Vegan Mac & Cheese

There is seriously nothing more comforting than a bowl of Mac & Cheese! Ok but let’s be real, vegan dishes that involve this “vegan cheese” is not exactly the greatest replacement for the original. However, this alternative is extremely creamy and tasty, and the best part is you can make it any way you want! There tons of recipes out there that require a long laundry list of ingredients, which is wonderful and you can go that route if you wish, but today we’re going to talk about the basic ingredients and some things I’ve added to make this delicious and comforting-Vegan Mac & Cheese!

All you’ll notice, there are a few ingredients that I’ve added to this recipe that is optional, like a serrano pepper. I know a lot of people out there have sensitive pallets when it comes to spicy foods but I LOVE spicy foods, and I’ve noticed a lot of homemade vegan foods tend to lack spices and flavor. Adding literally just 1 serrano pepper into the sauce changed everything about the way it tasted!

I also added in some turmeric because I wanted to attempt to make the sauce look like cheese. Again, if you don’t like the taste of turmeric I’d suggest adding less or just skipping out on this step altogether. However, turmeric has lots of great benefits for your body! Turmeric contains curcumin, a substance with powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. I highly recommend doing more research on it, it’s natures gift to us! Anyways, let’s move on to the good stuff!

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INGREDIENTS

1. 2 servings of macaroni (or whatever pasta you’d like)
2. 1 medium sizes sweet potato (or 200g if you’d like to measure)
3. 1/2 cup of soaked cashews
4. 1/2 cup almond milk (or any nondairy milk of your choice)
5. 1 tsp mustard
6. 1 tbsp lemon juice
7. ~1/2 cup of water
8. ~4 tbsp of nutritional yeast
9. 1 tsp Turmeric (optional)
10. 1 serrano pepper (optional)
11. Salt & Pepper to taste
12. Paprika (for garnish, optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Skin and chop the sweet potato, add boil it in hot water for about 15 minutes, or until the sweet potato has softened.
2. In a blender, add the sweet potato, cashews, almond milk, turmeric, mustard, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, salt and pepper, and serrano into a blender. Blend until smooth. If it ends up being a little thicker than you’d like, add some of the water and blend it again to thin it out.
3. In the meantime, cook your pasta according to the package instructions.
4. Once pasta is finished, drain the excess water and return to pan. Slowly add the sauce on top of the pasta until you are satisfied with the consistency.
5. Add a dash of paprika for an extra kick!
6. Time to eat! Enjoy!