The BEST vegan mac and cheese recipe! With a creamy, cheesy sauce made from sweet potatoes and nutritional yeast, it's just as good as the real thing.
When I’m craving comfort food, this vegan mac and cheese recipe is the first thing I make. It calls for a handful of ingredients that I almost always have on hand, it’s quick and easy, and it’s absolutely delicious. The creamy sauce is rich, luscious, and filled with nutty, tangy cheddar cheese flavor. Even Jack, who LOVES classic mac and cheese, will happily devour a bowl (or two) of this plant-based pasta any day.
In the past, I’ve made dairy-free mac and cheese with coconut milk, cauliflower, or a big scoop of cashews, but this recipe is my favorite by far. The super creamy sauce still contains a small amount of cashews, but its base is blended yellow potato and sweet potato. The yellow potato gives it a delightful gooey texture, and the sweet potato makes it vibrant orange. Apple cider vinegar, garlic, onion powder, and nutritional yeast perfect its cheesy taste. It’s fun, yummy, and even healthy too! I think you’re going to love it.
How to Make Vegan Mac and Cheese
- First, make the vegan cheese sauce. Simmer sweet potatoes and potatoes until tender. Then, drain them, and add them to a blender with raw cashews, nutritional yeast, garlic, onion powder, apple cider vinegar, sea salt, water, and olive oil. Puree until smooth.
- Next, cook the pasta. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add the pasta. Cook it according to the package directions, until al dente. Before you drain the pasta, set aside 1/2 cup of the starchy pasta water.
- Finally, toss it all together! Return the cooked macaroni to the pot and add the cashew cheese. Stir to combine, adding the reserved pasta water, as needed, to loosen the sauce. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Serve the vegan mac and cheese with a simple veggie side dish like roasted broccoli, roasted Brussels sprouts, lemony green beans, or roasted cauliflower. Enjoy!
Vegan Mac and Cheese Recipe Variations
- Swap the sweet potato. If you don’t have sweet potato on hand but you still want to try this recipe, don’t worry. An equal amount of diced carrot or butternut squash would work just as well.
- Make it smoky. Blend 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika, to taste, into the vegan cheese sauce for a smoky twist. Or, for texture, stir in a handful of crumbled tempeh bacon bits!
- Spice it up. Make spicy vegan mac and cheese by pureeing the sauce with 1 tablespoon pickled jalapeños or a chipotle pepper from a can of chipotles in adobo.
- Go gluten-free. Use your favorite gluten-free pasta! I like to use brown rice elbow macaroni.
- Add extra veggies. Of course, this vegan mac and cheese tastes good on its own, but adding extra veggies certainly doesn’t hurt. Stir in thawed frozen peas, spinach, or steamed broccoli for a bright pop of green.
How do you like to make your vegan mac and cheese? Let me know in the comments!
More Favorite Pasta Recipes
If you love this recipe, try one of these yummy pasta recipes next:
- Vegan Fettuccine Alfredo
- Easy Pesto Pasta
- Creamy Vegan White Bean Pasta
- Easy Baked Ziti
- Creamy Pasta Pomodoro
- Best Vegetarian Lasagna
- Or any of these 25 Easy Pasta Recipes!
Vegan Mac and Cheese
Ingredients
For the vegan cheese sauce
- ¾ cup peeled and diced Yukon Gold potato
- ¾ cup peeled and diced sweet potato
- 2 garlic cloves
- ¼ cup raw cashews
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- ¼ cup water
For the mac and cheese
- 12 ounces elbow macaroni
- sea salt, to taste
Instructions
- Make the vegan cheese: Place the Yukon Gold potatoes and sweet potatoes in a saucepan and cover with cold water by 1 inch. Add a few pinches of salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, until fork-tender, 8 to 12 minutes.
- Drain the potatoes and transfer to a high-speed blender with the garlic, cashews, apple cider vinegar, nutritional yeast, onion powder, salt, olive oil, and water. Blend until smooth.
- Make the mac and cheese: Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Prepare the pasta according to the package instructions, cooking until al dente. Reserve ½ cup of the pasta cooking water before draining.
- Drain and transfer the pasta back to the pot. Stir in the vegan cheese sauce, adding up to ½ cup pasta water to loosen the sauce, as necessary. Season to taste and serve.
I’ll preface this review by saying that I’m probably the world’s biggest cheese fan. So, I was skeptical that this would be anything as good as traditional mac & cheese. However, I went all out with this – I even roasted poblano peppers from my garden and stirred them in for some green chile mac. It was so much easier to make than I thought it would be. It’s got a subtly “cheesy” flavor (maybe it would have been less subtle of a cheese flavor if I hadn’t made it so spicy, haha) and is impressively creamy! All in all, I’d probably make this again (even if I’ll also keep making traditional mac & cheese too – there’s a place in my heart for everything). Delicious!
This vegan mac n’ cheese is not only my personal favorite, but is my 7 year old daughter’s preferred mac n’cheese now. She enjoys helping me make it now too. Peeling the potatoes is her job now. I love adding micro-greens and pecan parmesan for garnish. Chef’s kiss!
Aww, I’m so happy to hear!
I made this recipe this weekend. My 11 year old son, a mac and cheese connoisseur, ate two servings. My daughter liked that it wasn’t as heavy as traditional mac and cheese. Thanks for the tasty recipe!
Beautiful color compared to other cheez recipes that only use nuts and look grayish! I added spinach to make it a one dish meal. As long as I was dicing and boiling the sweet and white potatoes I made lots extra and added them to my dogs’ food for a few days. They loved it!
Loved it. Added some broccoli to veg it up. Thanks for bringing vegan cheese into my life. I had no idea it could be this good, + easy to make!
Okay I’m not going to lie, I had my reservations about this recipe. However, it was DELICIOUS and so quick and easy! Who knew vegan mac & cheese could be so good (and healthy)?! I added some smoked paprika and a chipotle pepper and served with a side salad. When I make it again (and that’s a definite), I will add some sauteed veggies. Thank you for the recipe!
This is absolutely delicious! Even my husband and adult son who are very suspicious of anything new and different loved it. Very easy and quick to make after work also so it’s a win win recipe. This one will definitely be on repeat. I don’t have a heavy duty blender so I just soaked the cashews over night and my regular blender was able to do the job no problem.
Yummy! We added sauteed onions, garlic, smoked paprika, sriracha and topped with parsley. My husband tried the vegan cheese with chips and loved it. We used corkscrew noodles. We can’t wait to try it on more dishes. Delicious!
I have never ever been successful at making dairy-free mac n cheese (and I’ve tried many times) until this recipe. I did add a little more salt and threw in a healthy helping of broccoli. It was quick and easy to make and the vegan sauce can be used for so much more than just this mac n cheese. Delicious!
Yum! I added green chiles, smoked paprika, and topped it with some crispy shallots. I can’t believe how creamy this vegan cheese sauce is!
I loved this recipe! I added a pinch of turmeric for the color and used mini shells for the fun. I also made a veggie chili to serve alongside. Everyone loved it!
This was my first time making vegan cheese and it was a hit!
I made this for lunch for my husband and he didn’t notice there was no cheese. I love the way the cooking club gets me to try different recipes.
I love that the cheese sauce doesn’t need time to thicken like other vegan cheeses I’ve made. I also added tempeh bacon, so delicious!
I made this for my kids and I tonight, and this cheese sauce is AMAZING. Dare I say better than real cheese sauce? I also put it on broccoli and it felt good feeding my kids and I a hearty, healthy dinner.
Didn’t have Yukon potato so just used any old yellow potato from the fridge. Topped with bread crumbs!
This vegan mac and cheese is yummy! I will definitely make again.
My first time making vegan cheese was a success. I don’t have a power blender, but it still worked.
We made this for my kids lunch and it was a huge hit. I also used the vegan cheese sauce for enchiladas with butternut squash and spinach which turned out super yummy.
I am super excited to make this version of mac & cheese! (Mac & cheese is my number one comfort food). I can’t seem to find a Yukon gold potato anywhere! Is there another potato I could substitute it for? Yellow skinned potato maybe?
Thank you!!
Hi Leah, yep, any yellow potato will work great.