Your childhood favorite comfort meal with a vegan & vegetable-forward twist!
Prep Time: 10 mins – Cook Time: 20 mins – Yield: 5-6 portions
I’ve never had the best luck making vegan mac and cheese with store-bought vegan cheese shreds or slices. It never got that creamy consistency and always just felt very unnatural. This cheese sauce is super creamy and the texture very closely resembles that of its dairy counterpart. Want to know what’s in this delicious mac and cheese? Let’s dive into the ingredient breakdown:
– potatoes, carrots, and red bell peppers are the veggies used in this dish. The potatoes bring a smooth and creamy texture, while the carrots and bell pepper provide the sauce with that perfect and traditional orange color. Isn’t it great to be able to have a serving of veggies in your mac & cheese?
– cashews bring in such an amazing creamy element. When blended, cashews become super smooth and creamy, which is perfect for recreating a dairy-heavy dish.
– nutritional yeast is what makes this mac and cheese taste cheesy! Nutritional yeast is very well known in the vegan and dairy free communities for tasting just like cheese. Unfortunately, it comes in the form on dry flakes. So, it must be augmented to become a creamy sauce. Fortunately, it has a yellow/orange color so it adds even more cheese-like color to the sauce!
Now, let’s make some mac and cheese!
Ingredients:
– 1 large russet potato (about 2 cups; chopped)
– 1 large carrot (about 1/2 cup; chopped)
– 1/2 of a red bell pepper; chopped
– 3/4 cup raw unsalted cashews
– 1 tbsp vegetable broth concentrate + ~5 cups of water (or 5 cups of vegetable broth)
– 1/3 cup nutritional yeast
– 1 tsp garlic powder
– 1 tsp onion powder
– 1 tsp salt
– 1 tbsp tahini
– juice of 1/2 a lemon
– 8-10oz of pasta
Instructions:
- Fill a large pot with either (1) enough water to submerge your veggies + around 1 tbsp vegetable broth concentrate or (2) enough vegetable broth to submerge your veggies. Bring the broth to a boil.
- Add your potatoes, carrots, bell pepper, and cashews to the pot.
- Cook for around 20 mins, or until the potatoes and carrots are soft (you can easily pierce them with a fork).
- Then, strain the vegetables and SAVE THE VEGETABLE STOCK.
- In either a large bowl (if you are using a hand-held blender) or in a blender add your veggies + cashews, 3/4 cup of the veggie broth that you set aside, and all of the rest of the sauce ingredients.
- Blend until smooth. If the sauce is thicker than you desire, add more vegetable broth and blend again.
- While making and blending the sauce, bring the remaining leftover vegetable broth to a boil and cook your pasta according to the instructions on the package.
- Once both the pasta and sauce are cooked and ready, toss the pasta in the sauce and enjoy!
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