This vegan mac and cheese is so comforting and rich, you’d never guess it’s made with healthy plant foods and low in fat!
Happy September, friends! Anybody else here LOVE flipping a page on their calendar as much as me? There’s just something exciting and refreshing about starting a new month, especially one like September. The weather will (hopefully) start to cool down, and I feel like everybody welcomes in fall and all things pumpkin with open arms (and mouths).
I feel like mac and cheese is a childhood classic that everybody loves, right? So naturally, I had to vegan-ize it and I have to admit, I’m pretty proud of myself and how it came out! Lots of vegan mac and cheese recipes are a bit complicated and have a long, long ingredients list, but as always, I wanted to keep it really simple and healthy. So, let’s chat about this vegan mac and cheese!
Ingredients for vegan mac and cheese
- Cooked pasta: I used a red lentil pasta, there are TONS of options made from beans and legumes that are loads healthier than traditional white flour pasta. Some of my favorite brands are Explore Cuisine, Tolerant, and Cybeles.
- Silken tofu: silken tofu gives the sauce a rich and creamy texture, and it’s a great source of plant-based protein, calcium, and iron.
- Nutritional yeast: nutritional yeast gives that savory, cheesy flavor.
- Lemon juice: lemon juice gives the sauce a bit of tang.
- Garlic powder + black pepper + turmeric: these spices help to flavor the sauce and give it color.
- Nondairy milk: liquid thins out the cheese sauce, you can use water or nondairy milk for a slightly creamier texture. I used unsweetened almond milk for neutral flavor.
Tips for making vegan mac and cheese
- Adjust the ingredients as you go to customize it to your preferences. Feel free to play around with spice amounts to your taste, and same goes for the texture – you can add more or less liquid to make it thicker or thinner.
Honestly, this vegan mac and cheese totally exceeded my expectations! The cheese sauce is just so rich creamy and glorious on the pasta. I seriously cannot wait to make this over and over as the weather cools down. I feel like mac and cheese is just a comfort food classic, and that’s so perfect for the chilly weather.
Xo,
Sara
Vegan Mac and Cheese
Ingredients
- Pasta of your choice, cooked according to package directions – I used red lentil pasta
Cheese sauce
- 1 block silken tofu
- 1 cup nutritional yeast
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1 cup nondairy milk – I used unsweetened almond milk, you could also use water for a bit thinner texture
Instructions
- Cook the pasta according to the package directions.
- To make the cheese sauce, put all the ingredients into a food processor or blender and mix until totally combined. Feel free to adjust the nutritional yeast and spices according to your taste.
- If you want the sauce to have a thinner or thicker texture, add more/less nondairy milk or water accordingly.
- Mix your desired amount of sauce with the pasta and stir to coat the pasta completely.
hi sara! this looks delicious – do you think it would work with water instead of almond milk? thanks xxx
Hi Kath! Thanks so much, and yes it should definitely work with water! The texture just might be a bit thinner, but you could always adjust the amount of nutritional yeast to hopefully get a consistency you like. Hope that helps! 🙂
Hi Sara, I’m just making this for our supper and it tastes delicious! I had to add 3/4 cup of milk as it was just too thick – I think that maybe a whole cup of nutritional yeast is too much, & next time I’ll start with 1/4 cup…
Thanks for a great recipe!
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Hi Judi! Thanks so much for the feedback, I totally agree. I used silken tofu initially to make this and that was when I need a lot more nutritional yeast, but yes it can get a little too thick if you use too much with the firm tofu, so thank you and I’ll be sure to add that note to the recipe. Luckily it’s an easy recipe to adjust on the fly as needed, which it sounds like you did successfully! Happy you liked it 🙂
There is a long hair in the cheese sauce picture lol. Sounds like a good easy mac n cheese recipe!
Haha GROSS. Thank you, Jennifer!
Maybe a dumb question, I read through the recipe and was surprised there was no cooking in instructions. I realize the noodles will be hot, but it seems like the cheese sauce would cool it down too much. I like my food hot. Can you just pop it in the oven for a few minutes?
Hi, Heather! I tend to add the cheese sauce as soon as I drain the noodles after cooking, and when I mix it heats the sauce up enough for me. I haven’t tried putting it in the oven myself, but I would think that would be fine as long as you watch it closely and go with a lower heat to avoid any burning! Hope that helps.
Love the recipe as I miss Mac and cheese. I can’t eat tofu.; is there any substitute for it that works? Thanks
Hi! I haven’t tested this recipe with anything other than tofu. But I may post a cheese sauce recipe using sweet potatoes + carrots instead soon, so keep an eye out for that if you don’t find another soon!
What size package / block of tofu should I use. I have never used tofu so I have no idea where to start. I bought a package and it seems like A LOT to use in this recipe. Can you give me ounces, maybe? Thanks!
Hi, Holly! The package I get says 14oz, drained weight. After you blend you’ll have a lot of sauce, you can use as much or as little as you’d like for the recipe and save the rest in a tupperware container in the fridge for a few days to use on other things! Hope that helps.
Thank you for this recipe, I made it last night and it turned out very nice, more so than I expected before I adjusted the salt and added just a little cayenne pepper powder. (I heard once that a very little bit of cayenne, not enough to add heat, enhanced the flavor of food. I made mine with extra firm tofu and added additional water as suggested and that solved the problem. I have more than I need as it’s just my husband and me, maybe in 3-4 days I’ll repeat the mac and “cheese” for dinner. But do you have ideas for using this sauce in a manner other than mac and cheese?
So happy you liked the recipe! I love using the sauce on roasted veggies + baked sweet potatoes.
I can’t find Silken Tofu. Could I use cottage cheese? I know it wouldn’t be vegan if I did, but I’m more of a vegetarian than vegan. I need more protein than I can get with a vegan diet which is mostly carbs.
Hi! I haven’t tried that swap but I think it would definitely change the texture even after blending.
How much pasta did you use?
I believe it was a standard 5.25 oz box!