Description
This Vegan Mac and Cheese is the perfect comfort food! It’s rich, creamy, flavorful and loaded with plant based protein!
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 box medium shells
- 1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 1 large head of cauliflower, cut into small florets
- 1 cup raw cashews, soaked for at least 4 hours*
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1 white onion, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tbs Dijon mustard
- 1 tbs apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup vegetable stock
- 1/2 cup nutritional yeast*
- 1 tbs Red Hot (or hot sauce of your choice)
- 6 pickled jalapenos
- 1 tbs brine from pickled jalapenos
- 1/2 cup almond milk
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 2 tsp cumin
- 2 tsp paprika
- 1 tbs olive oil (for the pan)
- pinch of red pepper flakes
- 2 tsp dried parsley
- pinches of salt and pepper
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and bring 2 large pots of water to a boil. Place the cauliflower flourets into the boiling water and cook for about 10 minutes or until they’re soft. In the other pot cook the pasta until al dente. It should still be a little bit firm. When the pasta is done, reserve 1/2 a cup of the water and set aside, drain the pasta and place it into a large 9×12 casserole dish.
- While the pasta and cauliflower are cooking, sautee the onions and garlic in olive oil until the onions are translucent. About 5 minutes.
- Drain the cauliflower and place half of the flourets into a food processor or blender. Add in the soaked cashews, lemon juice, pickled jalapenos, brine, almond milk, sauteed onions and garlic, cayenne pepper, cumin, paprika, nutritional yeast, hot sauce, apple cider vinegar, dijon mustard and salt and pepper. Blend on high until the mixture is smooth. Taste and adjust seasonings if you need to. If you like it cheesier, add more nutritional yeast, if you want it spicier add more cayenne, if it is too thick add extra almond milk.
- Drizzle olive oil over the cooked pasta and toss it together. Pour the cheese sauce over the pasta and add in the leftover cauliflower, stir gently until fully incorporated. Sprinkle the breadcrumbs as well as dried parsley and red pepper flakes onto the top of the pasta.
- Bake for 20 minutes until the top starts to brown. You may need to throw it in the broiler for about 2 minutes. When you pull the pasta out stir in the reserved pasta water. This will help moisten the noodles and thin out the sauce perfectly. Enjoy!
Notes
*If you don’t have time to soak the cashews, you can speed soak them by pouring boiling water onto them and letting it sit for at least 15 minutes.
*Nutritional yeast is key for making vegan cooking taste cheesy. It’s also really healthy and loaded with vitamins so it’s worth the purchase. But, if you’re not vegan you can use Parmesan cheese in place of it.