You’ll never miss the cheese with this vegan baked mac and cheese recipe! Ever! It is truly the best and only recipe you’ll need. Not cashew based, so allergy friendly!
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Let’s get straight to the point in this post. We created the best baked vegan mac and cheese. And guess what? It’s super allergy friendly.
I know there’s a ton of vegan mac and cheese recipes on the internet and it may be confusing on which one you should try. Trust me, I get it. With potatoes, with carrots, with cashews, and every variation in between. However, this recipe uses none of that, because it wasn’t the best.
Hopefully I can sway you to try this one, with this info: I love mac and cheese so much that it’s one of the first recipes I tried to recreate when we went vegan almost 10 years ago. And I’ve tried all the ways.
We’ve feed this baked vegan mac and cheese to dozens of people who still consume dairy and they love it!
It’s easy, cheesy, it’s creamy, it’s warm and comforting and everything that you remember baked mac and cheese being on those days you just needed a little something more.
Looking for what to serve with it? Try our vegan kale crunch salad, vegan lemon garlic butter asparagus, or glazed brown sugar carrots.
Jump to:
Why you’ll love this Dairy Free Mac and Cheese
- Impressively Close Tasting – It’s truly the only thing needed for this recipe. You want to know when you pull your vegan mac and cheese casserole dish out of the oven that you’re going to have something that looks, smells, and ultimately tastes just like you remember. That was our goal when we were creating this recipe and we are confident you’ll agree, it’s really close.
- Prep Ahead – We love that you can prep this ahead by 3 days and it still be perfect. This is especially important if you are making it for the holidays. You will love having one less thing to make on your big day.
- Allergen-Friendly – In addition to taste, we really wanted to work to make this allergen-friendly. That’s why we did no nuts as part of this recipe. Just swapping for gluten-free noodles will make sure it’s the best baked allergen friendly mac and cheese recipe out there!
Vegan Mac n Cheese ingredients
- Noodles – Macaroni noodles are clearly the classic winner for “mac” and cheese!
- Substitute: You can also use other types of small sized noodles. We do prefer tubular noodles that can soak in the sauce on the inside.
- Gluten Free: You can use gluten free noodles in this recipe as well. You will want to undercook them by 2-3 minutes, as well as rinse them immediately with cold water to stop cooking after boiling.
- Butter Beans – Butter beans and lima beans are the same thing except they are picked at different times. They provides this creamy texture that melts into the sauce you are left with no taste of beans, but lots of added protein.
- Substitute: Other white beans will work, such as cannellini or Great Northern. Note: We don’t recommend chickpeas because of their different texture.
- Alternate: Try our stovetop butternut squash vegan mac and cheese for a veggie packed version!
- Cheese – We are using a combination of vegan cheddar, parmesan, and nutritional yeast for a cheesy flavor. For better results, we recommend using a block of vegan cheddar and parmesan cheese. Shreds have a caking agent added that can affect the meltability of the vegan cheese; however, we have found that’s not the case with blocks. Nutritional yeast is flakes that have a savory, nutty, and umami flavor that works great for a cheesy benefit to foods.
- Substitute: You can sub the nutritional yeast for more vegan cheddar if you won’t have any on hand without any issues to the recipe.
How to serve Vegan Mac and Cheese
We have served this as both a main dish and a side dish. It is an amazing options for either. If you want to serve it as a main dish, try pairing it with our Vegan Arugula Salad or just a simple vegetable side like vegan lemon garlic butter asparagus.
Alternatively, especially for the holidays, this is a great side dish. Pair it with our vegan honey garlic oven fried tofu or vegan glazed ham as main dishes with this side.
Storing Dairy Free Mac and Cheese
You can let this dish cool completely and then cover tightly and place in the refrigerator for 4-5 days. You can reheat in the microwave or oven until heated through. Our recommendation is to add a splash of non-dairy milk if needed.
Additionally, this can be frozen by letting cool and placing in a freezer safe bag or container for up to 3 months. Let thaw before reheating.
Other Must Try Vegan Sides to Try:
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Baked Vegan Mac and Cheese Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 pound macaroni noodles, uncooked (16oz or 454g) (Use gluten free if needed)
- 15 oz can butter beans, drained and rinsed (439g)
- 2 cups dairy free milk (480g)
- ½ cup vegetable stock (120g)
- ½ cup vegan butter (113g)
- ⅓ cup nutritional yeast (27g)
- 2 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cracked black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon paprika
- 2 cups vegan shredded cheddar cheese, divided (240g)
- 1 cup vegan parmesan cheese (115g)
- ⅓ cup seasoned panko breadcrumbs (20g)
- 2 teaspoon olive oil, optional
Instructions
- Bring a salted pot of water to a boil. Preheat oven to 350˚F/180˚C degrees. Cook 1lb macaroni noodles according to the package. Drain noodles once done and set aside.
- While noodles cook, to a high powdered blender, add 15oz can butter beans, 2 cups dairy free milk, ½ cup stock, ½ cup vegan butter, ⅓ cupnutritional yeast, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 1 teaspoon each salt and pepper, ¼ teaspoon paprika, 1 cup each non-dairy cheddar shreds and parmesan cheese. Blend this until smooth. Set aside.
- In a lightly greased 9×13 casserole dish, add the drained, cooked noodles. Pour the sauce mixture over the noodles and carefully stir together.
- Top with remaining 1 cup of the cheese shreds. If using the oil, in a small bowl combine the oil with the breadcrumbs and stir to well coated. Sprinkle evenly across the top.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes or until breadcrumbs have started turning golden brown on top. Remove from oven and let set for 15 minutes before cutting into.
Notes
Nutrition
Frequently Asked Questions:
Yes!
To start, you want to use a gluten free pasta. You will want to undercook them by 2-3 minutes, as well as rinse them immediately with cold water to stop cooking after boiling.
For the vegan butter, cheese and milk, ensure you use soy free and nut free versions.
And then we have the vegan parmesan cheese. We are use Violife in this recipe, which does contain coconut oil, but no other allergens. If you have a coconut allergen, you can use Follow Your Heart parmesan.
We also have a vegan parmesan on our site that you can make with sunflower seeds; however, it doesn’t melt well which is why we recommend using one of the store bought brands.
Also, you can omit the breadcrumb topping or use a vegan, gluten free breadcrumb.
We have to admit that this is best served right out of the oven after cooling; however, we know with holidays and such, you may be wondering about prepping ahead.
You can make the cheese sauce ahead and leave in the fridge up to 5 days in advance.
We recommend if taking this for the holidays you only prep 1 day in advance, but it is still good reheated up to 5 days later.
Whether you don’t have it, can’t use it, or allergic, sometimes people don’t want to use nutritional yeast. While we think the nutritional benefits and taste make it great to use, you can just add more vegan cheese instead.
No! Leaving some of the warm, starchy water adhered to the noodles will help the texture in the end.
Yes! You want about 3-4 cups of cheese total, but we have done ⅓ parm, mozz, and cheddar before and even one time added in some gouda. (all vegan of course!). Just like sometimes traditional mac and cheese plays around with a variety of cheese, we can here as well.
*This recipe was updated slightly on 11/16/2021. Photos updated on 2/23/2022. Post and recipe updated on 11/7/2024 for easier instructions and clarification.
very, very good. i love the recipes from the website. they are all so good. i was planning to make this for christmas but wanted to run through the recipe beforehand. and i made it today and wow. so delicious. such a good recipe and will be coming back again and again <333. for anyone in the uk i used nurishh vegan parmesan and oatly whole milk and cut up the violife smoked chedder slices instead of used vegan grated cheese. yummmyyyy
Thank you so much for the UK help, we appreciate it. So happy you loved it!
Made this last night, and followed your recipe precisely – it was the best vegan macaroni cheese I have ever eaten! Thank you so so so much! Will be making it again!
YAY! I’m so happy to hear that!
This is an absolute must now for every holiday. I can’t get over how incredibly delicious it turned out. I was hesitant at first since it called for nutritional yeast which I have found to be overpowering with a weird after taste in other recipes but this tasted scrumptious. Thank you for sharing.
So happy you loved it!
Oh dear,
Currently eating the baked version of this recipe. I had to stop to comment!
I’ve had this recipe saved on my phone for so long because in France I struggled to find butter beans. Now that I know where to find some, this will be my go to Mac and cheese recipe!
I just added a layer of caramelized shallots with the middle layer of cheese!
So good!!
Sounds amazing, so glad you loved it
Thank you for this recipe!! I have been looking for a vegan version of mac and cheese to make for my girlfriend, and this by far looks the best 🙂 I cannot wait to make it!
One question: I could not find vegan parmesan anywhere we live, but found vegan mozzarella and cheddar. Would either of those be an acceptable substitute for the parmesan?
We’ve done that when we run out of parm 🙂
Hello, i read through all of the comments hoping to find an answer, and only found a partial answer but I also noticed you guys respond to all the reviews and question so figured I’d ask… Would I be able to omit the nutritional yeast? If so do I need to sub with anything or increase the vegan cheese shreds? Any feedback would be helpful. Have been dairy free and gluten free for over 10years..so almost impossible to find a good mac and cheese that suits both and i have been CRAVING good mac & cheese…Can’t wait to try this recipe.. thanks!
Hi Jay! You can leave out and proceed as written or you can add in more vegan shreds. Either way works!
So so good!! This is exactly the Mac and cheese I have been looking for..lol!
So glad you love it!
This is truly the BEST vegan mac and cheese! It never fails and even people who are not vegans love it 🙂
Yay! So happy to hear that