Want a dinner that feels fancy and like comfort food all at the same time? Hello, vegan truffle mac and cheese!! Adding truffle oil to this creamy pasta adds an air of elegance but this recipe secretly super easy to prepare. It takes just 10 ingredients and only 20 minutes to make! The perfect dish for a special occasion without the stress of complicated cooking.
Valentine's day, anniversaries, celebrations, and date night are all fantastic times to serve vegan truffle mac and cheese. But once you taste it, it's so delicious that you're going to want to make it every night.
The simple dairy-free sauce is made using cashews for creaminess, white miso paste for an aged umami taste, and truffle-infused olive oil for the perfect creamy, luscious mac and cheese.
This sauce is so good, it would also be wonderful drizzled over cooked veggies such as cauliflower, broccoli, or baked potatoes.
If you're not into the truffle flavour you can omit the oil and make a simple creamy pasta. Or for the classic boxed mac & cheese taste, try making my homemade vegan mac & cheese powder.
To make Vegan Truffle Mac & Cheese:
If you have a high powdered blender such as a Vitamix, Blendtec, or Breville you can skip to the next step. If you don’t have a high-powered blender, you might want to boil the cashews first to ensure they are tender enough to blend into a smooth sauce. To do this add the cashews to a small pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook for about 10 minutes until the cashews are very tender. Drain and rinse with cold water. You can now proceed to make the cheese sauce.
Make the cheese sauce by adding 2 cups of water along with the cashews, nutritional yeast, cornstarch, miso paste, truffle oil, salt, garlic powder, and pepper to your blender until it is completely smooth. At this stage, the sauce will be quite watery. Set aside.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and then cook the pasta according to package directions.
Drain the pasta and quickly rinse the pot to remove any leftover starch from the pasta water. Return the empty pot to the heat and pour in the cheese sauce. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently and scraping the bottom of the pan with a spatula until the sauce thickens, about 5 minutes.
Add the cooked hot pasta to the sauce and toss to coat for the most delicious vegan truffle mac and cheese ever! Serve hot.
I love to add a crack of fresh pepper to mine, but you could also garnish with some freshly chopped parsley, an extra drizzle of truffle oil, or just enjoy as is.
Bon appetegan!
Sam Turnbull
10 ingredients, 20 minutes to make. This dairy-free pasta tastes super fancy but is actually super easy to make. Perfect for Valentine's day, anniversaries, celebrations, and date night.
- 2 cups water
- ½ cup raw cashews
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon white miso paste
- 1 tablespoon truffle olive oil
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 3 cups short pasta such as shells or macaroni (gluten-free if preferred)
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If you have a high powdered blender such as a Vitamix, Blendtec, or Breville you can skip to step 2. If you don’t have a high-powered blender, you might want to boil the cashews first to ensure they are tender enough to blend into a smooth sauce. To do this add the cashews to a small pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook for about 10 minutes until the cashews are very tender. Drain and rinse with cold water. You can now proceed to make the cheese sauce.
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Make the cheese sauce by adding 2 cups of water along with the cashews, nutritional yeast, cornstarch, miso paste, truffle oil, salt, garlic powder, and pepper to your blender until it is completely smooth. At this stage, the sauce will be quite watery. Set aside.
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Bring a large pot of water to a boil and then cook the pasta according to package directions.
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Drain the pasta and quickly rinse the pot to remove any leftover starch from the pasta water. Return the empty pot to the heat and pour in the cheese sauce. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently and scraping the bottom of the pan with a spatula until the sauce thickens, about 5 minutes. Add the cooked hot pasta to the sauce and toss to coat. Serve hot.
Cashews - you can sub cashews for blanched almonds or macadamia nuts. Sunflower seeds might also work, although it might add a green tinge to the pasta.
Cornstarch - you can sub equal amounts tapioca starch, or arrowroot starch.
Truffle oil- truffle oil may vary in strength so you are welcome to start with less and add more to taste once the sauce is cooked and thickened. If you want to skip the truffle oil you can enjoy a simple creamy pasta.
Miso paste - adds and aged fermented flavour which really makes this taste cheesy. I recommend you pick some up. It stores well for up to a year.
Nutritional yeast - adds a nutty cheesy flaovur, and is essential for this recipe. I also recommend picking some up, it stores well for up to 2 years.
Make ahead - the cheese sauce can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge in an air-tight container for 2 - 3 days. Simply reheat and toss with hot pasta when ready to serve.
Nutrition
Did you make this recipe?
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This is by far the best cheese sauce we have found. My husband and I are addicted to it. I do add some turmeric and smoked paprika. Lately I've been putting in a jalapeno. So yum! We haven't even tried it with pasta yet, but have been putting the sauce on just about everything. Thank you so much for the recipe. Thank you too for the seitan chicken recipe. It's also the best we've tried.
Wonderful! So thrilled you're enjoying my recipes, Robin 🙂
Hi Sam my truffle oil just arrived & I canny wait to make this. Does your nutrition count Include the pasta? Thanks, you legend you
Hi Sam, just had my truffle oil arrive so this recipe is on my hut list & I canny wait! Does your nutrition count include the pasta or just the sauce? Thanks you legend you
The nutrition is for 1 serving of the completed dish (sauce and pasta). Enjoy!
OMFG. That is all.
Hello, thank you for your recipe,
Can i replace the yeast flakes with something else ?
Nutritional yeast provides a cheesy flavour so if you omit it I would up other spices. Nothing will taste quite the same tho.
Hi Sam!
I just want to say thank you so much for this awesome recipe. I absolutely love mac and cheese. I used to eat it all the time before I became vegan. I had to have tried at least 4 different vegan mac and cheese recipes and all of them were so disappointing. However, I loved this recipe! The truffle oil and miso paste complemented each other so well and even my sister (non-vegan) loved the sauce. This is the first recipe of yours I've tried and I will definitely be trying more!!!
Aww that's wonderful, so happy you enjoyed, Samina! If you want to try another mac and cheese, I recommend my vegan mac and cheese powder 🙂
Could I use coconut milk here instead of cashew nuts or use a combination?
Would raw almonds work with this recipe?
Yes, blanched raw almonds 🙂
Could this be made ahead and frozen?
My blender is pathetic, so I boiled the cashews first, as recommended. I added all the other ingredients, and put that puppy on liquify while I prepared the pasta. When I stopped the blender I took a quick taste and oh. my. gawd, that sauce was nummy num. I was so excited to make dinner. When I pulled the pitcher from the machine... the glass came up but the base stayed put. Vegan cheese sauce everywhere. Sigh. This has nothing to do with the recipe, I just needed someone to feel my pain. But I'm totally putting this recipe on rotation because the two spoonfuls I had was rather impressive.
Haha, oh no!! So happy you liked the sauce, sorry about your blender problems!!
The pasta measure......is that 3 cups of dry pasta or cooked pasta?
The mac and cheese was good, will worth making
Dry 🙂
dry pasta - most recipe measurements are always uncooked
So good! Just made for Valentines Day and my husband loved it, so did I!
Wonderful!!!
So yummy- was a perfect Valentine’s dinner with a side of sautéed garlic, mushrooms, and peppers.
I used half broth to replace water, added a couple slices of sun dried tomato and a pinch of turmeric for colour- also let the vitamix do the full heat up instead of in the pan.
Can’t wait to make it again!
Awesome! SO happy you loved it, Jen 🙂
Made it! Simple to prepare and super yummy!
So happy you loved it!!
Made this tonight for tea and loved it. I added some broccoli to mine.
Wonderful!