Dairy Free Baked Mac and “Cheeze”

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Editor’s Note: This recipe has been updated. Old pictures of original post are below.

Every vegan has at least 3 mac and cheese recipes if not more. And we all struggle with these common factors:

• Do I make it stove top?
• Do I make it baked?
• Do I used a vegan cheese product?
• Do I keep it “pure” only using plant based whole foods?

Well this recipe is a combination of all four. Better than any of them that could have stood on their own and it is my absolute favorite!

Of course I am  bias because it is my recipe. But I surprised myself with this one. I never thought these combinations would work but it turned out absolutely incredible.

It is so creamy I dare say it taste very close to the real thing but I will let you decide that for yourself.

The cheese sauce is made with potatoes, cashews, carrots, nutritional yeast and vegan cheese slices.  You first shred the cheese in a food processor. Then take your plant based ingredients (your potatoes, carrots, seasonings, etc) and blend it in a blender to make a cheese sauce. Pour that cheese sauce over your cooked pasta and mix in shredded cheese. Spread the mac and cheese on a pan and top with bread crumbs or your favorite vegan shredded cheese brand. 

Vegan Curve Building Properties: Pasta is carbohydrate friendly and depending on what type of pasta you use,  it can contain a nice about of protein as well. The cashews on it’s own adds protein to the dish.

Appliances used in this recipe:

• Vitamix Professional Blender
• Hamilton Beach 70725 Food Processor

 For more of my recommended cooking tools, visit the resource page at MUST HAVES APPLIANCES IN A VEGAN KITCHEN

This is GREAT confront food and you can loose the guilt because it is dairy free! No cruelty involved! Even if you are not vegan, you will want to make this recipe.

Enjoy!

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Dairy Free Baked Mac and "Cheeze"

The VERY BEST vegan mac and cheese you will ever have! Trust me you won't miss the dairy. Serve as a side dish or as a main course.

Course Main Course, Pasta, Side Dish

Cuisine American

Prep Time 3 hours

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 3 hours 25 minutes

Servings 6

Author Gina Marie

Ingredients

• 1 box of elbow pasta of your choice I used gluten free pasta
• 1 cup potato chopped
• 1/4 cup carrots
• 1/4 cup of soaked cashews
• 1 1//2 cup of plant based milk
• 1 tbs[ of lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1/2 onion powder
• 1/4 garlic powder
• 2 tbsp of nutritional yeast
• 1 package of vegan slice cheese I like Chao or Follow Your Heart slices
• 1/4-1/2 cup of gluten free bread crumb or vegan cheese slices I like Follow your heart

Instructions

1. Soak cashews for 2 to 3 hours or overnight.
2. Boil pasta until almost done. Do not cook all the way because it will finish cooking in the oven when baked.
3. Drain pasta in a colander. If you are using gluten free pasta sometimes it can get sticky because of the starch. If that happens run your pasta through cold water. Set aside.
4. Boil your potatoes and carrots until soft, set aside.
5. Take an entire package of Chao (or Follow Your Heart ) cheese slices, cut up into squares, and shred it in a food processor. Or you can chopped up cheese very finely. Set aside.
6. Take your cashews, carrots, potatoes, milk, lemon juice, mustard, nutritional yeast and seasonings and put in a high speed blender. Blend until smooth. Adjust seasonings to your liking.
7. Preheat oven to 350
8. Take cheese sauce mixture and pour over pasta. Mix well. Then take 3/4 of shredded cheese and mix it into the pasta.
9. Transfer mac and cheese into a pan. Top the remainder of shredded cheese and bread crumbs on top. Put in oven uncover and bake for 20 -25 minutes.
10. Once done let it cool for a few minutes. Serve with a fresh salad or as a side dish. Enjoy!!

Recipe Notes

Chao contains soy. If that is an issue you can try Follow your heart cheese slices. They are soy free and melt very well. The vegan cheese slices gives it that extra creaminess, better than the vegan shredded cheese brands. You can omit the vegan cheese all together but because it is baked, it will be lacking that creamy texture effect.

IF YOU LOVE THIS RECIPE: You might enjoy the  FREE Curve Building Recipe Guide where you will find 10 recipes (9 of which are not featured on this blog) and a 6 Day Meal Plan. Download your copy HERE.

Original photos of recipe.

Equipment use to improve photos

• Canon EOS Rebel T6 Digital SLR Camera
• Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM Lens
• Lowel EGO Digital Imaging, Tabletop Fluorescent Light Unit

For more tips on improving your food photography check out the Food Photography Tools Page.

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