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.
What a whirlwind! We weren’t engaged or anything, we just spontaneously went and got married. It was just us two and my new in-laws as our witnesses. My husband and I had been dating for nearly ten years so it wasn’t crazy that we got married but I think we gave a shock to our families with our shotgun wedding, haha. I’m very happy with the way we chose to do this. We will be celebrating later this summer with the rest of our family but for now, I’m celebrating with my new husband and this mac and cheese!
Have you ever noticed most vegan mac and cheese recipes are a bit 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 I used to make was easy 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)
- black pepper to taste
- 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.
what can I substitute for the vegan butter? I don’t consume oil(s). Would applesauce be gross??
Hi Kate! The purpose of fat in the roux is to cook out the raw flour flavor. If you have the patience, I’ve read online that you can achieve this without using fat by toasting the flour in the oven before adding it to the recipe.
I can’t exactly predict what would happen if you use apple sauce, but if you try it, I’d say keep it over low heat so it doesn’t burn. Let me know how it works out!
Hi again, I thought I’d link you to this post for if you decide to do the oven method! It seems like it should work well. Good luck!
https://blog.memeinge.com/instant-roux/
Can I use brown rice flour or arrowroot powder?
Hi Anjani, I believe brown rice flour would work, I have not used arrowroot flour though so you may need to experiment if you choose to use that
Can i use regular flour instead of rice flour?
Hey Sydney, for all purpose flour, use 1/4 cup!
My family loves this recipe! One of my kiddos has an anaphylactic allergy to cashews, so I was thrilled to find an easy vegan recipe for one of our all time favorite foods! Thank you for creating it!
Thank you so much, Kelly! Glad y’all are able to enjoy mac and “cheese” again! 🙂
Hi and happy thanksgiving! For some reason my sauce isn’t thickening … I used everything you suggested, the milk option I chose was almond. I’ve turned the fire down low and even resorted to adding 2 tbsp of corn starch, out of desperation. I did double the recipe but I can’t imagine that would ruin it? Any suggestions?
Hey Jennifer, happy Thanksgiving to you! I’m so sorry that happened! The only thing I can think is maybe it needed to be cooked longer since the recipe was doubled?
A rice flour sauce does take longer than a wheat flour sauce to thicken and that was one thing I noticed when I first attempted this recipe. I hope it still turned out okay!
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. 😀