This amazing plant based 5 ingredient vegan mac and “cheese” is a healthy take on a comforting dish the whole family will love!
As soon as fall rolls around and the leaves start changing colors, it signals it’s time for comfort food in the kitchen. But comfort foods tend to not be all that healthy.
I’m a huge proponent of eating as many fruits and veggies and healthy foods as one can, but I admit, I lack in that department. I know at the end of some days I think back over what I ate and think I should have had more veggies or healthy options.
This vegan mac n “cheese” recipe is the perfect example of making a classic comfort food into a dish that’s actually healthy (yet still tastes good) so you won’t have to think back if you made the right mealtime choice!
This mac and “cheese” (I’m putting quotes around the word “cheese” because there is no actual cheese in this dish) has veggies and protein in it and comes together thanks to a key ingredient that makes the sauce which coats the noodles beautifully: tofu!
Tofu? YUP, this dish is made with silken tofu from Nasoya Tofu. If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you’ll have noticed some fantastic dishes made with tofu like these 5 ingredient tofu sushi bowls, or this tofu dumpling stir fry.
You see, when I was pregnant with baby Ben, I struggled with getting enough protein in my diet because I just couldn’t stand the smell or look of meat, so I made tofu quite a bit for a good source of protein, and have a love for it now.
I had some silken tofu in the fridge (silken tofu is super creamy when blended – perfect for replacing dairy or eggs in recipes) and instead of putting it in a smoothie like I normally do, decided I wanted to try my hand at making it into a sauce for pasta. I used carrots to give the sauce that yellow-orangey look of mac and cheese, nutritional yeast to give it that cheesy flavor, and silken tofu to give it that creaminess.
The end result is this fantastic looking and tasting 5 ingredient vegan mac and “cheese” that’s good for you! One of my girlfriends with kids tried it and said she was making it the very next day for her kids, and said that because of the perfect flavor and texture, they’d never know that it was good for them!
Also, something I really love about this dish is that it reheats really well; because there’s no greasy dairy in it that when reheated leaves a pool of grossness at the bottom of the bowl lol.
This delicious 5 ingredient plant based mac and cheese can easily be made gluten free by using gluten free pasta! I hope you enjoy this week’s Five Ingredient Friday recipe.
5 Ingredient Mac and "Cheese" Recipe
Ingredients
- 6 oz dry elbow macaroni use vegan/gluten free/pasta of choice
- 3 medium/large carrots cut into chunks
- ½ lb Nasoya brand silken tofu 1/2 a package
- 4 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- ½ teaspoon garlic salt
Instructions
- Cook pasta in salted water, according to package instructions. Reserve 1 ¼ cups water pasta was cooking in. Drain pasta and then transfer it to a big bowl.
- Fill a small pot ½ way with water, bring water to a boil, and boil carrot pieces for 15 minutes, or until carrots are tender when poked with a fork. Drain water from carrots.
- In a food processor or blender put carrots, 1 cup of the reserved pasta water, silken tofu, nutritional yeast and garlic salt. Process for 30 seconds to 1 minute until smooth. Scape down the sides with a spatula, add remaining ¼ cup reserved pasta water and process for 30 seconds.
- Pour sauce over the pasta and stir so that the sauce evenly coats the noodles, then serve and enjoy.
Nutrition
This post is brought to you by my partnership with Nasoya. As always, all thoughts and opinions are mine alone. Thank you for supporting the brands that make the SweetPhi blog possible.
elena says
I may try using the water from the cooked carrots instead of the one from pasta…Would it work?
Sweetphi says
I think it would – let me know how it turns out for you
elena says
Hi Sweetphi,
I did use the carrots water and added some vegan parmesan cheese plus ½ cup of stemmed silver bits to each serve. It is a complete, delicious, low cost and little involved work, thank you so much for the recipe.
Sweetphi says
I’m so glad you liked it, those modifications sound amazing 🙂
Little Cooking Tips says
This looks awesome!!! We’ll be on the lookout for this brand or something similar in order to try this out. You’re right; this season is all about comfort food, and we also lack in adding enough healthy options in our menu:) For instance, there’s now way 10 days can pass by and us not having a rich, classic gyros, with pork, as we make it in Greece:)
Lots of love,
Mirella and Panos
xoxoxo
Sweetphi says
Thank you so much for commenting Mirella and Panos. I’d be curious to know if you have tofu in Greece? I definitely hear you on how hard it is to have healthy comfort food in the winter months 🙂
Little Cooking Tips says
Hi Phi!
Tofu is a bit hard to find here, it’s only available (sometimes) in mega-super markets and in specialty Asian grocery stores (only a couple of these in the suburbs of Athens, where we live).
It’s an ingredient we very rarely use, perhaps because we got lots of options for super yummy cheeses lol:)
xoxo
Jess says
This looks great! My oldest daughter is dairy free so I’ll give it a try! I love that you’ve added carrots for that extra health benefit too!
Sweetphi says
Thank you so much! I think your daughter will love this especially being dairy free, it’ll give the illusion of eating cheesy mac, but with no dairy, and it’s nice and healthy too 🙂