This classic vegan mac and cheese is ultra cheesy, saucy and creamy. Topped with breadcrumbs and baked until golden brown and crispy. Seriously satisfying.
This classic baked vegan mac and cheese is everything you want a mac and cheese to be.
It’s creamy, saucy, ultra cheesy and topped with a delicious crispy breadcrumb topping and baked to perfection.
This is really a ‘classic’ vegan mac and cheese recipe in the sense that a classic mac and cheese usually involves a bechamel sauce with heaps of cheese added to it, and then it’s placed into a dish and topped with breadcrumbs and baked.
And that’s really very close to what we did here.
We made a vegan bechamel sauce and added all sorts of cheesy flavorings to it in lieu of actual cheese so that even non-vegans will find this cheesy as all heck, and then we topped it with delicious breadcrumbs and baked it. Just like the classic version.
How To Make Vegan Mac and Cheese
This vegan mac and cheese is ultra cheesy yet we did not use one shred of actual vegan cheese in it. So if you’re living somewhere where it’s hard to find vegan cheese in the supermarket, no worries, this recipe is for you.
I did try a version with some vegan cheese added to the sauce, and quite honestly I just didn’t think it worked as well as the version without, so this is it.
I created a bechamel sauce with some vegan butter, all purpose flour, coconut milk and vegetable stock and once that was thick and creamy like a white sauce should be, I added some cheesy flavorings in the form of dijon mustard, nutritional yeast, onion powder, garlic powder, smoked paprika, salt and pepper.
The spices in this sauce really make it, you won’t have any doubt that this is a cheese sauce. We used our cheesy garlic vegan alfredo sauce as major inspiration for this.
Add the cooked macaroni to your big pot of sauce and toss it all together and then transfer into a 9×13 baking dish, top with breadcrumbs and bake for 20 minutes until beautifully golden brown on top.
Super easy and extremely satisfying.
How To Make Vegan Breadcrumbs
I made my own breadcrumbs for this which is easy and works great!
I toasted 3 thick cut slices of white bread and then broke them into pieces and put them into the blender. Blitzed them into breadcrumbs in the blender. Transferred to a bowl and added some melted vegan butter and tossed them up with it and then placed on top of the mac and cheese.
You can use brown or whole wheat bread but white bread actually works best for this recipe.
Ingredient FAQ
What can I use instead of vegan butter? You can use a dairy-free margarine which is basically the same thing. Just read the ingredients of the margarines and find one that is dairy-free. Alternatively you can make your own homemade vegan butter and use that in this recipe.
What kind of coconut milk did you use in this recipe? I used full fat coconut milk that comes in cans. That created the richest sauce for this recipe. Definitely do NOT use any kind of coconut milk that is sweetened, that would not work in this recipe. It needs to be canned full fat unsweetened coconut milk. If you’re not a coconut fan then see below!
How can I make this vegan mac and cheese without coconut milk? You can use soy milk instead of coconut milk, the end result is slightly less rich but you can definitely do it, I have tested it this way and it was great. I have not tested any other plant milks and while almond milk may work fine, my only worry is that it will create a sauce that is a little thin.
Can I leave out the nutritional yeast? The nutritional yeast really brings it with the cheesy flavor in this sauce! But yes you can leave it out without it ruining the recipe, but I do recommend you leave it in.
Vegan Mac and Cheese Recipe Q&A
Like the best comfort food ever! It’s super cheesy and so close to the ‘real thing’ you might not even know it’s vegan. Seriously!
The sauce can be made gluten-free if you use a gluten-free all purpose flour blend instead of the regular flour. And then of course you can use a gluten-free macaroni. You would also need to use gluten-free bread for the crumb topping, or alternatively you could add vegan cheese to the top instead of breadcrumbs.
Yes! If you need to make it ahead of time you can make up the sauce and macaroni up to 2 days before and mix it up and assemble in the 9×13 dish. Cover with foil and keep refrigerated. Then when you’re ready to bake it, add the breadcrumbs and bake. In this case, since it is going into the oven cold from the fridge, add an extra 5 minutes of baking time.
Leftovers keep very well in the fridge for 3-4 days.
Yes you can! This freezes very well.
What Goes With Vegan Mac and Cheese?
If you’re thinking of what to eat with vegan mac and cheese then there’s some great sides that go perfectly with this!
If you’re thinking in terms of comfort food then our vegan garlic bread or vegan cornbread is a perfect addition.
Some vegan coleslaw or a delicious vegan kale salad or black bean and corn salad would also go very well. If you’re looking for an appetizer then something like our vegan tomato soup or vegan tomato basil soup would fit the bill perfectly.
More Vegan Pasta Recipes
- Our vegan butternut squash mac and cheese recipe is made with butternut squash and cashew nuts! It’s quite different to this one, and it’s not baked but it’s so good.
- Our vegan pesto pasta will not disappoint and is a wonderfully quick and easy recipe.
- Our vegan pasta bake is perfect for when you want to feed a crowd. Our vegan pasta salad is an ultra quick 15 minute recipe that you will love! And if you’ve ever been a fan of spaghetti bolognese then our vegan bolognese will be right up your street!
- And then our recipe for the easiest vegan lasagna is totally divine but we also have a recipe for the best vegan lasagna which is fancier but oh so worth it!
- Also check out our vegan mushroom stroganoff and our vegan mushroom pasta.
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Classic Baked Vegan Mac and Cheese
Ingredients
For the Cheese Sauce:
- ½ cup Vegan Butter (112g)
- 6 Tbsp All Purpose Flour
- 5 cups Coconut Milk 3 cans (1200ml), Unsweetened*
- 1 cup Vegetable Stock (240ml)
- 3 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
- 1 cup Nutritional Yeast (60g)
- 3 tsp Onion Powder
- 3 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1 ½ tsp Smoked Paprika
- 1 ½ tsp Salt
- 1 ½ tsp Ground Black Pepper
For the Macaroni:
- 18 ounces Elbow Macaroni (500g)
For the Breadcrumb Topping:
- 3 Thick Slices White Bread Toasted, or 1 cup Panko Breadcrumbs
- 2 Tbsp Vegan Butter Melted
Instructions
- Add the vegan butter to a pot and let it melt. When it’s melted add in the all purpose flour and stir it vigorously with the melted butter.
- Then pour in the cans of coconut milk and the vegetable stock. Use a hand whisk to whisk out the lumps. Keep whisking until it starts to boil and then keep whisking for a few minutes after it has boiled until it thickens. It will continue to thicken as it cools, so it doesn’t have to be all the way there when you remove it from the heat, as long as it has thickened considerably from when you started.
- Remove it from the heat and add in the dijon mustard, nutritional yeast, onion powder, garlic powder, smoked paprika, salt and pepper and whisk in. Now your sauce is ready, you can prepare your macaroni.
- Cook your macaroni according to the package directions and then rinse and drain.
- Add the cooked macaroni into the pot of sauce and toss it up with the sauce.
- Then transfer the macaroni and sauce to a 9×13 baking dish and smooth down.
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
- Prepare the crumb topping by breaking up the 3 thick slices of toasted white bread and placing into the blender. Pulse blend until you have crumbs. Then transfer to a mixing bowl, and add in the melted vegan butter and toss up the crumbs with the melted butter.
- Place the breadcrumbs evenly over the top of the macaroni cheese.
- Bake for 20 minutes until the topping is golden brown and crispy.
Video
Notes
- If you want to replace the coconut milk with a different non-dairy milk such as soy milk then you definitely can. We have tested this recipe with soy milk and it works great.
- The coconut milk must be canned full fat unsweetened coconut milk. I would never use a sweetened coconut milk for any recipe and have never used it. Canned full fat unsweetened coconut milk is the way to go. There is a link to a good brand in the ingredients list. Alternatively, use soy milk (as per instructions above).
- If you have someone to help you then you can work on the sauce and they can cook the macaroni at the same time. But the sauce is very ‘hands-on’ so if you’re on your own it works best to just focus on the sauce and then do the macaroni. But if there are two of you it will save considerable time to do both at once.
- You don’t have to use macaroni, you can use a different pasta but of course it should be one that is suited to this kind of meal, like penne or shells and not something like spaghetti or linguine.
- If you’re using store-bought breadcrumbs then just eyeball it for the right amount to use so that it easily covers the top of your mac and cheese. In the case of panko breadcrumbs the amount to use is 1 cup.
Loved it! Cooked some vegan bacon and chopped it up and chucked it in (like a loaded Mac and cheese)
Recipe was perfect, couldn’t taste the coconut at all, was creamy and thick,
Incredible.
Shall be making it again and again.
Thanks so much Jaynie!
I love the idea! My friend is vegan so I made it for our friendsgiving but I also found that there was a slight sweetness I could not stand personally! My friends all said they liked it, but I hate coconut and even with the unsweetened milk I just couldn’t get passed it.
I fix it up for leftovers by pouring more vegetable stock and salt in it to mask it and that works wonders! Also mixed it with my left over mashed potatoes along with this addition and it was awesome. Thank you!
Hi Sydney, sounds like you would much prefer it with a different non-dairy milk since you hate coconut. Other non-dairy milk options work just as well in this recipe, so I definitely recommend that if you ever do try it again! Thanks for sharing and glad to hear your friends enjoyed it.
How would I cut this down to two servings instead of 8?
That would be quite complicated. You could halve the recipe if you like as that would be quite easy, and it keeps well.
Thanksgiving vegan 🤗
Out of the eight of us my oldest son is the vegan so I had been looking for recipes for about 2 weeks and I came across this one. I did add a half a cup more of the nutritional yeast and after I mix the sauce and put the macaroni noodles in I added in about 3 more tablespoons of butter. Season to taste of course and it turned out great 🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗
Fantastic! So glad it was a success!
I’ve tried several vegan Mac and Cheese recipes with varied success. This recipe really hits the spot. It’s totally delicious and everyone loved it. I’ll keep making it!! Thank you!!
Wonderful! Thanks for the great review Barbara!
Can the butter be substituted for oil or applesauce or anything else?
You can use oil instead, olive oil works great. Definitely don’t use applesauce though.
Hi so I accidentally put in double the amount of nutritional yeast. Is that bad? Do I have to re-make it or is there anything I can do to fix it?
I don’t think it will be a problem! Taste test and see though, but I don’t think there will be any big issue.
Are there any measurements of the ingredients, or did I miss that part?
Everything you need is in the recipe card, if in doubt click the ‘jump to recipe’ button at the top of the post.
I see it hasn’t been mentioned, so you probably don’t advise it. But instead of using the full fat unsweetened coconut milk, could unsweetened coconut cream work as well or no?
Hi Destiny, it would work yes, but it would be crazy rich! Not a bad thing necessarily! 🙂
Was a sweet taste to it that I couldn’t get past not my cup of tea
Hi Adri, I wonder if your coconut milk had sugar in it? It should be unsweetened. However, some people consider that even unsweetened coconut milk has a slight sweetness (I don’t find this but some people do). So it could be that you would much prefer it made with another non-dairy milk such as soy, which also works great in this recipe.
I made it with 5 cups of Oat milk 2 times already and regular bread crumbs. Loved it, and so did my family. We couldn’t stop eating it. I will be making this dish for Thanksgiving Day.!!!
Fantastic! Thanks so much Lisa!
I have a question: Does the coconut taste come through? I really don’t like coconut – but if it doesn’t taste like coconut, I would use it.
I don’t think so, but some people do think the flavor comes through. So if you don’t like the taste, it’s best to use a different plant milk since that also works perfectly in this recipe.