An easy vegan mac and cheese recipe that does not require vegan cheese, boiled potatoes or cashews.
I make this really easy vegan mac and cheese when I’m feeling lazy, don’t have much food in the house, or just need a comforting meal. It’s not very healthy but it is delicious and reliable when I need some mac and cheese. I could have really gone for a batch over the weekend because life kind of got busy and I kind of got married.
I woke up on Monday as a girlfriend and I went to sleep on Tuesday as a wife. No fancy proposal, no long drawn out engagement, just me and my now husband at city hall exchanging vows in the judge’s chambers with my new in-laws as witnesses. It was exactly how I wanted it to be. I picked out my beautiful ring and we are planning to celebrate with friends and family when the weather is a bit nicer. Super casual and easy just the way I like it. 😀
Speaking of casual and easy, why are most vegan mac and cheese recipes so complicated? You know of the boiled potato and carrot kind? Or the cashew cream kind? I’m not saying it’s bad, I’ve tried that stuff before and I do find it tasty, but it’s not what I’m looking for. I don’t want to boil potatoes or clean my blender and I can never remember to soak cashews ahead of time.
The non-vegan mac and cheese is easy to make so the vegan mac and cheese should be easy too. Here I use the same technique from when I used to make my own homemade non-vegan mac and cheese. For the sauce, I make a roux of vegan butter and white rice flour. I then add some dairy-free milk and instead of cheese I use nutritional yeast. Easy! Ready for the recipe?
- 250g uncooked elbow pasta (a little over 2 cups) I used gluten-free brown rice pasta
- 2 tbsp vegan butter
- 2 + ½ tbsp white rice flour
- 2 cups milk of choice (preferably on the thicker side like soy, almond, or cashew)
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- ½ tsp salt (plus more to taste)
- ½ tsp black pepper
- Bring a medium-size pot of water to boil.
- Cook pasta according to package instructions.
- Drain water from pasta and set pasta aside.
- Melt the butter in the same pot over medium heat.
- Add the white rice flour and whisk together. Let the flour cook for about 30 seconds or until it becomes a light golden color.
- Add the milk, nutritional yeast, salt, and pepper.
- Lower the heat to medium-low and let the sauce thicken, whisking every so often. This might take about 5-8 minutes.
- Once the sauce has thickened, add your pasta and stir to coat.
- Adjust seasoning if you desire.
This recipe was delicious! I wanted to make this more of a main dish so I blended a can of cannelini beans in with the milk (just to add extra protein). I also added a tbsp of miso paste. So yummy. Thanks for a great recipe. 🙂
Thanks for the feedback Rinn! The miso paste sounds like a great addition, I’ll have to try that sometime. 🙂
I made this and just added a little bit of fresh lemon juice for a bit of tang. Great recipe! So easy and quick.
Thanks for the feedback Shala, I’m so glad you liked it!
What would you suggest if you were using all-purpose or almond flour in terms of volume needed?
Hi Mary, I’m not too experienced with almond flour so I am not sure. For all-purpose flour, 1/4 cup should do the trick. If you do choose to experiment with almond flour, please let me know how it turns out!
Hi! Is there another flour I could use? Like oat flour?
Hi Holli! Other flours will work, but the amount you will need will be different from rice flour. For oat flour, I’d say bump it up to 1/4 of a cup.
Sounds easy and yummy. Unfortunately, I cannot have the yeast. Any substitution suggestions? Thanks!
Hey Christy, thanks for the comment! The nutritional yeast is there for the cheesy flavor. If you’re not opposed to using store bought vegan cheese (shredded kind), I think it would be a great substitute. I’m not entirely sure how much the consistency will change with the swap so you may need to do some tweaking, but please let me know how it turns out for you!
Thanks, Ness. I cannot have the vegan cheeses either (soy). I used coconut cream and tumeric, turned out rich and creamy! Thanks!
That sounds great Christy! I’m glad it worked out for you, thank you for the update. 😀