Vegan Macaroni Cheese (simple homemade recipes)

Mac and cheese is one of England’s favourite comfort foods.

This vegan macaroni cheese is from Madeleine Olivia’s book Make It Vegan. It’s made with cashews and cheesy-tasting nutritional yeast, and only takes 10 minutes to prep.

You can cheat if you prefer and use grated vegan cheese instead of the nutritional yeast, but use supermarket brands for cooking (they are not very nice if not cooked – go for an artisan nut cheese for snacking!

Before cooking, read up on food safety for people and pets (many foods including nutmeg are animal friends). Bin allium scraps (onion, leeks, garlic, shallots, chives) and citrus/tomato/rhubarb scraps, as acids could harm compost creatures. It’s okay to put them in food waste bins (made into biogas).

For tinned foods, fully remove lids (put inside) or pop ring-pulls back over holes (and pinch top opening closed) before recycling, to avoid wildlife getting trapped.

This recipe for vegan macaroni cheese (The Simple Veganista) is a cholesterol-free and plant-based version of everyone’s favourite comfort food! And for added bang for your buck, it adds peas (if you don’t have fresh, look in stores for Pack’d frozen petit pois – organic and in paper packaging).

This recipe uses soaked cashew nuts (very good results, but takes a bit of while and not good if you’re forgetful!) If you want to ‘cheat’, you can make vegan cheese sauce (or even buy it), which greatly simplifies this recipe.

If making the homemade cheese sauce with nuts and cheesy nutritional yeast (rich in vitamin B12), avoid miso (unpasteurised) for pregnancy/nursing or weak immune systems).

You can also vary this recipe with Julie’s other recipes:

Baked Mac and Cheese (breadcrumbs needed!)
Spicy Mac and Cheese (chilli and chipotle)

This 5-Ingredient Baked Mac and Cheese (The Banana Diaries) is super-simple to make. Produce on Parade offers a slightly more complicated recipe using soaked cashews and cheesy-tasting nutritional yeast.

Use plastic-free pasta!

You can rarely find macaroni from plastic-free pasta companies, but you can use alternative larger shapes like rigatoni, to avoid plastic packaging. These pastas all tend to be made from home-grown wheat too.

What is nutritional yeast?

Some recipes use vegan cheese, but other use nutritional yeast, a B12-rich flake that is sold in health stores, and gives things a cheesy flavour. It provides protein per serving too. You can also sprinkle it over vegetables, sauces, crackers and other savoury dishes.

Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese

Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese (The Simple Veganista) is delicious. You will however have to roast the squash beforehand, but it’s worth the wait.