Straight from the depths of my comfort foodie mind I present to you vegan pizza mac & cheese. It is a thing! I’ve just come back from the hot for food book tour and I thought, why not just make a bunch of mac to get back into the swing of things? So I whipped up mac & cheese 2 ways with a re-do on the recipe you’ve got in the brand new hot for food cookbook, Vegan Comfort Classics: 101 Recipes to Feed Your Face. You better have yours!
The base for this pizza mac & cheese is the cheese sauce from the bacon mac & cheese recipe. But it has different add-ins to make the sauces unique, and various mix-ins to bring out the essence of each. For this recipe, I’m talkin’ vegan pepperoni and mozzarella, green bell pepper, onion, and spices galore. It’s a party in your mouth! Now you don’t have to choose between ordering vegan pizza or whipping up mac and cheese. You can have both the comfort foods of your dreams in one creamy, delectable dish.
Click here to get the recipe for the thai red curry mac & cheese, or watch the video below to see how they both come together.
vegan pizza mac & cheese
I know you haven't had enough mac & cheese... so here we go! A creamy, cheesy, savory pizza mac & cheese for those constant cravings.
Ingredients
Pasta & Mix ‘ins:
- 3 C elbow macaroni
- 1 pkg vegan pepperoni slices
- 1 1/2 C vegan mozzarella shreds
- 1/2 C finely diced green bell pepper
- 1/2 C finely diced red onion
- 2 tbsp finely chopped fresh basil
- 1 tbsp finely chopped fresh oregano
Topping:
- 1/4 C bread crumbs
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1 tsp sea salt
Cheese Sauce:
- 1 C raw cashews (soaked for 20 minutes in hot water)
- 2 1/4 C nondairy milk
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1/3 C nutritional yeast
- 1/3 C pizza sauce + 2/3 cup extra for dolloping on top of the mac & cheese
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 3 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 1/2 tbsp miso paste
- 2 tsp chili powder
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp onion powder
- 2 tsp arrowroot flour
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 350°F.
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To cook the pasta, bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the pasta until al dente. Drain, but do not rinse.
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To prepare the topping, combine the bread crumbs, nutritional yeast, oregano, basil, and sea salt in a small bowl.
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To make the sauce, drain and rinse the cashews. Add to a high- powered blender with the remaining ingredients and blend on high until very smooth.
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In a large bowl combine the pasta with all of the cheese sauce, 1 cup of mozzarella shreds, green bell pepper, red onion, fresh basil and oregano and stir until well coated and combined. What looks like an excess amount of sauce will thicken during baking!
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Pour half of this mixture into a deep square baking dish. Take the extra 2/3 cup of pizza sauce and dollop some of it on top of this first layer of mac and cheese. Then add the remaining mac & cheese. Sprinkle half the bread crumb mixture evenly on top. Then add pepperoni slices and 1/4 cup of the mozzarella shreds. Then add the remaining bread crumbs and 1/4 cup of remaining mozzarella shreds on evenly on top. And dollop the remaining pizza sauce on top as well.
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Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 20 minutes.
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Remove the foil and bake on the top rack of the oven for 10 minutes until the top is golden brown and the sides are bubbling slightly. Depending on your oven and the distribution of heat, you might want to set the skillet under the broiler for 5 minutes to get the top crispier instead of continuing to bake at 350°F.
Recipe Notes
Serve immediately. When reheating leftovers you may want to add more nondairy milk to get it creamy once again.
8 thoughts on “vegan pizza mac & cheese”
Thank you so much for sharing the sweet shout-out. I am very much excited to check out the sites you listed that I haven’t visited before. It’s always fun and helpful to find new real food sites for inspiration. I tried some of your Recipes mentioned above like vegan pizza mac & cheese and I must say that all recipes have unique and great taste. Thanks for sharing! Have a blessed summer! 🙂
Do you have any suggestion for making this without oil in the cheese sauce?? I love this recipe, but will have to stop making it if I can’t reduce the saturated fat! Thank you
it definitely helps the viscosity, but Im sure you can leave it out if you really want to
This is the best vegan mac and cheese ever! I’m gluten and soy intolerant so I used gf elbow pasta, blended gf bread for bread crumbs, and instead of vegan sausage I just cooked some mushrooms in coconut aminos, liquid smoke, wine and vegan beef stock! Sooo good 😍😍
Love this recipe!! Definitely a family favourite.
Only difference I make, is cutting the salt in half for the topping 🙂
Hi Lauren,
I love this dish! I could honestly eat it six days a week without getting bored. I have already made it four times during the last couple of weeks (pictures here: https://vegantina.blog/2019/06/28/pizza-mac-cheese/). I reduced the amount of lemon juice to 3 tbsp and substituted sliced mushrooms for the vegan pepperoni slices. And I had to use fusilli instead of macaroni noodles since I did not have any macaroni on hand. It turned out amazing!
that’s awesome! Would you mind ALSO back linking to the blog post from hotforfoodblog.com too please! Thanks Bettina!
Hey Lauren,
Yes, of course! There are already two links – one to the hot for food blog post and one to the Youtube video.
By the way, I also love your pie cookie ice cream sandwiches. So cute!