Vegan Black Pepper Mac and Cheese with a light potato carrot cheese sauce. Free of dairy, egg, corn, nuts. Can be made soy-free and gluten-free with gf pasta. 30 minute meal. Add cashews to make a thicker creamier sauce. Vegan Mac and Cheese Recipe.
More Mac n cheese! Cannot have enough mac recipes right.
Veggie cheese is all over the web recently. So I made some my way. No prep needed, no mashed potatoes needed. Cook the potatoes and veggies you want to use for 15-18 minutes. Blend, boil with pasta, done. Easy and simple.
And black pepper oh my. I don’t know why I haven’t added this much pepper to my mac before. It tastes amazing! more pepper= more fun.
This is a light sauce. For a creamier sauce, add sesame or pumpkin seeds or cashews. Use whole grain pasta or gf pasta to preference. Add more veggies in the cheese sauce or add with broccoli and use less pasta. Variations are endless. The veggie cheese sauce is one of those sauces that either one loves or doesn’t (as seen on the interweb on the many variations of the sauce) just like the butternut sauce mac :).
This missing scroll bar is annoying. Has anyone’s wordpress editor scroll bar disappeared with the WP 4.2 upgrade?
More Macs and Pasta recipes from the blog.
- Masala Mac and Cheese Vegan Recipe
- Cauliflower Alfredo, Spinach, artichoke Lasagna
- Pumpkin Sage Pasta with Pumpkin Cream Sauce and Crispy Sage
- Instant Mac and cheese mix in a jar
- Nacho Mac and cheese Casserole
Video:
Vegan Black Pepper Mac and Cheese with Potato Carrot Cheese Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups (562.5 ml) water
- 1 medium potato about 1 cup or use 3/4 cup mashed potatoes
- 1/3 cup (42.67 g) chopped carrots
- 4 garlic cloves or 1 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tbsp chopped onion or use 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 (0.5 ) green chili optional
- 1/2 (0.5 ) medium tomato chopped
- 1/2 to 1 tsp prepared mustard
- 2 tsp soy sauce or liquid aminos
- 3 to 4 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 2 to 3 tsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil omit to make oil free
- 1/3 tsp (0.33 tsp) paprika
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) sriracha optional
- 3/4 tsp (0.75 tsp) or more salt
- 1/4 tsp (0.25 tsp) white pepper
- 3/4 to 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper divided
- 6 to 8 oz (6 oz) elbows pasta cooked to preference
- 1 cup (91 g) broccoli chopped small
Instructions
- In a skillet, add water, potato, carrots, garlic, onion, chili and tomato. Cover and cook over medium-high heat for 17 to 19 minutes or until the potato is very tender and breaks easily. (add 2 Tbsp cashews for creamier sauce). Cool slightly.
- Meanwhile, cook the pasta to aldente. (in parallel with the above step if you like).
- Add the potato carrot mixture to a blender with the rest of the ingredients. Blend until smooth. taste and adjust salt and spice.
- Transfer to the pan over medium heat. Add salt, white pepper, 1/3 tsp black pepper. Mix in. Bring to a boil. Carefully taste and adjust salt, cheesiness (add more nutritional yeast if needed).
- Add the cooked pasta and broccoli or other veggies. Mix in. Cover and cook for 3 to 4 minutes or until the sauce comes to a good boil and thickens.
- Let it sit for 5 minutes. Mix in the rest of the freshly ground black pepper (1/2 to 2/3 tsp). Sprinkle more pepper if you wish and serve/
Video
Notes
If you like your broccoli and veggies a bit cooked, add them to the pasta pot, 5 minutes before the pasta will be taken off heat. Drain both and keep aside. Dont like carrots? Use zucchini Nutritional values based on one serving
Nutrition
arti says
March 22, 2020 at 1:57 amtruly awesome.
vegan comfort food at its best,…did not even miss “regular ” cheese
thanks @ Richa
Richa says
March 22, 2020 at 12:15 pmthanks!
Yvette says
April 9, 2020 at 6:48 pmThank you for sharing this very tasty and comforting vegan recipe!! I truly enjoyed it!! I added turmeric for some added color but it was already tasting great! Paired it with black beans & rice and collard greens. It was simply fantastic!!
Julia says
April 25, 2020 at 11:49 amI like this a lot. I usually use a recipe with coconut milk but this is an exceptional alternative when I don’t have any on hand. Other than the green chillies, which I omitted along with the sriracha, I have all these ingredients stocked at all times so it can’t get any more convenient than this. I will say it has a spice to it so I would probably cut back on the paprika and black/white pepper for anyone who is sensitive, and omit the green chillies and sriracha like I did.
Katherine says
August 5, 2020 at 2:40 pmFive years later, I still make this cheese sauce all the time. I’m about to make it for dinner right now, I never get tired of it.
Vegan Richa Support says
August 5, 2020 at 8:32 pmwow! That’s half a decade
Anjali says
August 14, 2020 at 11:58 pmThank you thank you thank you. I made mac and cheese without any real cheese….i am sooooo in love with the taste. Loved it!!!!
Dave Big Chief says
September 11, 2020 at 7:46 amI’d swap the water for a 3 1/2 cups plant-based milk — it makes the sauce looser and creamier. Also swapping the soya sauce with 2 tsp white miso has more umami. If you want more of a cheese taste add 1 tsp lactic acid and half the lemon juice. Consider soaking the cashews for a few hours…
Sruthi Muralidharan says
November 3, 2020 at 7:37 pmI made this today. Gorgeous recipe, never making mac and cheese any other way ever again.
Surbi says
January 11, 2021 at 5:31 pmSuper delicious! Super easy! Will definitely make again!
Eliminated the chili pepper and sriracha to make it less spicy for the kids (added sriracha in my own bowl because that is yum).
Also subbed miso for the soy sauce as someone suggested.
Vegan Richa Support says
January 12, 2021 at 9:15 amlove the sriracha also. Thanks