Are you hungry for a flavorful vegan mac and cheese recipe that’s packed with veggies? Look no further. Crow Moon Kitchen’s vegan mac recipe features strong umami notes like white miso and nutritional yeast. To top it off, this dish is made with simple plant-based ingredients, which means you don’t have to buy vegan cheese.

The recipe calls for a dairy milk alternative like unsweetened oat milk, which can easily be made at home and is a budget-friendly option.

Why nooch, miso, and cashews?

You’d be surprised how much nutritional value you can add to a dish with just a few ingredients. Here’s why these three ingredients are so popular in vegan dishes:

Cashew nuts: Cashew nuts are often used in vegan cooking because they are creamy, rich in nutrients, and offer several health benefits. They contain protein, good fats, iron, selenium, and magnesium. They can improve heart health, contain antioxidants, and are easy to add to a plant-based diet as a snack or an additive in sauces and sweet and savory dishes alike.
Nutritional Yeast or “Nooch”: Nooch is widely used in plant-based cooking for it’s savory, almost cheesy flavor, and additional nutrients. It’s packed with protein, vitamins B1, B2, and B6, and zinc. Nooch’s fiber, beta-glucan, can reduce cholesterol, and the flakes have a low glycemic index, which is great for regulating blood sugar.
Miso paste: Finally, miso paste has been used for centuries in Asian cuisine. The paste is protein-rich and made from fermented soybeans. This recipe’s white miso is sweet, mildly salty, and great for people trying miso for the first time.

Vegan mac and cheese recipe

This dish is made with white miso, nutritional yeast, potato, and carrot blended in a creamy plant-based cheese sauce with elbow pasta (or any shape of your choosing). Serve as is, or add some vegan BBQ sauce-coated soy curls to your meal for that all-American flavor.

creamy vegan macaroni and plant-based cheese recipe with barbeque soy curls on the side

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Duration35

Cook Time20

Prep Time15

Servings people

Ingredients

1 cup raw cashews (must be raw not roasted or salted)
1 cup russet potato (cut 1 medium potato chopped into large chunks)
½ cup carrot (1 medium carrot chopped into large chunks)
¼ cup white onion (1 smaller onion chopped)
4-6 cloves of garlic (roughly chopped)
½ cup nutritional yeast
1½ cups non-dairy milk (unsweetened oat milk is preferred)
2 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp white miso paste (not red as that's quite strong)
1 tsp paprika
¼ -½ tsp salt (optional)
¼ tsp tumeric
16 ounces elbow macaroni (or a different shape)

Instructions

In a medium sized pot, combine the cashews, potato, carrot, onion, garlic, and enough water to cover by 2 inches. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 20 minutes. Drain but don't rinse.
Transfer the cooked ingredients to a blender and add the remaining ingredients. Blend until smooth. Add more liquid as needed. It should be thick but pourable.
While the sauce ingredients are cooking, boil your pasta in salted water until they are al dente. Check the pasta box for cooking times.
Drain the pasta, don't rinse, and combine the pasta and sauce in either of your used cooking pots. While stirring, heat until bubbling. Remove from heat and let rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Add in roasted jalapeno or even canned jalapeno for queso dip, but remember to heat the sauce to thicken it.

Don’t skip the white miso, because that’s the ingredient that gives that cheesy, umami flavor. Nutritional yeast gets close, but the miso really makes this the best.

This recipe was republished with permission from Crow Moon Kitchen. View the original recipe here.

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