Smoky, creamy, and rich – you’re gonna want to load up your plates with this smoky vegan mac and cheese.
The trick to this cream, plant-based recipe? Cashews. In fact, Cashews make for the perfect vegan cheese base with its smokiness, nuttiness, and rich flavors.
With a good solid cashew foundation, you can whip up just about any kind of cheese-based dish with a little bit of this-and-that in just minutes. For this recipe, I utilized what was in my pantry.
If yo’re looking for a cream-free pasta recipe, checkout our springtime spaghetti.
Jump Ahead To
Mac & Cheese Key Ingredients
All of the ingredients listed in the recipe all work together to bring a creamy, umami, flavor-packed mac and cheese. Even though this mac and cheese recipe is made without milk, butter, or cheese – it’s still creamy and incredibly delicious.
Nutritional Yeast helps bring forth an umami punch to the macaroni and cheese. It also brings on a “cheesy” or nutty flavor to the dish. Its flavor is intense, so no need to add more than what’s listed.
Raw cashews are boiled for about 10 minutes and then blended into a cashew cream sauce. On its own, it’s quite bland with smoky notes, but the added ingredients add color and flavor.
Tomato paste will add both color and depth to the mac and cheese recipe. When we think of traditional mac and cheese, we think of savory, a dash of tang, and sharpness – tomato paste will help bring that forward.
Smoked paprika will support the smoky bite from the raw cashews. If you’re into smoked flavors, this will be a must-have ingredient.
More Vegan Cheese Sauce Recipes:
What Kind Of Pasta Should I Use?
Elbow pasta is known for its appearance in mac and cheese recipes – and for good reason. Elbow pasta is great for thick-sauced dishes like macaroni and cheese.
Other pasta types you can consider for mac and cheese include bowtie, shells, rotini, and cavatappi. Choose what you have or prefer.
I love using elbow pasta, but I’ll switch that out depending on what I currently have in my pantry.
Recipe Notes
- Use raw and unsalted cashew. This is a MUST. Toasted, seasoned cashews won’t get the right flavor and texture for the cheese sauce.
- Save the water you used from boiling the cashews.
- Lastly, if you don’t set aside enough water from the cashew, just add regular water. If you want your cheese sauce thinner, just add more water and adjust salt for taste.
- If you want it extra creamy and less healthy, add vegan butter. My vegan butter of choice is Melt.
What To Serve With Mac & Cheese
- Mashed Potatoes
- Braised Garlic Kale
- Roasted Broccoli
- Pan-Fried Tofu
- Green Beans
- Pan-Fried Tempeh
For a full meal, go for Mushroom Lentil Loaf.
Or, double up on the kid-friendly dishes and serve the mac and cheese with a side of vegetable “fried” rice.
Kitchen Tools I Use And Love
One kitchen tool I really want to highlight here is the silicone spatula set. It’s one of my standard, an everyday kitchen tool that makes flipping and stirring seamless.
It is also gentle on non-stick cookware and useful for scrapping sauces, batter, or liquids from a bowl.
For more kid-friendly recipes, check out 19 Kid-Friendly Plant-Based Recipes.
Smoky Vegan Mac and Cheese
Ingredients
- 4 cups water for boiling
- 1 cup cashews raw, unsalted
- 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- 2 teaspooon smoked paprika
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
- 1.5 cups reserved cashew water
- 2 tablespoons vegan butter (optional)
- 2 cups macaroni pasta uncooked
Instructions
- Set a pot of water and over high heat. Once at a boil, add cashews and salt and boil for 10 minutes. Next, drain cashews from the water and keep leftover cashew water.
- In a blender, add cashews, nutritional yeast, smoked paprika, tomato paste, garlic powder, fresh lemon juice, salt, dijon mustard, and 1.5 cups of the leftover cashew water. If you want the sauce to be creamier and buttery, add vegan butter (optional). Blend until smooth.
- Prepare the pasta according to the package’s instructions. Stir together cheese sauce to the pasta. Add additional salt to taste.
Nutrition
Did you try out this Smoky Mac and Cheese Recipe?
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SHANIKA
Now that’s a creamy Vegan Mac + Cheese! This looks so good!
plantbasedandbroke
And it tastes even better than it looks! 🙂
Tisha
Alright now! This looks delicious! Thank you for all of the helpful notes
plantbasedandbroke
It’s one of my favorite vegan things to make! It’s soooo good!
Aline
OMG how creamy is this!!!!!!! I never tried vegan Mac+Cheese but this looks so amazing – I need to try it!
Jazz
I can’t get over how creamy the sauce looks!
Calysta
This looks like some game-changing vegan Mac n’cheese! I can’t wait to make this!!! Mmmmm!!
Meghan
I’ve made this three times now. I’ve tweaked the sauce recipe to be cashews and water, nooch, garlic powder, ¼ tsp veggie bouillon, 1½ tsp smoked paprika, ½ tsp ancho chili powder, 1 tbsp ketchup, 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar, and a generous shredding of cheeze. So so good!
Aly Michell
Niiiiice!!! Sounds delicious. I will have to try out ancho chili powder for my next batch of vegan mac and cheese.
Brian
I am concerned that almost all the comments are about how the dish looks. Most say they are going to try it. One person who did try it radically changed the recipe. I want to switch to a plant based diet. This was not helpful or encouraging.
Aly Michell
I am glad you’re interested in eating more green! That’s awesome. I’d say it’s definitely worth giving this recipe a go. I make this dish often and it’s one of my favorites. I am sure you’ll love it.
Beth
Not worth it. I made it. Everyone in my family took one bite, and we threw it away 😬
Aly Michell
Hi Beth, thank you for trying out my recipe. Sorry to hear you and your family didn’t enjoy the vegan mac and cheese. This one of our family favorites – but we understand not everyone will be stoked about it. I’m happy to help you troubleshoot this recipe and get more specific feedback. Please don’t hesitate to send me an email! -Aly
Lauren
Just to take away some negativity from the comments – we made this dish a few nights ago, I added more garlic but that’s my personal preference and it was SO good. If you’re wanting a typical mac n cheese like you’d make with dairy this isn’t the taste you’d be expecting, but I’ve been vegan for 5 years now and it was exactly what I was hoping for 😍. I’m making it again tonight and adding some vegan ‘lardons’ and some toasted broccoli 🤞🏻
Aly Michell
Hey Lauren! Thank you for trying out this recipe! Adding more garlic is definitely a great idea – I am also a HUGE garlic fan! I am happy you loved the recipe. But yes, it’s important for folks to understand that this does not contain real cheese, so it will have a different taste to it.