added some cayenne pepper but otherwise made as is. Creamy, delicious, and somewhat nutritious! Used 16 oz of elbow macaroni. At first I thought there was too much sauce but settled after sitting a cpl min. Will make again!
Debbie
Hannah 211’s suggestion of a turnip instead of sweet potato is a game changer! I like the sweet potato but am always craving more funk in my vegan “cheese” dishes, and turnip is a genius idea
Julia Jewels
I love vegan mc and cheese because I dont feel heavy after eating it, this recipe is comforting but still noutrishious.
celiafrost
It is always a mistake to think a sub will somehow magically be the real thing. The gooey melty wonderfulness of a multi cheese sauce will not be replicated by this recipe, but it is a highly satisfactory comfort food. Flavorful and rich with multiple flavors overlapping; this is the tastiest vegan mac and cheese version I have made. Note: I had kobocha squash instead of the sweet potato, and will probably keep up that variation.
Steve
Good. Stays creamy when refrigerated and tastes great cold the next morning.
senorfuzz
Experienced vegan mac and cheese maker and eater here; I liked this one. Drop in a raw deseeded jalapeño for extra kick.
Molly Day
How much milk?
Lisa Kav
I’ve made this a few times. Substituted tahini in place of cashews for a nut allergy and it was even better! If I want it more hearty, I sauté finely chopped mushrooms and add diced tomatoes and garlic, simmered for a bit. Then it’s a plant based bolognese.
Juliet
maybe my sweet potato half was smaller than my onion half (it was an onion fit for Sisyphus), but mine wasn't too sweet at all, and I found a generous shake of white pepper really went a long way; could also be another reason why I didn't find it too sweet. It's more creeping-from-the-depths heat is a great boon to this sauce.
Emily Drew
It turns out great and creamy, but not Mac and cheese flavor, which is fine. For some reason which I cannot figure out, it had a taste and smell of peas, but there’s no peas in this..? I should add that I do not have a steamer, so I boiled water and put the veggies in til they were fork soft
Erin
This recipe satisfies my winter comfort food criteria: creamy, warm, nourishing, easy, and delicious. I love that you can have comfort food that's also packed with fibre and goodness.
Hannah211
Tried a different approach to this recipe: 1/2 lb steamed, cooked eggplant from a double boiler - just enough to become blended - in place of sweet potato. 5.5 oz turnips in place of all other vegetables. No cashews! All other seasonings kept the same. I basically followed the same directions for the new ingredients that I tried. It turned out as a creamy sauce for me, and I think it could have been because of how starchy the eggplant was. Made Cauliflower & Cheez that was delicious.
Hannah211
I am a dairy free lady trying to develop non-sweet nut free cheez alternatives. This I know so far from experimenting with this recipe: 1. Replace sweet potato with a mix of turnip and white or yellow potato. 2. Add turmeric, red miso, and nutritional yeast to taste. 3. Salt is your friend in cheez. Add as much as you need. 4. 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds can replace 1/3 cup cashews without sacrificing creaminess.
silverbird88
How much pasta goes with this much sauce?
Lloyd
As someone who was vegan for two years, this recipe feels like it still won’t deliver the same punch. Try Susan’s recipe at the fat free vegan blog, it’s absolutely fantastic. Five years after going back to a carnivore lifestyle, we still make that recipe as it’s the bomb!
Private notes are only visible to you.
Advertisement
