Vegan Pimiento Cheesy Mac
This top-shelf vegan mac and cheese will delight young and old, plant-based or not. The scrumptious, cheesy flavor comes from a combination of chickpeas, jarred pimientos, nutritional yeast, and other seasonings. Shares one reader: “This is the first plant-based ‘mac-n-cheese’ I have enjoyed and will definitely make again.”
This scrumptious pasta recipe is turned into a restaurant-quality meal thanks to a homemade pimiento cheese sauce that’s so delicious you’ll want to lick the bowl. Chickpeas form the base of the luscious sauce, which gets seasoned with cheesy-tasting nutritional yeast, mustard, garlic powder, cayenne, and pimiento peppers. Feel free to use any shape of pasta you have on hand, but classic elbow noodles will really dial up the comfort factor of this quick and easy dish.
Tip: Saving some of the starchy pasta cooking water to stir in with the sauce is the secret to making this dish extra creamy.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup canned no-salt-added chickpeas, undrained
- ⅓ cup nutritional yeast
- ½ teaspoon dry mustard
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ¾ cup unsweetened, unflavored plant-based milk
- ½ cup sliced scallions
- ½ cup jarred diced pimientos, drained
- 12 oz. dry whole wheat elbow macaroni
- Sea salt, to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
INSTRUCTIONS
- For sauce, in a blender or food processor combine the first five ingredients (through cayenne). Cover and blend until smooth and creamy, gradually adding plant-based milk. Stir in scallions and pimientos.
- Cook macaroni according to package directions. Reserve ½ cup of the pasta cooking water; drain pasta. Return pasta to pot. Stir in sauce; stir in as much of the reserved pasta cooking water as needed to make creamy. Season with salt and black pepper. Sprinkle with parsley.
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