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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.
I followed the recipe fairly closely but reduced the amount of water that I boiled the vegetables in quite a bit. I only used 1.5 cups of water, and figured I would use pasta water to thin it as needed, but turns out it was thin enough for me without any extra liquid. I did add the cashews for exra creaminess, and instead of using any siracha or jalapeno, I added a dab of vegan chipotle mayo, figuring this would add some spiciness and smokiness, and therefore I omitted the oil, too, since this stuff is mostly oil anyway.
Any feedback on whether or not you think this (cheese sauce only, not pasta) will freeze well? I’m the only vegan in our household and 4 servings of pasta in a row is a bit much for me.
Thanks for the tasty recipe!
sure – the sauce will freeze just fine. i’ve even frozen cooked pasta separately as well
I love your recipes, have tried so many and all of them were hit.. I am planning to try Black pepper Mac n cheese this weekend and I do not have nutritional yeast. Is it okay if I skip it?
Yes. Add in 1/2 tsp ground mustard
Super 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.
love the sriracha also. Thanks
I made this today. Gorgeous recipe, never making mac and cheese any other way ever again.
I’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…
Thank you thank you thank you. I made mac and cheese without any real cheese….i am sooooo in love with the taste. Loved it!!!!
Five 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.
wow! That’s half a decade
I 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.
Thank 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!!
truly awesome.
vegan comfort food at its best,…did not even miss “regular ” cheese
thanks @ Richa
thanks!