This Vegan Mac and Cheese Sauce is easy, creamy, veggie-packed and ready in 20 minutes. If you’re looking for a pasta sauce that is vegan (dairy-free and egg-free), gluten-free, nut-free and oil-free not to mention delicious and nutritious, you might want to read on. No cashews here, so I dare to say that it is also quite budget-friendly.
Yes, another pasta sauce. You can’t have enough pasta sauce for sure. If you need a quick lunch or dinner, a pasta dish is always a good choice. You can use different pasta and different sauce every time to make things even more interesting. Our favorite pasta sauces are Vegan Spaghetti Bolognese Sauce, Hidden Vegetable Sauce, and our awesome 15-min Vegan Alfredo Sauce. Or you can also visit our collection for even more vegan sauce recipes.
⇒ If you need an Easy 7-day VEGAN MEAL PLAN, click to download our free e-book with a shopping list.
What can you expect from a Vegan Cheese Sauce?
There are 3 types of Vegan Mac and Cheese Sauce recipes out there:
- veggie-based
- nut-based
- store-bought vegan cheese-based
Obviously, none of the above versions will be an EXACT match for mac and cheese made of cow milk. However, if you change your expectations, you might be surprised how delicious a vegan cheese sauce can be.
Our favorite recipe is this veggie-packed, nut-free vegan mac and cheese sauce recipe (no cashews). Enjoy!
What do you need to make a Nut-free Cheese Sauce?
This NO NUTS! vegan mac and cheese sauce requires only 7-ingredients and a good blender
or food processor. No soaking or overnight preparation is needed. For our veggie version, I use
- a handful of sunflower seeds,
- one carrot,
- one potato,
- one sweet potato,
- half onion,
- one clove of garlic, and
- a little bit of nutritional yeast
Using the above I ended up with a vegan mac and cheese sauce for 6 servings. Easy and cheap that is what I call it. As you don’t need much, you can even do a sort of left-over version. You can use up any potatoes or carrots you don’t need for your more intricate main dinner course. 🙂
How to make nut-free vegan mac and cheese?
This mac and cheese sauce is not only veggie-packed and cheap but easy to make as well. Not that the original mac and cheese is extremely hard.
Prepare your ingredients
Cook your vegetables
Blend it until you have a smooth vegan cheese sauce
Use Vitamix for a crazy smooth cheese sauce
You can certainly use a hand blender (aka immersion blender) or a regular blender. They all make a creamy vegan mac and cheese sauce. However, if you need this sauce to be extra smooth without a single little piece to find, we recommend using a high powered blender like Vitamix. (We took new photos for this recipe after buying a Vitamix as the sauce turned out to be crazy smooth.)
How to make a gooey cheese sauce?
Now your pasta is cooked and your mac and cheese sauce is ready. The starchy vegetables and the sunflower seeds will give you creamy, thick and smooth texture.
However, optionally, you can add a bit of rice flour or corn/tapioca starch to make the sauce even gooier. It is really up to you.
A quick tip: Sauces with added flour and starch need to be hot to thicken. It means you have to re-heat the sauce in a small pan to activate the flour or the starch properly. However, the veggies also have starch in them, and I think the sauce is thick enough without anything else to add.
⇒ If you need an Easy 7-day VEGAN MEAL PLAN, click to download our free e-book with a shopping list.
Best toppings for vegan mac and cheese
Now, you have a gooey, cheesy and creamy mac and cheese sauce, which is already great on its own. But how about some toppings:
- chives, spring onion
- parsley
- chili flakes, smoked paprika
- almond flakes
- breadcrumbs, cracker crumbs
- crispy vegan bacon bits
- green peas, corn or any other canned legume
- roasted asparagus and mushrooms
- hot sauce, salsa or jalapeno
What is your favorite topping? Let us know in the comments.
FAQs and Substitutions
How do you store vegan cheese sauce?
You can keep it in the fridge for 2-3 days tops without any problem. However, if you store it after mixing it with the pasta, the pasta will absorb some of the moisture of the sauce and it might not be as juicy as it was. We recommend storing the sauce by itself and only pour it on the paste before serving.
Can you freeze the sauce?
I never had to freeze it as it is usually gone by day 2. If you try to freeze the sauce, let me know how it turns out.
Is sunflower seed healthy?
Raw, unsalted sunflower seeds are surprisingly packed with a lot of nutrients. Not to mention compared to cashews or almonds, they are on the cheap side.
According to Cronometer 1 cup of raw sunflower seeds contains an astonishing amount of good plant-based protein (approx. 30g) and healthy plant-based Omega-6 fat (approx. 33g). It is very rich in Vitamin E, B1, B3, B6 and folate and high in minerals like copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus and zinc.
Who knew? Read more about sunflower seeds in Healthline’s article about 6 healthy seeds.
⇒ If you need an Easy 7-day VEGAN MEAL PLAN, click to download our free e-book with a shopping list.
This Easy Mac and Cheese Sauce recipe is vegan, vegetarian, nut-free and WFPB-friendly (whole foods plant-based). The sauce itself is gluten-free, but make sure to choose gluten-free pasta if it is important to you. For example this corn quinoa and rice fusilli or this protein-packed chickpea pasta or this gluten-free chia flour pasta.
⇒ If you need an Easy 7-day VEGAN MEAL PLAN, click to download our free e-book with a shopping list.
More quick dinner recipes
You can browse through our Vegan and Gluten-free Dinner Recipes or our Quick Vegan Meals collection or check out
- Vegan Marinara Sauce
- Vegan Eggplant Meatballs Spaghetti
- Vegan Jackfruit Stew
- Vegan Portobello Fajitas
- Quick Broccoli Lentil Stir Fry
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Vegan Mac and Cheese (Nut-free)
Ingredients
To pre-cook
- 1 cup Potato (diced) 1 medium
- 1 cup Sweet potato (diced) 1 small/medium
- ½ cup Carrot (diced) 1 medium
- ¼ cup Onion (chopped) ½ small
- 1 clove Garlic
- 3 cup Veggie broth
To blend
- 1 cup Veggie broth aka cooking water
- ⅓ cup Sunflower seed (raw, unsalted)
- 2 Tbsp Nutritional yeast
- ½ tsp Salt
- ⅛ tsp Pepper
- 1 pinch Sweet Paprika powder
- 1 Tbsp Brown rice flour or corn starch if you want an even more gooey sauce (optional)
Instructions
Prepare ingredients
- Boil water and cook pasta as per instructions on the packaging.
- Peel and dice potatoes, sweet potatoes and carrots. The smaller you dice them, the shorter will be the cooking time.
- Peel and chop onion and garlic.
Pre-cook ingredients
- Boil veggie broth in a pan and add all vegetables (diced potatoes, diced sweet potatoes, diced carrots, chopped onion, and garlic). Cook them until soft.
- When ready, reserve 1 cup of cooking water.
Blend everything to make a sauce
- Transfer all cooked vegetables into a blender. Add sunflower seeds (no need to soak them), nutritional yeast, salt, pepper, sweet paprika powder, and rice flour or corn starch.
- Blend them until you have a creamy sauce.
- When pasta is ready, drain the water. Pour the sauce on the pasta and enjoy!
Notes
Video
Nutrition
UPDATED: This recipe was originally posted in Nov 2018, but was rewritten and republished with new photos, instructions, and tips in March 2020.
Jane Foster
How much sunflower butter should I use to replace the seeds? The same amount? Thanks!
My Pure Plants
Hi Jane, 2 cups of sunflower seeds yield 1 cup sunflower butter. I use 1/3 cup seeds, so I would try with 1/4 cup sunbutter or a bit less. If you end up with a sauce too thick, thin it with a bit of milk.
Emma Li
I just made this without the nutritional yeast and substituted some vegetable bouillon in place of salt. Alpha did not make the eggplant topping.
My Pure Plants
Thanks for making our recipe. We are so glad that you liked it.
Proktools
It looks very tasty…. yummy.. Write For Us
Kimmy Ripley
I have never had vegan mac and cheese but this sure looks and sounds delish!
My Pure Plants
There is always a first. You should definitely give it a try.
Emma
This looks so good, definitely adding it to my list of recipes to try!
My Pure Plants
Thanks. Great to hear it.