Vegan Mac and Cheese
This Better For You Vegan Mac and Cheese is an easy week night comfort food go to for me. It is creamy, cheesy, and full of good for you nutrients! I pair it with some chickpea noodles and cozy up on the couch with my favorite show on. Best of all, I can feel good about eating the whole bowl!
Better For You Ingredients
This Mac and Cheese does not use any fatting dairy products. I only use clean whole plant foods to make this. The one exception is that sometimes I like to add a little vegan gouda cheese I use Violife Vegan Gouda cheese. It came in a block that I could freshly grate. It has pretty good ingredients minus some coconut oil (high in saturated fat) but even that is a better for you oil compared with other seed oils. I do not always put it in, but I like the pops of salty creaminess it adds to the dish. Plus, I only use about 3/4 cup in the whole pan.
The Best Part
The best part of the whole dish (in my opinion) is my Perfect Vegan Cheese Sauce recipe! This stuff is a staple in my refrigerator because it is so cheesy and delicious and I can grab it out, put it on just about anything and make it taste delicious! It’s made with good for you ingredients like potatoes, carrots, onion and cashews. You can even sub out the cashews for white beans if you have an allergy. I truly believe that this makes vegan Mac and cheese so yummy!
How To Serve
I like to serve my Better For You Vegan Mac and Cheese with a large salad (I eat this first), or sometimes I steam up some broccoli and mix it in. It is so good this way and then I can add in some of my greens for the day.
You can even freeze this dish! After mixing up the ingredients, (minus the crumb topping) just place in a freezer safe dish and cover with tin foil. Freeze for up to 3 months. You can bake directly from frozen. You will just need to add about 30 minutes to the bake time. Make up two batches, one for now, one for later so that you will have an easy freezer meal later. You will thank yourself!
Store leftovers in the fridge the way you would regular Mac and cheese. I have found it is still good up to two weeks.
Better For You Vegan Mac And Cheese
Ingredients
For The Perfect Vegan Cheese Sauce perfect-vegan-cheese-sauce
- 1 cup potatoes peeled and diced
- ¼ cup carrots diced
- ¼ cup onion chopped
- 1 cup vegetable broth or use from boiled veggies
- ½ cup raw cashews soaked* (or ½ cup white beans)
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ⅛ tsp paprika or just use a good pinch
- 1 tsp seasoned salt
- 1 8oz block vegan cheese shredded (optional)
- 1 8oz box chickpea noodles
For The Crumb Topping
- 1 teaspoon Magic Salmon Seasoning
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 cup dried bread crumbs
- 1/4 cup hemp seeds
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F
- Blend up perfect vegan cheese sauce ingredients.
- Cook chickpea noodles according to package directions. I like to slightly undercook them or cook to just al dente. Drain.
- Add noodles to a baking dish and stir in the vegan cheese.
- Pour cheese sauce over noodles and stir to combine.
- In a small separate bowl, mix bread crumbs, hemp seeds, and spices together.
- Top noodles with crumb mixture.
- Sprinkle on remaining ¼ cup cheese.
- If desired, spray crumb topping lightly with olive oil.
- Bake at 350°F for 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and toping is golden.
