Amazing Vegan Mac and Cheese
This vegan mac and cheese recipe is incredibly creamy and remarkably cheese-like! You won't believe how delicious dairy-free mac and cheese can be.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on May 22, 2024
Did you know that this seven-year-old vegetarian food blog did not have a macaroni and cheese recipe until today? It’s true. I’ve failed you on the mac and cheese front, but I’m making it up to you with this vegan (I repeat: dairy free) mac and cheese recipe.
From one cheese lover to another, I’m here to tell you that this mac and “cheese” is remarkably cheese-like and absolutely delicious.
I’ve been slowly working on this mac and cheese since I published my vegan queso recipe two months ago. The first time, I tried to use pasta cooking water instead of my queso’s secret ingredient (grated potato), and it was just ok.
Then, I added the potato back, and the potato starch makes this cashew-based queso super silky and creamy. It’s remarkable!
The Best Vegan Mac and Cheese
Nutritional yeast is key, in addition to the grated potato. It offers some cheesy flavor and color. Frontier Co-Op just started offering it in smaller bottles, and after using it in this recipe, I really believe their product is superior. It has less funk than the regular store-bought brand, so if you haven’t enjoyed nutritional yeast in the past, please give it a shot.
I kept tweaking the amounts and spices until we had just the right amount of sauce for one-half pound of pasta. I’ve finally nailed it. Don’t be intimidated by the ingredients list—it’s all basic pantry ingredients!
I couldn’t help but incorporate some broccoli for some extra flavor, color and health benefits. Keep it or leave it out—I’ve included guidance for either option in the recipe below.
Vegans, dairy-free friends, and cheese lovers who crave a more redeeming mac and cheese recipe, this recipe is for you. (And for those who also appreciate traditional, cheesy mac and cheese recipes, you don’t want to miss my new stovetop mac and cheese recipe.)
Please let me know how you like this recipe in the comments! If you’re transitioning to vegan or dairy-free recipes, don’t miss my vegan sour cream and vegan Parmesan.
Watch How to Make Vegan Mac and Cheese
Amazing Vegan Mac and Cheese
This vegan mac and cheese recipe is incredibly creamy and remarkably cheese-like! You won’t believe how delicious dairy-free mac and cheese can be. Recipe yields 2 large or 4 modest servings.
Ingredients
- 8 ounces whole-grain macaroni elbows
- 1 head of broccoli, florets cut into small bites (about 1 ½ to 2 cups), optional*
- 1 ½ tablespoons avocado oil or extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 small yellow onion, chopped (about 1 ½ cups)
- 1 cup peeled and grated russet potato (4 ounces, about 1 small or ½ medium potato), preferably organic
- 3 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon dry mustard powder
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt, more to taste
- Small pinch of red pepper flakes
- ⅔ cup raw cashews**
- 1 cup water, more as necessary
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- 2 to 3 teaspoons apple cider vinegar or distilled white vinegar, to taste
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to boil for the pasta. Cook according to package directions. If using broccoli, stir it into the pot when just 2 to 3 more minutes remain. Drain, and transfer the contents to a large serving bowl.
- Meanwhile, in a medium-to-large saucepan, warm the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and a pinch of salt and cook, stirring often, until the onion is tender and turning translucent, about 5 minutes.
- Add the grated potato, garlic, garlic powder, onion powder, mustard powder, salt and red pepper flakes. Stir to combine, and cook, stirring constantly, for about 1 minute to enhance their flavors.
- Add the cashews and water, and stir to combine. Let the mixture come to a simmer. Continue simmering, stirring frequently and reducing heat as necessary to avoid a rapid boil, until the potatoes are completely tender and cooked through, about 5 to 8 minutes.
- Carefully pour the mixture into a blender. Add the nutritional yeast and 2 teaspoons vinegar. Blend until the mixture is completely smooth, about 2 minutes, stopping to scrape down the sides if necessary. If the mixture won’t blend easily or if you would prefer a thinner consistency, add water in ¼ cup increments, blending after each one.
- Taste, and blend in additional salt until the sauce is utterly irresistible (I typically add at least another ½ teaspoon). If it needs a little more zip, add the remaining teaspoon of vinegar. Blend again.
- Pour the sauce into the bowl of pasta. Stir until well combined, and serve immediately. Leftovers keep well, chilled and covered, for 3 to 4 days. Gentle reheat, adding a tiny splash of water if necessary to loosen up the sauce.
Notes
Recipe adapted from my vegan queso.
Make it gluten free: Simply use your favorite gluten-free noodles.
*On broccoli: You can omit the broccoli altogether, or replace it with finely chopped kale or peas (about 1 ½ cups). If you omit it, you might not need to use all of the sauce.
**Raw cashew notes: Most recipes like this suggest soaking the cashews for 4 hours in advance to make them easier to blend and to digest. I honestly never soak mine since I have a powerful Vitamix that blends them right up. The cashews in this recipe are cooked in hot liquid, so they’re softer and even easier to blend. However, if you don’t have a great blender or if you’re concerned about the digestibility factor, go ahead and soak them in advance.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
This post was created in partnership with Frontier Co-op and I received compensation for my participation. Opinions are my own, always. Thank you for supporting the sponsors who support C+K!
Would this work as a bake, just adding some breadcrumbs on top and putting it in the oven?
I haven’t tried this one baked, sorry! Let me know what you think, if you try it.
I made it as a bake last night, freaking amazing. It was gone by lunch today between 2 of us.
I also used lentil pasta and several heads of broccoli just cause I like the protein and extra veggies, but this recipe is fantastic, thank you!
This recipe is wonderful! Thanks so much!!
I just made this and it was delicious and pretty simple to whip up! I’m not vegan but I think I could be with how delicious this is :) I also used gluten free pasta because i’m trying to avoid dairy and gluten. I’m wondering if I could make a double batch of this sauce and freeze half of it?
Hi Carrie! I’m really happy you like this and were able to make it work for you. I don’t think this will freeze well, unfortunately. However, if you do try it, I would be curious!
Please don’t waste your time food and money making this disgusting dish. Not creamy at all. Pecans are overpowering and make for a dry flavor.
Well maybe that’s because you’re not supposed to use pecans ?
Kate, this my dear was another WINNER! Bravo, you!!! I’m not vegan, my husband is but I thoroughly enjoyed this recipe. Super delicious and incredibly easy. I went heavy on the garlic and you cannot tell me it’s not incredibly close if not better than a from-scratch Alfredo sauce. So good! Definitely adding to our weekly rotation! Thank you again!
Darby, not sure where you saw pecans in Kate’s recipe. It calls for cashews for the cheese sauce. Also, per Kate’s recipe, ”
If the mixture won’t blend easily or if you would prefer a thinner consistency, add water in ¼ cup increments.”
Can you recommend a substitute for the cashews? I can’t eat nuts or pea protein, which seem to be the common alternates for dairy.
Thanks!
Hi Robin! Unfortunately, I don’t have a great substitute for you here. Cashews are really what make this sauce creamy and cheese-like.
Walnuts work well
There is a recipe I found on YouTube that uses rolled oats rather than nuts and makes a pretty nice cheesy sauce. I made it once and just made it thicker than the “nachos” recipe and used for mac and cheese. We had a guest for dinner and she just LOVED it. Only thing I will warn you is that her recipe makes 64 oz. (My Blendtec blender with the regular sized container does not hold that much, so I made a one-half recipe and that worked out great!): “Jill’s 5-minute Game Changer Cheese Sauce (nut-free, gluten-free)” — is also great for lower calories!
Just wanted to drop in and say YOU ARE A GENUIS. This is the best vegan mac and cheese I’ve ever had, and in matter of fact I would go as far to say the best mac n cheese I’ve ever had even before I was vegan! Im sharing this with everyone!!!
Ha, thank you Tayla! Thanks so much for your review.
This was amazing! I made a couple modifications based on personal preference increased the ground mustard by 1 tsp, 2 tsp salt, splash of coffee rich, 4 ounces of vegan cream cheese, and sautéed Portobello mushrooms.
Oops forgot to mention I omitted the broccoli in favor of the mushrooms. Best grown up mac and cheese!
Sounds like a great way to change it up!
Is there a substitute for the cashew? I have 30 intolerances and it would be awesome if I could make this.
Unfortunately, cashews are key here.
I tried it with using extra earth balance vegan butter instead of cashews and loved it!
Can I simply use cashew cheese in place of the work with the raw cashews?
Hi! I’d like to make this in advance if possible and since you say it doesnt freeze well, would it work if I made sauce a day ahead and then just poured it over hot pasta when ready to eat? Thanks!
Unfortunately, I don’t think this one will be great frozen. I’m not sure the sauce would hold-up well.
I am looking for a recipe for my very picky 7 year old who is allergic to dairy and gluten, and many other foods. She loves Amy’s Gluten Free Dairy free frozen Mac n Cheese. She very much dislikes Daiya boxed Dairy free Gluten Free Mac N Cheese. Can anyone tell me how this compares?
Of course, I highly recommend this one!
You are right, it truly is amazing! We made it twice and it’s our favorite vegan Mac and cheese. We added cayenne for an extra kick.
Thanks for sharing, Gene! I love the extra kick.
This was amazing! Easy to prepare, creamy, and great flavor.
Thank you for sharing, Fern!
Thank you for the recipes!
You’re welcome, Deb!
Genius…incredible. All you gotta know.
Thank you, NY!
OMG this was so good. I’ve been struggling to stay on the vegan track (real cheese is slightly (very) addicting) and this really helped reassure me that I can do it. I also felt much healthier indulging in this delicious pasta than eating some box mac and cheese. I was super turned off by my first few vegan macs I tried, but this is soooo good. 10/10
I’m glad you loved it and it was helpful for you, Meg! I appreciate your review.
Love this recipe! Make it all the time and put a TON of nutritional yeast and oftentimes jalapeño !! Always turns out delicious and a hit with everyone we make it for !
I love the jalapenos! Thanks for sharing, Rachel!
I’m making this for Thanksgiving since I can’t have dairy, and I think I might add some jalapenos! I bet that would put it over the top for some of my other family members too! Great suggestion!
I have made this a couple of times for my son, who is a strict vegan. My whole family (vegan/vegetarian/omnivore) LOVES this mac n cheese. My son is leaving for college tomorrow, and I offered to make him anything he wanted for dinner tonight. No hesitation, he picked this mac n cheese. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
I love this was his go-to before college meal! How fun. Thanks for your review, Marie.
Main complaint I have with this recipe is hot potato/onion “sauce” going directly into a plastic vitamin to liquify. Also it was very bland. We added a lot of paprika and spices to make it tolerable. I won’t make this again.
I’m sorry you didn’t love this, Rachel. Thank you for your feedback.
This was AMAZING! Honestly I think this is indistinguishable from dairy mac and cheese. I am vegetarian and my husband is vegan so I had high expectations! The salt is so important too. I ended up adding a sprinkle more on top of my bowl! New favorite comfort food :)
Thank you for your review, Erin!
What a lovely sauce! I do not know what mac’n’cheese is supposed to taste like as we don’t have it in France. But I absolutely loved this sauce! It’s super easy to make, I soaked my cashews in hot water for about 20 mins before as I was making this in my smoothie maker and it’s not very powerful. I grained my mustard seeds for this and omitted the onion powder as I did not have any. I used 4 cloves of roasted garlic instead of the fresh one. My children (2 and 4) loved it and so did my husband who usually adds a ton of cheese to his pasta. This time he said it didn’t need any. Win! I did not have any broccoli so I added some sweet corn. Next time I’ll try broccoli or roasted cauliflower. Definitely a great recipe!
I’m glad this one was a hit, Kersitn! Thanks so much for your comment and review.
I actually had quite a bit of leftover sauce even though we were 4 and had this for lunch. I used half of the leftover sauce with chickpea pasta and scrambled tofu for a high protein lunch for me and half on hasselback potatoes. Both times the sauce worked fantastically!
I made this tonight and holy smokes it was DELICIOUS!!! i was a bit skeptical because it was a little different from other vegan mac recipes (no almond milk or carrots) but this one is WAY better than those in my opinion! Very well done!
I’m so glad you loved it!
The dish turned out truly amazing! We all loved it! Thank you for sharing your recipe.
Glad you loved it, Lisa!
can I substitute plain flour for the yeast???
You will want the yeast here to get the cheese-like taste and texture.
You don’t need whole cashews. I’ve been substituting Wellbee’s Cashew Flour for cashews in vegan recipes for a while now and it works great. Save yourself the trouble of that (and the expense of a high-power blender).
I’ll be making this recipe tonight, adding in Cholula hot sauce and chopped parsley. I think that adding more flavorful ingredients like these helps hide the difference between this sauce and real cheese.
Thanks for sharing, Justin! Sounds interesting.
Mmmmmm! I made this for dinner last night, was just the recipe I was after!I added half a shredded carrot, for colour and more veg, which worked out well. Thanks for a great recipe!
I love it, Jessica! Thanks for your review.
This was darn good stick-to-your-ribs food. I didn’t add broccoli because I knew that would be the deal breaker on this recipe for my crew. My family loved it, even the die hard Kraft mac and cheesers. I don’t think it tastes exactly like mac and cheese. It’s just really good and hearty. My son even said he would buy me a food processor to make the sauce smoother than the blender in the future. Now on to the vegan queso recipe…!
I love your description, Kim! Thanks for your review.
okay wow- I feel like I’ve tried 20 different vegan mac n’ cheese recipes by now. This one by far is the best. The sauce has a creamy gooeyness that’s SO SIMILAR to dairy cheese. It’s AWESOME. Seriously! Thanks for creating :)
Hooray! I’m happy to hear that.
What can you sub the cashews with if you have a nut allergy?
Sorry, I don’t have a great alternative for you!
Tasted nothing like mac n cheese. Nothing at all
Would roasted cauliflower work in this instead of cashews, or rutabega, tho pretty strongly flavored, it mellows after a salt water bath and several rinses before cooking? I might give it a try. Thanks for what you do!
I love the ideas! I didn’t design this recipe for those, so I’m not sure. I would think more would need to be adjusted to get the same flavor. Sorry to not be more helpful!
I made this tonight and it was a huge hit with my family. I decided to soak my cashews beforehand and even with that added time it was still super quick to put together. Instead of regular noodles I used chickpea noodles I found at Costco. It tasted great and my almost 2 year-old couldn’t get enough of it.
I love that! Thanks for sharing, Kim.
If I’m taking this to a party about an hour away, should I keep the sauce and pasta separate until I get to the party and blend it there? This is my first vegan recipe to try for friends and I’m super excited! It looks and sounds like it will be delicious!
You will want to make sure it is warm. As long as you can keep it warm, you should be good! If you have the ability to do it at the party, I don’t see why that wouldn’t work.
Would love to try this recipe, but am allergic to cashews, can I use walnuts or almonds instead?
I’m not sure without trying it, sorry! Cashews give a creamy texture where other nuts may not provide the same impact.
I don’t even love mac and cheese, but I decided to make this last night. Surprisingly simple to put together, and absolutely delicious. My girlfriend and I could NOT stop eating it, and I think it instantly became one of our top C&K recipes. Added a little bit of cayenne, too. Loved the broccoli.
Hooray! That’s great, Mitch. Thanks for sharing.
Sure want to make this today, but I don’t have russet potatoes. Can another kind be used instead?
The suggested potato really works best here. Possibly another white potato, but wouldn’t know for sure with out trying it.
Maybe I don’t have a powerful enough blender but I soaked my cashews for 24 hours even and still came out not smooth. Also, the taste is not necessarily cheesey either. I use a Ninja blender and added extra water and salt and still it’s not what I expected. Any suggestions on how to save it?
Hi Kim! I’m sorry to hear that. How much water did you add? I would suggest since you added more water, to add additional of the other ingredients by almost equal amounts. If you doubled the water, then double the salt, lemon, etc. Make sense? Let me know how it goes!
This was delicious and so easy to make! Just a note: I didn’t have a russet potato the second time I made it so I substituted a sweet potato and it was just as good as the first time!
Thank you for sharing, Amy!
I can’t believe how delicious this was! I followed the recipe to the letter and it worked perfectly. I used gluten free brown rice pasta. I prepped / measured all of my ingredients, spices, etc before I started cooking so watching the sauce while the pasta cooked was not a stressful experience.
I’m happy you enjoyed the recipe and the experience!
I’m wondering if cashews can be substituted with anything? My daughter is anaphylactic
Hi Kardina! Sorry, I don’t have a great solution for you to not change the recipe completely.
I replaced the cashews with silken tofu.. Even better than cashews. Added a teaspoon of arrowroot powder and blended all the spices with it. Also added roasted eggplant cut in small pieces.. Yum!
I’ve been searching for a good vegan mac & cheese recipe and this mac and cheese nailed it 100%. We loved it. I’ll use the cheese sauce for other recipes too! Thank you….
Hooray! Thank you for sharing, Stephanie.
Made this last night. I was skeptical about the potatoes. I’ve made just about every vegan mac anc cheese recipe out there–and like most of them. This one BLEW MY MIND. Best ever.
Winner! That’s great, Susan. Thanks so much for your review.
Quick questions… HOW IS THIS REAL???! First off, I’m not a vegan. I gave up dairy and eggs to breastfeed my allergic infant. It’s been 10 months. I. Miss. Cheese! I was so hesitant when I first read the recipe because I’d originally found a recipe to try that used a bunch of very expensive vegan cheeses to make the sauce. I mean… that sounds like macaroni and cheese, right? So I just accepted my fate and bought a bunch of vegan cheese. Then I found your recipe and read it over at least 3 times to make sure I didn’t miss the cheese in the ingredients list. I had to ponder it for a while, but when I realized how clever it is to use the potato this way to get a much more realistic cheesy texture I changed my plans. I’m so glad I did! This is a much more practical recipe to make regularly, and baby loved it too! Thank you!
Do you think you could use cauliflower rice in place of the potato? Or do you need the starch from the potato?
I love your recipes. Thank you for giving us the gift of good food! :)
Oh my goodness! I made this (a double batch) last night & it was good. Tonight I added some kale, Roma tomatoes, lentils & some fresh rosemary to some of the leftovers & wow, what a game changer! So good! Thank you! This will be my staple for the rest of the week & a recipe to file away in my favorites for sure!
Excited to make this tonight! Has anyone tried – or know if you can- use sweet potato instead of regular?
Thanks in advance!
Lauren
I thoroughly enjoyed this recipe, thank you Kate. I didn’t have any of the powders: mustard, onion or garlic and substituted 1 tsp wholegrain mustard, and a flat tsp vegetable stock. Was delicious.
Excited to try this! Does the potato need to be cooked before grating?
Hi Kourtney! No need to cook and then grate. The cooking will take place in step 3. :)
Hi Kate,
I live in the uk where we do not have Russet potatoes. What would you suggest as a alternative. Was thinking maybe a King Edward potato but i am not sure.
Thank you! xx
Hi Joanna! I would recommend a white cooking potato. I hope that helps!
This is so good! We have recently adopted a plant-based diet and my husband was a little skeptical about a mac and cheese with no cheese. It is the first time I had ever used cashews for making “cheese” but boy, did it turn out really great. Not to mention how simple it was.
I’m glad you loved it, Darcy!
I love this recipe! I wanted to eat WAY more of it that I should have :)
Quick question: is this ok to freeze and then reheat at a later date?