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Vegan Mac-N-Cheese

Ingredients

12 ounces elbow macaroni or other small pasta noodles

Cheese sauce

2 cups raw cashews
2 cups water
3 tablespoons lemon juice
¼ cup nutritional yeast
¼ teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon black pepper
1½ teaspoons salt
1 bag (7 ounces) shredded vegan cheddar cheese

Breadcrumb topping

4 tablespoons vegan butter, melted
1½ cups panko breadcrumbs
¼ teaspoon smoked paprika
½ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon onion powder

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Cook the pasta as usual.
Drain the pasta water into the cashews and soak them for 5 minutes. (Pour the pasta itself into a casserole dish and stir occasionally while the cashews are soaking, to keep the noodles from clumping together.)
Drain the cashews and add to a blender.
Add the other cheese sauce ingredients to the blender. Blend until smooth.
Pour the cheese sauce in with the noodles. Stir until the noodles are well-coated.
In a separate bowl, stir together the breadcrumbs, paprika, onion powder, and garlic powder. Mix in the melted butter until the mixture has a crumbly texture. Sprinkle over the pasta.
Bake uncovered for 15 minutes.

Notes

If you don't have the time or energy to bake the pasta, you can also just mix the cheese sauce in with the noodles and serve that way.
You can make the cheese sauce ahead of time and freeze it.

Recipe blog story time

This recipe is heavily based on “The Best Vegan Mac And Cheese” by NoraCooks.

After some experimentation, I made the following changes:

Reduced the amount of nooch and replace with an equal quantity of cashews
Added onion powder and black pepper to the sauce, and doubled the amount of garlic powder
Added onion powder and garlic powder to the breadcrumb topping

You definitely want to blend the shredded cheese into the cheese sauce. I tried mixing it in afterward and it made for a really awkward texture, since vegan cheese doesn’t melt well.