#Easy vegan mac and cheese with cashews for mac#
#Easy vegan mac and cheese with cashews full#
#Easy vegan mac and cheese with cashews mac#

That’s pretty much it! Oh yeah, you’ve gotta have some water too, otherwise, it won’t blend.

#Easy vegan mac and cheese with cashews mac#

Other than cashews, nutritional yeast and miso, the rest of the ingredients in this vegan mac and cheese include minced garlic, turmeric, salt, mustard powder, and onion powder. So thank you Samm! Miso adds an extra layer of umami that nutritional yeast can’t quite pull off and also adds some salt flavoring to the mix. My friend Samantha turned me onto putting miso in mac and cheese sauce and my life hasn’t been the same since. The next ingredient is one that may surprise you: miso. Nutritional yeast is usually fortified with B-12 making it the protein element in cashew mac & cheese. It often finds itself as a cheesy additive in sauces and dressings or sprinkled on toast, pizza, or salad. Nooch is a pantry staple for most vegans. The second most important ingredient in cashew mac and cheese is nutritional yeast. Or don’t do what I say! Your body, your rules.

#Easy vegan mac and cheese with cashews full#

If you’re eating nuts as a snack I’d recommend going with something shelled like pistachios because they take a lot longer to eat and you’ll actually feel full by the time you eat a serving as opposed to popping an entire serving in your mouth at once and then going back for more. While it’s true that cashews are a great source of good fats, too much of a good thing can turn into a bad thing so if you’re on a fitness or nutrition journey, watch your nut consumption in general. Exceptions for this rule would be if you’re making something that isn’t liquidy like a cheesecake or a solid vegan cheese.Ĭashews are a really good cheese substitute because they’re super creamy and high in heart-healthy fatty acids. In fact, I’d argue that for most recipes, it doesn’t make a difference. People always make a big deal about soaking them prior to blending, but I’ll be honest with you, for this recipe it doesn’t make much of a difference.

#Easy vegan mac and cheese with cashews for mac#

Thankfully, my recipe for mac and cheese with cashews requires 10 ingredients – that’s including the noodles! The first and most obvious ingredient in cashew mac and cheese is of course, cashews. I’ve seen recipes for vegan mac and cheese that call for pages of ingredients. What ingredients are in cashew mac and cheese? This is my preferred way to make vegan mac and cheese. Cashews – last but not least, you can use nuts.Vegan cheese – if you’re a vegan cheese fan, you can mix some with non-dairy milk, Earth Balance, and spices to make a simple sauce.

and nutritional yeast you can make a delicious savory cheese sauce.

Root vegetables or gourds – using a combination of potatoes, butternut squash, pumpkin, carrots, etc.

In later years came a handful of approaches: This version of mac and cheese worked fine, but it was pretty thin and not very rich. Prior to the cashew approach, folks were making vegan mac with mixing soy milk with nutritional yeast and thickening it with flour. Up until 5-6 years ago cashew mac and cheese wasn’t really a thing. Ready for a little history lesson? I’ve been vegan for quite a while. CHEESE.” Well, cheese lovers, this cashew mac and cheese recipe will hopefully help fill that void. Have you ever heard a person be like, “I could go vegan except for cheese. I personally could go either way on some items but there are others that absolutely disgust me. Back in 2009 when I stopped eating all animal products, the only cheese around was Follow Your Heart.Īnother reason to eat non-animal based versions of the real thing is that a lot of vegans like the taste of meat and dairy. When I think back to the foods I ate as a vegetarian before I went vegan, I ate a lot of cheese pizza, cheese fries, anything with cheese on it to be honest.

The first and most obvious reason to me is that for new vegans transitioning to the lifestyle, having something that tastes like what you used to eat makes the process a lot easier. There are a couple of reasons why a vegan might want these foods. (Check out that sentence with a triple-negative!) Look, just because we don’t eat animals, doesn’t mean we don’t crave salty, fatty foods. Meat eaters love to know why vegans and vegetarians try to replicate meals that include animal products. I see this question pop up all the time in Facebook groups, forums, literally everywhere. Why do vegans like to eat food that mimics the “real” thing? I’ve flip-flopped between variations over the years but finally landed on this vegan mac and cheese with cashews recipe that requires minimal ingredients and zero patience. Everyone needs a go-to cashew mac and cheese recipe.