Dairy Free Mac and Cheese

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This is the BEST Dairy Free Mac and Cheese EVER! No potatoes, carrots, cashews, or nutritional yeast! This vegan mac and cheese is the REAL DEAL; creamy, super satisfying, and can be served baked or stovetop!  

What's the Best Vegan Cheese to use for this Recipe?

Through my experimentation here are my recommendations (none of these are sponsored):

• Follow Your Heart Cheddar Shreds: This is what I mainly used. It’s my NUMBER ONE RECOMMENDATION. Follow Your Heart melts the BEST and is perfect for a vegan mac and cheese recipe. To me, it tastes the closest to real cheddar. 
• Violife Cheddar Shreds: Violife has a great taste as well. I wouldn't recommend topping my mac and cheese with it as it gets kinda hard when baked and melted on top. (It might work better if covered when baked though I didn’t try it that way).
• Daiya Cheddar Shreds Cutting Board Version: Daiya is an acquired taste. Some people HATE it and others LOVE it. I heard the cutting board version is 100x better than the old version tho I haven't personally tried it. I’ve seen others use this in recipes and it looks like it melts pretty well like this vegan mac and cheese recipe here. 

How to Serve this Vegan Mac and Cheese?

• On my Vegan Thanksgiving table with recipes like:
  • Vegan Lentil Loaf
  • Baked Candied Sweet Potatoes
  • Healthy Cranberry Sauce
  • Almond Green Beans
• Vegan Sunday or Easter Dinner with recipes like:
  • Fried Oyster Mushrooms
  • vegan mashed potatoes
  • collard greens
  • Vegan Cornbread Recipe! 

How to Make Dairy Free Mac and Cheese?

*Please read detailed and printable recipe card below for full ingredients and instructions

Season Pasta & Start Roux

1. Season your warm cooked, drain elbow pasta with butter, salt, and garlic powder. Mix butter and seasonings fully coat your pasta (Photos 1 & 2)
2. Start your roux by melting some vegan butter in a large pot. Then mix in your flour whisking together until fully combined. (Photos 3 & 4)

Make Cheese Sauce

1. While whisking, add both coconut milk and almond milk to your roux. Simmer until it thickens. (Photos 1 & 2)
2. Once sauce slightly thickens, add silken tofu, vegan cream cheese, seasonings, and vegan cheddar shreds. Mix until cheese is fully melted and the sauce turns orange. (Photos 3 & 4)

Add Seasoned Macaroni Pasta & Bake

1. Add pasta to cheese sauce and mix in well. You can serve this as is as a stovetop version OR proceed with the next steps to bake. (Photos 1 & 2)
2. Add mac and cheese to a greased 9 x 13-inch pan and topped with vegan cheddar cheese. Bake until cheese has melted on top and allow to cool before serving. (Photos 3 & 4)

Substitution, Cook, & Storage Tips:

• You can substitute the unsweetened full-fat canned coconut milk with an equal amount of plant-based milk of your choice or vegan half and half (super pricey). You might lose some richness as canned coconut milk is high in saturated fat like cheese making this recipe creamy. 
• If baking, try topping with breadcrumbs instead of extra vegan cheese! Mix ½ cup of bread crumbs with ¼ cup of butter. Sprinkle on top of your dairy-free mac and cheese and bake!  
• Silken tofu acts as binder much like an egg would in a traditional Southern Baked Mac and Cheese. You could omit this if you like and substitute with ½ cup of vegan sour cream. 
• Leftovers. This will keep very well in the fridge for 3-4 days. 
• Freezer.  In theory yes you can freeze this tho it NEVER lasts this long in my home to be frozen. To freeze, wrap cooled, refrigerated mac and cheese in plastic wrap in individual portions. Add a layer of aluminum foil, and put it in a Ziploc freezer bag. Label and dated and keep for no more than 3 months. Defrost overnight in the refrigerator and reheat in the oven.

How Does This Recipe Help With Vegan Weight Gain?

This recipe is very high calorie with over 700 calories per serving! It's super-rich and dense so even though it is ideal for weight gain, I would still eat occasionally versus having it in your regular rotation.

How Does This Recipe Help With Vegan Weight Loss?

To make this more weight loss (waste/weight release friendly) you could:

• This recipe is extremely rich and high in fat. You could make a more plant-based version like this one here! 
• Omit the canned coconut milk and substitute for soy or almond milk. 
• Omit the vegan cream cheese
• Keep in mind that this is mac and cheese and it’s meant to be indulgent! Eat sparingly.

What People Are Saying About This Recipe

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Dairy Free Mac and Cheese

This is the BEST Dairy Free Mac and Cheese EVER! No potatoes, carrots, cashews, or nutritional yeast! This vegan mac and cheese is the REAL DEAL; creamy, super satisfying, and can be served as baked or stovetop!

4.79 from 14 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: American, Southern

Keyword: dairy free mac and cheese, vegan mac and cheese

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 50 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

Servings: 8 servings

Calories: 768kcal

Author: Gina Marie

Ingredients

Pasta

• ▢ 6-8 cups water to boil pasta
• ▢ pinch salt
• ▢ 12-16 ounce gluten free elbow macaroni pasta note 1
• ▢ 2 tablespoon vegan butter
• ▢ 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• ▢ ½ teaspoon salt

Cheese Sauce

• ▢ ½ cup vegan butter (plus 1 teaspoon to grease pan )
• ▢ 6 tablespoon chickpea flour (or your choice of flour)
• ▢ 1 14 ounce canned unsweetened coconut milk note 2
• ▢ 3 cups almond milk note 2
• ▢ 2 bouillon cubes (or 1 tablespoon of seasoned vegetable base)
• ▢ ½ cup vegan cream cheese
• ▢ 12 oz silken tofu note 3
• ▢ 6 cups shredded vegan cheese, divided (3 eight-ounce bags) note 4
• ▢ 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• ▢ 1 teaspoon onion powder
• ▢ ½ teaspoon sea salt
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder optional
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon liquid smoke ( or ½ teaspoon smoked paprika) optional

US Customary - Metric

Equipment

Cooking Pot

Instructions

Pasta

• Bring water to a boil over high heat and add a pinch of salt. Once the water is boiling, add in uncooked elbow macaroni pasta, and boil pasta to al dente according to package instructions. Drain your pasta and place in a large mixing bowl.
• OPTIONAL: Here we are going to season the pasta individually while still warm. You can skip this step if you like. I always seasoned my pasta individually before adding any sauce to maximize flavor. To your warm pasta add vegan butter, garlic powder, and ¼ teaspoon salt.
• Mix together coating your pasta with the seasonings evenly. Taste one pasta shell making sure you can taste the seasonings on it. Set aside to begin making your cheese sauce.

Cheese Sauce

• Preheat oven to 400 F (200 C). Grab a 9x13 baking dish, and lightly greased with vegan butter. Set aside. (Do this only if you plan on baking your mac and cheese and not serving it as a stove top dish).
• In the same pot used to boil your pasta, melt vegan butter completely and then add in chickpea flour. Stir it vigorously with the melted butter. This is how you make a roux.
• Then pour in the canned coconut milk and almond milk. Whisk until smooth. (There should be no lumps). Keep whisking and reduce heat to medium for 7 to 10 minutes until it starts to slightly thicken. Don't worry if it's not super thick. The vegan cheese will help it become thicker.
• Next add in vegetable bouillon cubes, vegan cream cheese, silken tofu, garlic powder, onion powder, sea salt, black pepper, turmeric powder (optional), and 4 cup vegan cheddar cheese. Stir on medium heat until vegan cheese melts and seasonings are fully incorporated into the sauce for 5 minutes until sauce thickens.
• Remove sauce from heat (turn off your stove) and add the cooked & drained elbow macaroni into your cheese pot. Fold the macaroni and cheese sauce until everything is well incorporated. You can serve this as. If you want to bake it proceed to the next step.
• Layer macaroni and cheese in greased 9 x 13 inch baking dish, then top with 2 cups of vegan cheddar cheese.
• Bake in the oven, covered with aluminum foil for 10 minutes your cheese will start to melt on top and the aluminum foil will lock in the moisture. After 10 minutes, uncover your mac and cheese and bake for an additional 15 mins until cheese on top becomes golden brown.
• Once done remove from oven and allow to cool. Your mac and cheese will be bubbly and sizzling. You might see a lot of oil. That is due to the fat content of this dish which makes it super indulgent. It will settle once cool and create this nice cheesy crusted topping.
• Serve as a side dish along with Vegan Lentil Loaf, Baked Candied Sweet Potatoes, and Fried Oyster Mushrooms.
• This will keep very well in the fridge for 3-4 days. To freeze, wrap cooled and refrigerated mac and cheese in plastic wrap in individual portions. Add a layer of aluminum foil, and put it in a Ziploc freezer bag keeping for no more than 3 months. Defrost overnight in the refrigerator and reheat in the oven.

Video

Notes

1. PASTA: I use gluten free elbow pasta this brand here. But you can use whatever type of pasta you have on hand or desire. Seasoning the individual past itself is optional and if you choose not to do this, omit those steps and the extra measurement of ingredients.
2. PLANT BASED MILK: You can substitute the unsweetened full fat canned coconut milk with an equal amount of plant based milk of your choice or vegan half and half (super pricey). You might lose some richness as canned coconut milk is high in saturated fat like cheese this recipe creamy. Make sure the milk you do use is unsweetened and not flavored (DO NOT use the coconut milk in a jug in the refrigerator section of your store).
3. SILKEN TOFU: Silken tofu acts as binder much like an egg would in a traditional Southern Baked Mac and Cheese. You could omit this if you like and substitute with ½ cup of vegan sour cream. Be sure to get SOFT Silken Tofu as it melts better with cheese sauce. Lite Firm Silken Tofu will work too but it’s not as smooth and won’t blend all the way together with your cheese sauce.
4. VEGAN CHEESE: Please refer to “What is the Best vegan Cheese to use for this” section in blog post to see what type of vegan cheeses to use. I use Follow Your Heart brand.
5. STOVETOP: If you are not baking your mac and cheese, you will only need 4 cups of vegan cheese vs 6 cups. The last 2 cups are reserved for topping your vegan mac for baking. So buy 2 eight ounce packages of vegan cheese instead of 3.

Nutrition

Nutrition Facts

Dairy Free Mac and Cheese

Amount Per Serving (1 cup (app))

Calories 768 Calories from Fat 477

% Daily Value*

Fat 53g82%

Saturated Fat 23g144%

Cholesterol 16mg5%

Sodium 1615mg70%

Potassium 293mg8%

Carbohydrates 61g20%

Fiber 6g25%

Sugar 4g4%

Protein 13g26%

Vitamin A 324IU6%

Vitamin C 1mg1%

Calcium 211mg21%

Iron 3mg17%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

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Update Notes: This post was originally published on December 13, 2016, but was republished with new photos, step by step instructions, tips, and a video on November 25, 2019.

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