This post contains affiliate links. Please see ourย disclosure policy.
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 water
- 1 medium potato, about 1 cup or use 3/4 cup mashed potatoes
- 1/3 cup chopped carrots
- 4 garlic cloves , or 1 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tbsp chopped onion , or use 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 green chili, optional
- 1/2 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 paprika
- 1/2 tsp sriracha, optional
- 3/4 tsp or more salt
- 1/4 tsp white pepper
- 3/4 to 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper, divided
- 6 to 8 oz elbows pasta, cooked to preference
- 1 cup 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
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
One of the things I LOVE about being vegan is that it seems like there are so many MORE options. I have made vegan mac and cheese, at least 5 different ways already, and here is a new way to make it that never occurred to me, potatoes!!! This looks amazing. Thank you for sharing!
This sauce was incredible! We didn’t even use nutritional yeast because of allergies. Still had lovely yellow color, melty and coated everything beautifully. We added green beans and peas to it also. What a treat this was…thanks!
Awesome!!!
Sooooooo happy to read your post. I was very excited about this recipe until I got to the nutritional yeast part! Used it once before and won’t use it again….granted it was in the freezer for a long time which may have affected the taste. Any thoughts, nooch lovers? Does it go bad?
yes it does expire. Maybe ry a little bit from a new batch?
You can also use other things to get the cheese flavor such as 1/2 tsp miso, or ground mustard.
this sauce looks absolutely incredible. you never seise to blow my mind. i cannot wait to make it and then put it on everything.
Nope, never enough mac and cheese. This looks incredible! So creamy. And I always put lots of black pepper on my mac and cheese too. Yum!
This looks great! YUM!
My little boy loves Mac and Cheese.. what a great alternative even to the Gluten Free boxed ones. Thanks again Richa for another awesome recipe!
Looks so good Richa! The potato and carrot cheeses are taken over the web, but yours looks the best I’ve seen! I had to come check yours out because I love all your recipes and funny enough, I have a smoky black pepper cheese coming, but it’s a cream cheese type of recipe, but I LOVE all the black pepper in the cheese. Ever since trying the Chao black pepper cheese, I’ve been hooked on the black pepper. Anyways, looks amazing and I love the broccoli in it, yum!
This looks scrumptious! Any idea if cauliflower might work in place of the potato? (I may just try it anyway, but what do you think? Maybe with a little extra liquid to blend?
try my cauliflower alfredo instead of adjusting this recipe. https://www.veganricha.com/2014/05/cauliflower-alfredo-spinach-artichoke.html ๐
Yum Yum Yum!!! Looks pretty easy, maybe I can even get my partner to make it for me tonight! ๐ Al dente is key! Thanks for this, Richa!