This is my recipe for the best vegan Mac and Cheese! The cheese sauce is creamy and delicious and can be made in just a few seconds! Some (kind of) hidden veggies boost the nutrient profile of this indulgent dinner. A crispy topping adds a delicious crunch to finish this mouth-watering dish to perfection.

My cheese sauce recipe is very simple and yet still tastes great. I don’t like to be too fussy when making vegan versions of things, less-is-more is my philosophy! You can definitely get fancy when making vegan cheese sauce, I’ve seen many recipes using long lists of ingredients and they are lovely. However, sometimes you just need something simple that can be made without needing to make a trip to the supermarket.

Make the Vegan Mac and Cheese

Cook the macaroni and broccoli in salted water until al-dente. Meanwhile, make the cheese sauce.

The main ingredients of the cheese sauce are cashews and white beans. Half a cup of raw cashews and 1 cup of any cooked white beans blended together with a little water create a thick and creamy base to add flavour to. Nutritional yeast adds a nutty, cheesy flavour while the rice vinegar adds a tang reminiscent of dairy cheese. Salt and pepper season the sauce to your preference.

If you have a high-speed blender, add your cashews staight away. If not, you might find boiling them for a few minutes first will soften them up. My favourite blender is linked here!

Since there are so few ingredients in this cheese sauce, I don’t recommend substituting or skipping any of them, as they are all very important to create a cheesy flavour. You can find nutritional yeast in the supermarkets these days and rice vinegar in the world foods aise. You could really use any white vinegar you have on hand. I don’t recommend using lemon juice as it has too much of its own flavour and distracts from the “cheesiness” of the sauce.

Prepare the breadcrumb topping by melting some vegan butter in the microwave and mixing in with some breadcrumbs.

Once the pasta has finished cooking, mix in the cheese sauce well and transfer to an oven-safe roasting dish. Top with your favourite vegan grated cheese and then sprinkle on the buttery breadcrumbs.

Bake in the oven at 200 degrees C for 15-20 minutes, until the breadcrumbs have turned a lovely golden colour.

Serve the vegan mac and cheese immediately I love to serve it with garlic bread!

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Vegan Mac n Cheese

Ingredients

Cheese Sauce

85 g (1/2 cup) Cashews
250 mL (1 cup) water
180 g (1 cup) White Beans
2 tbsp Rice Vinegar
3 tbsp Nutritional Yeast
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Pepper

For the Mac n Cheese

250 g Dry Macaroni Pasta
1 medium Broccoli, chopped
20 g Vegan Butter
60 g Breadcrumbs
50 g Vegan Cheese (shredded/grated)

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees C / 390 F / gas mark 6
Cook the pasta and Broccoli together in salted water until the pasta is al-dente.
While the pasta cooks, prepare the cheese sauce and breadcrumb topping.

Make the Cheese Sauce

Add the cashews, beans, water, nutritional yeast, vinegar, salt and pepper to a high-speed blender and blend on high for 1 minute until smooth.

Make the Breadcrumb Topping

Melt the vegan butter in the microwave
Stir through the breadcrumbs until the butter is evenly coating all of the breadcrumbs.

Assemble the Mac and Cheese

Drain the pasta off and add back into the pan. Add the cheese sauce and stir well.
Transfer into an oven-safe roasting dish
Sprinkle the grated cheese on top evenly
Sprinkle the breadcrumb topping on top evenly.
Bake at 180 degrees for 15-20 minutes, until the breadcrumbs have turned golden.