Vegan + Grain-Free Cheezy Mac
Mac + Cheese, please! A delicious Vegan + Grain-Free take on this quintessential comfort dish, our Cheezy Mac is so creamy and flavorful, you’ll be heading back for seconds and thirds.
Vegan + Grain-Free Cheezy Mac
Few dishes in our opinion are as soothing, comforting and delectable as macaroni and cheese. We’ve wanted to create a vegan version for such a long time, but were initially reluctant as nutritional yeast is not a favorite of ours and a sauce without it was at that time beyond our comprehension.
Enter a happy mistake of sorts– upon improving our roux and sauce for our casseroles, we found that a certain blend of potato starch, milk substitute and spices gave such a thick and creamy resemblance to cheese that we knew we had to pursue it.
Add in our favorite vegan cheddar shreds and a bit of vegan cream cheese, and we had ourselves such a thick, velvety “cheese” sauce perfect for our Cheezy Mac. Lentil pasta makes this dish gluten-free, grain-free and ties it all together to make a healthy plant based meal that you can feel good about. We’re so excited for you to try it, we think you’ll love it as much as we do!
Looking for a delicious, vegan side salad to go with your Cheezy Mac? Try our Classic Chopped Salad and Green House Dressing!
Vegan + Grain-Free Cheezy Mac
- Total Time: about 40 minutes
- Yield: 6-8 servings 1x
- Diet: Gluten Free
Ingredients
- 1 box Tolerant Lentil Elbow Macaroni or your choice of grain-free or low-carb macaroni
- 1/4 cup Earth Balance “Butter” original or soy-free
- 3 tablespoons potato starch (not potato flour) No Substitutes.
- 2 cups plain, unsweetened soy milk (or a blend of plain coconut + almond milks)
- 2.5 teaspoons paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1/8th teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 bag Good Planet Cheddar Shreds or your favorite vegan meltable cheddar shreds
- just 1/4 of an 8 oz container vegan cream cheese, room temp. We recommend Kite Hill.
- Good Planet Vegan Parmesan as garnish (optional)
- parsley and paprika for additional garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Boil and drain macaroni as instructed by Tolerant instructions. Hit the colander with some cold water so the macaroni stops cooking. Strain again and pour macaroni into a large mixing bowl. Set aside briefly while you make the sauce.
- Have your soy milk and potato starch measured out and ready to go. This sauce thickens quickly, so you’ll want to be ready for action! 😉
- In a large sauce pan, melt the Earth Balance on medium heat. When the “butter” is fully melted and bubbling a bit, whisk in your potato starch, a bit at a time until evenly incorporated. Continue to whisk and let it bubble for 10 seconds or so.
- Rapidly whisk in your milk substitute, about a half cup at a time. It will thicken quickly, but will smooth out to medium thickness as you add additional milk while quickly stirring. Let the sauce boil lightly for about 20 seconds while stirring.
- Add paprika, salt, pepper, onion and garlic powders and mix until combined evenly. Pour in your shredded “cheddar” and stir patiently until the cheddar has melted and incorporated into the sauce.
- Add in your softened “cream cheese” and combine until until smooth. (If for any reason you find the sauce a little too thick, you can add an additional tablespoon or two of soy milk).
- Pour about 2/3 of your “cheese” sauce over your macaroni in the mixing bowl and stir with a wooden spoon until it’s blended evenly. Continue to add sauce as desired. Some macaroni brands will be larger than others, requiring all the sauce, some will require slightly less. If you have any sauce leftover, we recommend using it as “cheese” dip for our vegan soft pretzels!
- Add vegan parmesan if desired, extra salt and pepper to taste and garnish with paprika and chopped parsley. Serve immediately and store any leftovers in an air tight container and refrigerate.
- Serve with our Vegan Side Salad + Green House Dressing, Enjoy!
- Prep Time: 20 min
- Cook Time: 20 min
- Category: Vegan
- Method: cooking
- Cuisine: pasta
What a brilliant mac and cheese creation this is! I love the simplicity as well as the fact that it looks soooo delicious 😀
Thank you so much Noelle, it really is such a simple and delicious meal!
While I am not into vegan recipes myself, I must admit that a vegan pasta dish never ever has looked so delicious as the one you’ve got here! So smooth, silky, and inviting…well are sure it’s vegan? 🙂
You are so kind, thank you! And haha it really is vegan! So thankful a larger variety of vegan cheeses are out there, it melts so nicely into the sauce- super creamy!
For vegan, this looks super tasty and I love the ingredients! Nothing weird and it looks so creamy and scrumptious! LOVE!
That’s so kind of you dear Kim, thank you!! I was excited it turned out so creamy!