Vegan mac and cheese
25 min · 26 g protein · 431 cals / serving
Creamy, golden stovetop mac and cheese with no dairy anywhere. The sauce is silken tofu, white beans and soy milk blended with nutritional yeast, mustard and a little cashew, so it pours like a cheese sauce, coats every elbow and tastes tangy and cheesy rather than of beans. A dusting of paprika on top finishes it the classic way.
Ingredients
- 7 3/4 oz pasta, elbow macaroni
Cheese sauce
- 12 oz soft tofu, silken
- 1 can (15 oz) cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 1/4 cups unsweetened soy milk
- 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
- 1/4 cup cashews, soaked in hot water 10 minutes, drained
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1/4 tsp turmeric, for color
- 3/4 tsp salt
To serve
- 1/2 tsp paprika, smoked if you have it
- a few grinds black pepper
Steps
- Cook the macaroni in well-salted water for 1 minute less than the package says, so it finishes in the sauce. Drain, keeping a mugful of the cooking water.
- While the pasta cooks, put the silken tofu, white beans, soy milk, nutritional yeast, drained cashews, mustard, lemon juice, garlic powder, onion powder, turmeric and salt in a blender. Blend on high for a full minute, until completely smooth with no grit from the cashews.
- Pour the sauce into the empty pasta pot and warm it over medium-low heat, stirring, for 2–3 minutes, until it starts to bubble at the edges and thickens slightly.
- Tip in the macaroni and stir for 1–2 minutes, until every piece is coated and the sauce is thick and glossy. Loosen with a splash of the pasta water if it tightens. Taste for salt, then serve with paprika and black pepper on top.
Good to know
Will it taste of beans or tofu?
Not once it is blended properly. Silken tofu has almost no flavor, and the white beans just make the sauce thick and velvety. The nutritional yeast, mustard and lemon are what make it taste cheesy, so taste the sauce before it meets the pasta and add more of any of them.
Can I bake it?
Yes. Spread it in a baking dish, scatter over 1/3 cup of dry breadcrumbs, vegan (some contain milk), tossed with a teaspoon of olive oil, and bake at 400°F for 15 minutes, until the top is crisp.
No cashews?
Leave them out (about 55 instead of 51), or use a tablespoon of tahini instead. The sauce is a little less rich but still creamy.
Alternative
Per
- Calories
- 118
- Protein
- (24%)
- 7 g
- Fat
- (22%)
- 3 g
- Carbohydrates
- (54%)
- 17 g
- of which sugar
- 1 g
- Fiber
- 2 g
- Sodium
- 198 mg
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Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How
As written, 1725 kcal goes into the pot and 1208 g of ingredients comes out as about 1460 g of food: 118 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.