Description
Whipping up this 100 percent plant-based mac and cheese and veggies recipe means that you don’t need to give up mac-n-cheese scrumptiousness when you’re craving a bowl of vegan-style comfort! In fact, you might enjoy it more. I do!
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 2/3 cup (100 grams) raw cashews
- 8 ounces (227 grams) dry organic pasta of choice
- 1/2 cup (125 grams) butternut squash or pumpkin puree*
- 1/4 cup (20 grams) nutritional yeast flakes
- 1 tablespoon (14 grams) soy-free vegan butter or extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice (juice of 1/2 small lemon)
- 1 large garlic clove, minced
- 1 1/4 teaspoons sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1/3 cup (80 milliliters) plain, unsweetened cashewmilk or oatmilk
- 1/3 cup (80 milliliters) low-sodium vegetable broth
- 4 cups (or equivalent) grilled, roasted, or sauteed non-starchy veggies of choice, warm (leftovers are great!)
Instructions
- Add the cashews to a jar or heatproof glass storage container, cover completely with boiling water, seal, and let stand for 10 minutes. Then drain well.
- In a large saucepan, cook the pasta per package directions, ideally in salted water. Or lid-cook the pasta.
- Meanwhile, add all ingredients except the pasta and veggies to a blender and puree until the sauce is velvety smooth, about 3 minutes on high speed.
- Drain the pasta, reserving 1/2 cup (120 ml) of the cooking liquid. Return drained pasta to the saucepan over medium heat. Add the pureed sauce to the pasta and stir to coat and heat through, about 1 minute. If need for consistency, stir in desired amount of reserved cooking liquid.
- In bowls, serve the mac and cheese and the warm veggies side by side.
Notes
*If you don’t have prepared or canned butternut squash or pumpkin puree, you can actually use jarred baby food. I did!
- Category: Main Dish
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cup mac and cheese + 1 cup (or equivalent) veggies each
- Calories: 450
- Sugar: 7g includes 0g added sugars
- Sodium: 770mg
- Fat: 16g
- Saturated Fat: 4.5g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 65g
- Fiber: 7g
- Protein: 17g
- Cholesterol: 0mg