This post contains affiliate links. Please see our disclosure policy.
Vegan Black Pepper Mac and Cheese with a light potato carrot cheese sauce. Free of dairy, egg, corn, nuts. Can be made soy-free and gluten-free with gf pasta. 30 minute meal. Add cashews to make a thicker creamier sauce. Vegan Mac and Cheese Recipe.
More Mac n cheese! Cannot have enough mac recipes right.
Veggie cheese is all over the web recently. So I made some my way. No prep needed, no mashed potatoes needed. Cook the potatoes and veggies you want to use for 15-18 minutes. Blend, boil with pasta, done. Easy and simple.
And black pepper oh my. I don’t know why I haven’t added this much pepper to my mac before. It tastes amazing! more pepper= more fun.
This is a light sauce. For a creamier sauce, add sesame or pumpkin seeds or cashews. Use whole grain pasta or gf pasta to preference. Add more veggies in the cheese sauce or add with broccoli and use less pasta. Variations are endless. The veggie cheese sauce is one of those sauces that either one loves or doesn’t (as seen on the interweb on the many variations of the sauce) just like the butternut sauce mac :).
This missing scroll bar is annoying. Has anyone’s wordpress editor scroll bar disappeared with the WP 4.2 upgrade?
More Macs and Pasta recipes from the blog.
- Masala Mac and Cheese Vegan Recipe
- Cauliflower Alfredo, Spinach, artichoke Lasagna
- Pumpkin Sage Pasta with Pumpkin Cream Sauce and Crispy Sage
- Instant Mac and cheese mix in a jar
- Nacho Mac and cheese Casserole
Video:
Vegan Black Pepper Mac and Cheese with Potato Carrot Cheese Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups water
- 1 medium potato, about 1 cup or use 3/4 cup mashed potatoes
- 1/3 cup chopped carrots
- 4 garlic cloves , or 1 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tbsp chopped onion , or use 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 green chili, optional
- 1/2 medium tomato, chopped
- 1/2 to 1 tsp prepared mustard
- 2 tsp soy sauce , or liquid aminos
- 3 to 4 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 2 to 3 tsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, omit to make oil free
- 1/3 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp sriracha, optional
- 3/4 tsp or more salt
- 1/4 tsp white pepper
- 3/4 to 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper, divided
- 6 to 8 oz elbows pasta, cooked to preference
- 1 cup broccoli chopped small
Instructions
- In a skillet, add water, potato, carrots, garlic, onion, chili and tomato. Cover and cook over medium-high heat for 17 to 19 minutes or until the potato is very tender and breaks easily. (add 2 Tbsp cashews for creamier sauce). Cool slightly.
- Meanwhile, cook the pasta to aldente. (in parallel with the above step if you like).
- Add the potato carrot mixture to a blender with the rest of the ingredients. Blend until smooth. taste and adjust salt and spice.
- Transfer to the pan over medium heat. Add salt, white pepper, 1/3 tsp black pepper. Mix in. Bring to a boil. Carefully taste and adjust salt, cheesiness (add more nutritional yeast if needed).
- Add the cooked pasta and broccoli or other veggies. Mix in. Cover and cook for 3 to 4 minutes or until the sauce comes to a good boil and thickens.
- Let it sit for 5 minutes. Mix in the rest of the freshly ground black pepper (1/2 to 2/3 tsp). Sprinkle more pepper if you wish and serve/
Video
Notes
If you like your broccoli and veggies a bit cooked, add them to the pasta pot, 5 minutes before the pasta will be taken off heat. Drain both and keep aside. Dont like carrots? Use zucchini Nutritional values based on one serving
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Nice! I will try it. Just a thing though – and I may seem silly – but do we blend the mixture without draining the water it boiled with? In other words, we blend it with the water or not?
blend with the water.
Very true- it will never be possible to have too many mac recipes!!!
Hello Richa,
Have been following your blog for a while now but hadn’t tried anything until today. I made this Mac and cheese and it came out so good. It’s almost unbelievable that it can taste so good even without cheese. You’re truly genius and very creative with your food and flavors. We also tried buffalo chickpea pizza for lunch today and it was superb !!! My 12 year old son helped me and we loved the unique flavors of the pizza.
Thanks so much for blogging such healthy, nutritional and tasty recipes. You’re truly inspiring ????
Take care and God Bless
Meena
yay! awesome! so glad everyone loved it!
Made this last night with the addition of cashews for creaminess. Delicious or as we say, it’s a keeper! We like spicy so of course included sriracha with no regrets.
yay!
Yes!! This is so so good. Another wonderful recipe by you. Thank you so much.
This is a very tasty sauce that has nothing in common with cheese other than the color; it’s more like a thick vegetable soup. It doesn’t taste cheesy and the texture is liquid, not gooey. I’m happy to put pasta in my vegetable soup, or vegetable soup on my pasta, but can’t imagine why anyone would then refer to it as “mac ‘n’ cheese”. Anyone expecting this to resemble dairy cheese will be disappointed. Why not just appreciate it as a tasty vegetable-based pasta sauce?
Thanks for trying it out. Maybe add some cashews for creaminess and some more nutritional yeast for a cheesier flavor? I really like this light sauce with the mild cheese flavor. This would definitely make a great soup as well. You can call it that. Also, try my other mac and cheese recipes to find the one that works best for you. https://fettabbau-trim.today/?s=mac+ .
that’s just how i love to make a creamy sauce! i usually use a sweet potato or butternut squash though. BLACK PEPPER on everything! Love the idea, 😀
Oh yes please! I’ve been wanting to try a potato carrot cheeze sauce! Thanks for saving me the trouble of findingthe right ingredient combination – this recipe looks perfect 🙂