What’s not to love about Mac and Cheese?! It’s comforting, it’s delicious, and it’s a childhood favorite. It’s also something that can be made be quickly if you have the right ingredients on hand. So today, we’re making Mac and Cheese with a twist. We’re making it whole-food, plant-based, and gluten-free!
This recipe comes straight from the Quick & Easy Plant-Based Dinner Guide which you can download for free here. It’s 8 recipes of easy weeknight dinners plus 6 recipes of food prep ideas that you can make on the weekend and be all set for quick and easy dinners all week long.
I like to make the Cheese Sauce ahead of time, usually on a Sunday, and have a big batch of it in the fridge all week long. (Sometimes I even make a double batch of it.) You can use this Sauce for this recipe, for tacos, quesadillas, and pretty much any other recipe that you want to add cheese to! (A lot of the recipes I just mentioned are in the Quick & Easy Plant-Based Dinner Guide.)
Get the recipe for the Whole Food Plant-Based Cheese Sauce here.
Mac and Cheese is one of those meals that you remember loving as a kid. Whether it was homemade or Kraft (ok who are we kidding- who didn’t love Kraft Mac and Cheese as a kid?!)- it’s comfort food and is just so freaking good.
But that boxed Mac and Cheese has a lot of ingredients on the nutrition label- including milk fat, preservatives, and enriched wheat flour- without having a lot of wholesome nutrients either. So that’s why today, we’re making a Whole Food Plant-Based Gluten-Free Mac and Cheese, which I’m calling Guilt-Free Mac and Cheese because it is packed with plant nutrients!
I like to use a gluten-free pasta that is made of brown rice and quinoa, instead of enriched wheat flour, so it’s packed with fiber and protein instead of flour that’s been stripped of nutrition. For the cheese, instead of using dairy cheese with saturated fat- we’re using the Whole Food Plant-Based Cheese Sauce that is literally made of potatoes, carrots, some cashews and lots of nutritional yeast.
I love this Brown Rice Quinoa pasta (which you can scoop up at Trader Joe’s) and also this too. (I’ll link them up along with some of the key ingredients of this recipe below.)
Alright, let’s get to this recipe!
Guilt-Free Mac and Cheese
Ingredients
- 1 batch Whole Food Plant-Based Cheese Sauce (linked above)
- 1 16oz pkg gluten-free pasta
- 1 dash Himalayan Salt
- 1/2 tsp Smoked Paprika
Instructions
- Make a batch of the Whole Food Plant-Based Cheese Sauce according to recipe directions.
- Bring a pot of water to a boil. Season with a pinch of salt.
- Once water comes to a rolling boil, add pasta and cook according to package instructions.
- Once cooked (do not overcook- gluten-free pasta gets mushy), drain and set aside until serving.
- Add cheese sauce to pasta and mix well.
- Add a dash of Himalayan salt and smoked paprika. Taste and adjust seasonings. Serve
Shop the recipe:
[…] at least once every two weeks. It’s just so freaking versatile. (Usually with this delicious Mac & Cheese.) It was originally born out of Oh She Glow’s cheese sauce, but after making that for months, […]