Creamy Vegan Mac and Cheese Recipe

Who doesn’t love mac and cheese? It’s the ultimate comfort food.

Whenever I eat it I feel like I’m 10 years old again.

Make this as a side dish or top it with kale and chopped walnuts to make it the main attraction.

Either way, it will fill you up and make you smile.

Extra Creamy Mac and Cheese 

Serves 4-6

• gluten free if using gluten free pasta
• soy free If using soy free Earth Balance
• nut free

1 russet potato, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces (1 1/2 cups/ 240g)
1 cup carrot, cut into 1/2 inch rounds (130g)
1/4 yellow onion, diced  (1/2 cup/ 65g)
2  cups water (16 oz.)
1/2 cup Earth Balance spread (72g)
1/2 cup nutritional yeast (40g)
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon salt (6g)
3 tablespoons coconut milk (1 1/2 oz.)
3 turns fresh black pepper
1 box (8 oz. / 227g)  gluten free pasta (Garden Pagodas quinoa pasta by Ancient Harvest is my fave), or regular elbows.
Parsley for garnish

Cheese Sauce

• Place potato, carrot and onion in a pan,cover with 2 cups of water and simmer for 20 minutes with the lid on.
• After 20 minutes, turn off heat and add Earth Balance spread, nutritional yeast, turmeric and salt. Stir to combine until melted.
• Pour mixture into a blender and blend until creamy and smooth, about a minute on medium. You may need to scrape the sides down from the blender a couple of times for everything to get incorporated.
• Add coconut milk to the blender and continue to blend until mixture is creamy throughout.
• Leave in the blender for now.

Pasta 

• Cook pasta according to the directions on the box.
• Strain pasta and rinse with cold water to stop from cooking. Return to pan.
• Turn heat on very low and pour cheese sauce over pasta.
• Add black pepper and stir to combine.
• Turn off heat and serve.
• Garnish with parsley.

Note:
It will seem like a lot of cheese sauce compared to pasta.
The pasta absorbs quite a lot of sauce so I like to err on the side of too much sauce rather than too little.

 

Molly Patrick has worked in the vegan food realm since 2003.
She has done everything from opened vegan restaurants from the ground up to writing vegan cookbooks.
Find her most recent work @ http://boldvegan.com/blog/
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