This vegan macaroni cheese is very creamy and cheesy and delicious! I am pretty sure non-vegan people will not notice that it’s dairy free. If you haven’t got macaroni pasta you can use other types of pasta such as penne, fusilli or shells. I made this with spiral pasta as I prefer it to macaroni pasta.
Macaroni cheese is one of my favourite comfort food that I miss often. Until the school closure in March my son often ate macaroni cheese at lunch time so I avoided cooking it for dinner as he would have grown bored with it. Now school only serves dry kind of food in a paper box he doesn’t get to eat his favourite macaroni cheese 🙁
When I made this, my son was so happy and ended up eating nearly 2 portions! I was worried that he was eating a bit too much.
I used different vegan cheese this time that was alternative to cheddar. It has a very similar taste to real cheddar cheese that added more cheesiness to the macaroni cheese. Please see my ingredients page to get further info about the cheese if you are interested.
This vegan macaroni cheese is perfect for weekend dinner with your family or dinner party with your guests. If they like creamy and cheesy I’m sure they will enjoy this delicious dish☺
Vegan Macaroni Cheese
Ingredients
Things to go in the cheese sauce
- 260 g pasta
- 1 tbsp oil for cooking the vegetables
- 3 medium onions thinly sliced
- 10 medium mushrooms thinly sliced
- 4 cloves fresh garlic minced
Cheese sauce
- 1 can white beans such as butter beans, cannellini beans
- 125 ml vegetable stock
- 240 ml soy milk or any other plant based milk
- 50 g vegan margarine
- 30 g *vegan cheese chopped
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp salt adjust the amount to suit your liking
- 1/8 tsp black pepper adjust the amount to suit your liking
Béchamel sauce
- 50 g vegan margarine
- 45 g plain flour
- 480 ml soy milk or any other plan based milk
- 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
- cheese sauce from above
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/8 tsp black pepper
topping
- some *vegan cheese shredded
- some bread crumb
Instructions
Things to go in the cheese sauce
- Cook pasta according to the instructions on the package. When it's cooked, drain and set aside.
- Heat the oil in the frying pan and cook the onions until transparent. Add in the sliced mushrooms the minced garlic and continue frying until cooked. I cooked until the onions and the mushrooms were slightly caramelised. Set aside.
Cheese sauce
- Put the cheese sauce ingredients in a beaker and pulse with a hand blender. Set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C (gas mark 6). Grease a baking dish 25 cm x 31 cm or similar size and set aside. I greased with a bit of margarine.
Béchamel sauce
- Melt the margarine in a sauce pan and add the flour. Mix and cook on a low heat until it forms a small ball.
- *Add the soy milk, about 1/4 of the amount at a time. Each time you add the milk stir until smooth and combined. By the time you added all of the milk it should look already a bit creamy but cook on a low heat for 5 minutes more until it thickens up little further. Don't forget to stir continuously to avoid sticking and burning.
- Add the nutritional yeast, the cheese sauce that you made earlier, salt and black pepper. Mix well to combine and continue to cook for 5 minutes on a low heat.
- Turn off the heat and add the cooked pasta and the vegetables that you prepared earlier. Mix to combine.
- Put all in the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle the bread crumbs and some shredded vegan cheese over the top and bake for 30-35 minutes or until the top is slightly browned.
- When it's cooked take out from the oven and leave for at least 10 minutes to set before cutting to serve. It will make it easier to cut.
Notes