As a child of the ’90s, I can think of no dish more universally comforting than mac and cheese. And this crispy baked vegan mac and cheese hits all the comfort food notes: creamy, cheesy, savory, salty, and even crispy thanks to the buttery breadcrumb topping.
No store-bought vegan cheese required, and it’s ready in 45 minutes.
Feed your inner child (or your actual children) with this indulgent and nostalgic dinner, or serve it up as a crowd-pleasing side for holiday dinners.
A Better Vegan Mac and Cheese
Even though this recipe has been a popular one (rated 4.9 of 5 stars with 200+ ratings as of this writing), I recently realized it was in need of an update.
When I tried it a few weeks ago, I found it wasn’t as savory or as cheesy as I was expecting, and the butternut squash added more sweetness than I wanted.
So I went back to the drawing board and came up with something far better (I tasted both versions side-by-side and the revamped version was the clear winner: more savory, more flavorful, and the best sign of all—I couldn’t stop eating it).
Without the squash, the recipe is also quicker (~45 minutes) and requires far less oven time.
If you liked the last version, I think you’ll LOVE this one. And if it’s your first time, prepare to enter comfort food heaven 😇
Ingredient Notes
- Raw Cashews. Soaked raw cashews, when blended up, rival the creamiest of dairy-based cheese sauces. Plus, their neutral flavor doesn’t interfere with any of the other sauce ingredient flavors.
- Nutritional Yeast. Given the wide variability of vegan cheeses in terms of meltability and flavor (and the unfortunate plastic taste in some 😭), I didn’t want this recipe to hinge on the quality of store-bought cheese. Luckily, nutritional yeast is a potent source of umami (thanks to its naturally occuring glutamic acid) and brings a nice cheesy flavor.
- Potatoes and Carrots. Yukon gold potatoes add the starch necessary to thicken the cheese sauce while keeping the flavor neutral, while carrots bring the light orange color our brains associate with mac and cheese. To avoid any sweet flavor, this recipe uses just one small carrot, which is plenty for color.
- Soy Sauce and Pickle Brine. These might sound like unusual additions, but without any actual cheese, our sauce needs more savoriness and a bit of tang to mimic the natural flavors of cheese.
- Vegan Butter. This is used to coat the macaroni and to make the buttery breadcrumb topping, and brings, well, the necessary buttery richness you’d expect in mac and cheese.
- Panko Breadcrumbs: The light, flaky texture brings an irresistible snappy crunch to the topping and works much better than standard breadcrumbs.
Substitutes
Live outside the U.S. / don’t have Yukon gold potatoes? Use any medium-starch, all-purpose potato.
Be sure to use the brine from dill pickles or kosher pickles. Don’t use the brine from sweet pickles, such as bread and butter pickles, as it will ruin the sauce. If you don’t have pickle brine, you can use white wine vinegar, but start with less.
Most vegan butters are salted, but if yours is unsalted, you may want to add a tad more salt to the cheese sauce and topping. Don’t want to use vegan butter? You can replace it with extra virgin olive oil.
Step by Step Instructions
- Add the raw cashews, sliced carrots, and chopped potatoes to a saucepan. Cover with water and bring to a boil.
- Boil for 15 minutes until the carrots and potatoes are soft and easily mashed with a fork, then drain and cool.
- Cook the macaroni in a large pot of generously salted boiling water until just shy of al dente.
- Drain but don’t rinse, then toss with vegan butter and set aside.
- Make the sauce: In a high-powered blender, combine the boiled cashews and carrots (but not potatoes), water, nutritional yeast, spices, salt/pepper, soy sauce, pickle brine, and olive oil.
- Blend the sauce on high until smooth, then add the potatoes and briefly blend until pureed. Pour the sauce into the buttered macaroni.
- Toss the sauce and macaroni until well coated (it will be quite saucy).
- Transfer the mac and cheese to a lightly greased 3-quart (3 L) baking dish.
- Sprinkle the buttered breadcrumb topping over the mac and cheese.
- Bake at 375ºF/190ºC for 20 minutes, then cool for 10 to 20 minutes to set.
Tips for making this recipe
Blend the potatoes separately
Raw cashews and potatoes make for a rich and luxurious cheese sauce, no dairy or store-bought vegan cheese needed. The only problem is they can cause the sauce to thicken too much and dry out a bit after the mac and cheese rests.
To prevent that, I blend the potatoes into the cheese sauce at the end on medium-low, after all the other cheese sauce ingredients have been blended. This prevents the potato from being overworked, keeping the sauce loose yet creamy as it sets.
Tip: Once the potatoes, carrots, and cashews are done boiling and have cooled off, simply pick out the potato pieces and set them aside.
Taste the cheese sauce
Before you pour the cheese sauce into the macaroni, give it a taste and assess. If desired, add more nutritional yeast for cheesy savorines, more soy sauce for savory saltines, more pickle brine for acidity/tang, or more salt to taste.
The sauce starts off thin, then thickens
After blending, the cheese sauce will not be very thick (more like the consistency of a smoothie). When you toss it with the cooked macaroni, it will look like too much sauce.
Don’t be alarmed! The pasta will absorb the water from the sauce as it bakes/rests, and the starch from the potato will swell and then set as it cools. So the sauce will thicken as it bakes and continue thickening as it rests.
Looking for more classic holiday side dishes? Try my Ultimate Crispy Roasted Potatoes, Mushroom Gravy, and Vegan Cornbread!
Frequently Asked Questions
For the best results, cook the macaroni and make the cheese sauce ahead of time, combine them, and spread them out in your baking dish. You can do this about 2 days ahead of time.
Make the crispy topping, but store it separately in an airtight container or ziplock bag on the counter for a couple days.
When you’re ready to bake:
(a) If possible, let the dish sit out at room temp so you’re not baking from cold, then sprinkle with the breadcrumb topping and bake as instructed in the recipe card.
(b) If baking the dish cold: Bake the plain mac and cheese for 5 to 10 minutes or until no longer cold, then sprinkle with the crispy bread topping. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown on top.
Once cooled, store the leftovers in an airtight container or tightly cover the baking dish and refrigerate for up to 5 days.
(a) Reheating the full dish or a large portion: Drizzle a few tablespoons of unsweetened soy milk/cashew milk around the edges of the dish, ideally so it can seep into the sauced pasta without wetting the breadcrumb topping. Cover with foil and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 20 minutes, until hot in the center. Uncover and bake 6 to 8 more minutes to re-crisp the top.
(b) Reheating a single serving: add your portion to an oven-proof dish, adding a teaspoon or two of plant milk at the edge. Cover with foil and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 5 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for another 3 to 5 minutes.
Blend the cashews and carrots with the water for several minutes in your blender or food processor, scraping down the sides as you go. Blend until you can get it as smooth as possible.
If you have little unblended cashew bits, strain the mixture over a fine-mesh sieve and discard the cashew bits.
Return this mixture to your blender and add in the remaining ingredients, blending until well-combined.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to come up with a nut-free version that is just as good, so I don’t have a good alternative to raw cashews.
While we haven’t tried this ourselves, you can try using gluten-free macaroni (or any small gluten-free pasta) and gluten-free panko breadcrumbs.
And replace the soy sauce with tamari or GF soy sauce.
If you love this vegan mac and cheese, please let us know by leaving a rating and review below 🫶🏽
Introducing
Big Vegan Flavor
Techniques and 150 recipes to master vegan cooking.
Mind-Blowing Vegan Mac and Cheese
Ingredients
Cheese Sauce
- 1 small carrot ~50g
- 8 oz (227g) Yukon gold potatoes (see Note 1)
- 115 g raw cashews (this is ¾ cup + 1 TBSP)
- 2 cups (480 mL) water
- 50g nutritional yeast (this is ½ cup + 2 TBSP)
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp onion powder
- ½ tsp smoked paprika
- ⅛ tsp cayenne pepper
- ⅛ tsp turmeric for color
- 3 to 4 tsp soy sauce
- 1 ½ TBSP dill pickle brine (don’t use brine from sweet pickles, see Note 2 for sub)
- 2 ½ TBSP (35g) extra virgin olive oil (or vegan butter, melted)
- Diamond Crystal kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper (see Note 3)
Crispy Topping
- 2 ½ TBSP (35g) vegan butter, melted
- 65g panko breadcrumbs (this is ~ ¾ cup + 2 TBSP)
- 1 TBSP (5g) nutritional yeast
- ⅛ tsp smoked paprika
Macaroni
- 12 oz (340g) elbow macaroni
- 1 ½ TBSP (21g) vegan butter
Instructions
- Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil for the macaroni.
- Peel the carrot, then slice into ¼” coins (6 mm). Peel the potatoes, then cut into 1” chunks (2.5 cm).
- Add carrots, potatoes, and cashews to a medium saucepan and cover with enough water to submerge. Bring to a boil and boil for 15 minutes, or until potatoes and carrots are soft and easily smash with a fork. Drain and let rest until no longer hot.Pick out the potato pieces and keep separate from the cashews/carrots.
- While the cashews/veg boil, make the Crispy Topping. Add 2 ½ TBSP (35g) butter to a small bowl and melt in the microwave. Mix in the panko, 1 TBSP (5g) nutritional yeast, ⅛ tsp smoked paprika, and 2 pinches of salt, stirring well until the butter is evenly distributed and there are no clumps. Set aside.
- Cook the pasta. When the water is boiling, salt it generously. Cook the macaroni 1 minute less than the time indicated on the box, or until just shy of al dente.Drain the pasta but do not rinse. Return the pasta to its pot, and toss with 1 ½ TBSP (21g) vegan butter (or olive oil). Set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 375ºF/190ºC. Lightly grease a 3-quart (3L) baking dish with softened/melted butter or olive oil.
- Make the cheese sauce. In a high-powered blender, combine the 2 cups (480 mL) water, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, cayenne, turmeric, 3 teaspoons soy sauce, pickle brine, olive oil, several twists of black pepper, and 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt. Add the boiled carrots and cashews (but not the potatoes). Blend on high until completely smooth and creamy and all cashew bits have been pulverized, scraping down the sides as you go.Now add the boiled potatoes and blend on medium-low for 15 to 30 seconds, just until combined and pureed. NOTE: The sauce will be looser than seems right, like the consistency of a smoothie.
- Taste the sauce, adding more pickle brine for zing/tang, more nutritional yeast for cheesiness, or more soy sauce for savory saltiness (I usually use 4 teaspoons total). If adding any additional ingredients, blend on medium-low just to combine.
- Pour the cheese sauce into the pot of cooked macaroni, tossing well. NOTE: It will feel like too much sauce now, but it thickens as it bakes.
- Transfer the mac and cheese to the prepared baking dish and sprinkle the Crispy Topping evenly over the top. Bake for 20 minutes or until the topping is golden brown. Cool for 10 to 20 minutes to help set up, then slice and serve.
Notes
- If you live outside of the U.S. or Yukon Gold potatoes are not available, use a medium-starch, all-purpose potato. Try to avoid a high-starch potato or a low-starch potato.
- Don’t use pickle brine from sweet pickles, such as bread and butter pickles. If dill or kosher pickles aren’t available, sub the brine with white wine vinegar, but start with 2 to 3 teaspoons, then add more as needed.
- I use Diamond Crystal kosher salt, which is a lot less salty than other salts. If using table salt, use half the amount of salt listed in the recipe. If using sea salt or Morton’s kosher salt, use slightly more than half.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Love this? Leave a rating below!
I made this today for a mixed diet potluck. I used 4 tsp of soy sauce. It was completely finished.
I came to make the squash Mac and cheese and it’s not here. I tried to send an email with the request of the original recipe as listed below, but it says the email is not a valid email address. Can you please send me the recipe? This doesn’t help with dinner tonight, but hopefully before my butternut squash goes bad…
I just came on here with the same situation… Roasted my butternut squash and came to get the rest of the recipe only to find it doesn’t exist!!!
12/10!!! This is SO yummy and will be made on repeat this fall and winter! Thank you Nishi for another amazing recipe!!!
Have you ever craved a meal you’ve never even eaten? That’s how I felt looking at the photos of this recipe for the first time. And making it tonight, it lived up to every expectation I had for it. 10000/10, this is going into my rotation immediately.
please add the old squash recipe baaack somewhere <3
Hi Gaby, Nisha recently tried the original butternut version and felt it didn’t taste quite right, so she tried it again with a couple tweaks and it was still a bit off in terms of mac and cheese.
But we’re happy you loved the original! If you send us an email at help@rainbowplantlife with the subject line “Original mac and cheese recipe,” we’ll be sure to send you the original recipe.
I’m very excited to try the new version of this recipe, but we absolutely LOVE the butternut squash/coconut milk version and I’m freaking out that I don’t have that recipe saved! Please consider keeping that one somewhere on your blog!
Hi Sarah, we’re sorry to disappoint you! Nisha recently tried the original butternut version and felt it didn’t taste quite right, so she tried it again with a couple tweaks and it was still a bit off in terms of mac and cheese.
But we’re happy you loved the original! If you send us an email at help@rainbowplantlife with the subject line “Original mac and cheese recipe,” we’ll be sure to send you the original recipe.
I had that problem too! I think the old recipe is basically her pumpkin mac n’ cheese recipe, using butternut squash and adding on the topping recipe from here!
Hi Jesse, we’re sorry to disappoint you! Nisha recently tried the original butternut version and felt it didn’t taste quite right, so she tried it again with a couple tweaks and it was still a bit off in terms of mac and cheese.
But we’re happy you loved the original! If you send us an email at help@rainbowplantlife with the subject line “Original mac and cheese recipe,” we’ll be sure to send you the original recipe.
I love love love this recipe!
Has anyone tried freezing the sauce in advance? if so, how did it turn out?
We’re so happy to hear you love the recipe, C! 🙂 You can totally make the sauce ahead of time and freeze it, it freezes well!
This is an absolutely stellar recipe! It’s so thick and luxurious, but also light and nutritious. I’ve made this recipe exactly as it states, multiple times and it’s always amazing. Last time, I caramelized some onions and garlic and added them to the blender, and also kept the butternut squash skin on – and wow! I didn’t think it was possible to amplify the flavours of Nisha’s dishes but it was the best version I’ve made to date! Thanks for sharing the BEST vegan recipes with us<3
Caramelized onion and garlic sounds like incredible additions, Amara! Thanks for sharing!
A world class favorite in my friend group! I have veggie and vegan friends and always make this as a vegan main dish at our holiday dinners. But it always ends up the whole group’s favorite!!! Thank you for this recipe I’ve made it at least 5 times xx
Hi Zoe, we’re thrilled to hear you are such a fan of this recipe! Next time, would you mind leaving a rating alongside your review? Star ratings are big help to readers who are thinking of making the recipe. Thanks!
My friend has made this for me twice, and my husband and I absolutely love it. I’ve had quite a few different vegan macaroni and cheeses, and this one is by far the best. I love that it is healthy and doesn’t have the non-healthy vegan cheese in it, which has no nutritional value. So blessed to have talented people create recipes, thank you.
Thank you for your lovely comment, Lisa! It makes us happy to know that you enjoyed the recipe.
So I loved it, but no one else in my family did sadly, the butternut squash made it very sweet, and even though I followed the recipe down to the T it didn’t really taste cheesy.
Sorry – but I won’t be making this again as I’ll be the only one finishing it off.
How to prep this ahead of time? Can I assemble and bake later or will the pasta get mushy?.
Hi Somya, we don’t recommend assembling this dish ahead of time. Cooked pasta tends to soak up the sauce and get mushy if it sits too long. Instead, here’s what we suggest:
– Make the sauce ahead of time — it holds up great in the fridge for several days.
– Prep the crispy topping in advance and store it in an airtight container on the counter for a couple days.
– Then, cook the pasta and assemble everything the day of just before baking. That way, you’ll get the best texture and flavor when it comes out of the oven.
I hope those tips helped, we hope you enjoy the recipe!
Elaborate, but it was worth it. What protein options do you recommend pairing with mac and cheese?
Hi Kate, you could try our BBQ tempeh for a comfort food pairing, or some simple baked tofu or air-fried tofu. For a classic combo, you might want to try a vegan fried chicken substitute, such as Gardein’s crispy tenders.
I am sorry to say I did not like this very much. I am a big fan of Nisha’s red lentil curry so thought I would try this recipe out. There was something I just did not like about the flavour. It was my first time using nutritional yeast so maybe that was the issue for me.
I quite liked the crumb topping, which was new to me as I usually make Mac and cheese from scratch using dairy) with a big ole load of grated cheese and some sesame seeds on top.
I’ll keep trying other recipes, but this one was not a win for me unfortunately.
Ah, it’s too bad to hear you didn’t love the recipe, Wendy. We appreciate you trying it and sharing your feedback either way.
Seasoning the sauce to your liking may have helped because this was sooo delicious over Thanksgiving! My family couldn’t even tell it was vegan.
Thank you for taking the time to share, GG!
So delicious! Amazing flavor! Will definitely be making this again! All of your recipes are incredible!
Hi Ryan, Thank you so much for such a fantastic review and for all of your support! Appreciate you taking the time!
thank you for this wonderful recipe!! Do you think sweet potato would also work okay?
Hi Claire, it will taste less like a traditional mac and cheese because of the sweeter profile of sweet potatoes, so I’d recommend using butternut squash if you can. If you do end up using sweet potatoes, you’ll likely want to add more salt and lemon juice to balance the flavors.
Oh my! I’ve had vegan mac n cheez before; I’ve had butternut pasta before – and they were both very good. This one is OH MY! The crumb topping hits it out of the park! You gotta try this one. Now my go-to. I gave my carnivore hubby a taste and he said, “you have enough for me?”
I need to bring this to my next potluck for sure.
Thank you for your lovely comment, Jean! It makes us happy to know that you two enjoyed the recipe.
I really never comment on recipes and I’ve truly loved every single one of yours that I’ve tried – but THIS…this dish is the first I’ve ever made that all three of my kids LOVE! This has never happened in the history of my life and I’m singing from the rooftops! Thank you Nisha!
Woohoo! What a fantastic review to read. Thanks for taking the time to write it, Charlotte! I’ll be sure to pass the sweet message along to Nisha 🙂
Everyone loved it. Used kabocha squash as that was what we had on hand. Worked well. Topped with GF spiral noodles and GF bread crumbs, these were pre seasoned with a seasoning blend so just added the butter.
Awesome, EJ. Thanks for your comment and for taking the time to review!
I have done it several times and it’s absolutely amazing !!!
Awesome, Elo. Thanks for your comment and for taking the time to review!
So yummy! This was a huge hit at Friendsgiving even though I’m the only vegan! I always get nervous serving vegan substitutes like this, but this dish was the most popular and gone by the end of the night!
Thanks for the lovely review, Esther! It’s awesome to hear how much of a hit the mac and cheeese was!