Vegan cheesy macaroni recipe
By Marley Sullivan
Published: August 2, 2024.
License: CC BY-SA 4.0
One time I was making chickpea pasta with red lentils in it because I was out of green lentils, which I would have preferred to use. The lentils broke down a lot because red lentils tend to do that. But I noticed that they became like a thick, tasty sauce when they softened up. Their flavor also paired well with the chick pea flavor of the pasta. So later I built upon that discovery to make the lentil chickpea sauce for this vegan cheesy macaroni dish! I also added veggies to make it more interesting and nutritious. I love veggies!!
I've been looking for a vegan mac-n-cheese recipe for a while but most of the recipes I saw relied on store-bought imitation dairy products. That's fine, but I wanted to use general ingredients that I'd be likely to have on hand. I wasn't looking to accurately imitate non-vegan mac-n-cheese; I just wanted to make something that was satisfying in similar ways. My version doesn't use any imitation products, only a blended sauce you can make at home. I find it more fun this way, and it's cheaper.
This was my first attempt and it was really tasty and filling! I'm going to try adjusting some things next time I make it, like adding more olive oil and playing with the spices.
Ingredients I used:
- 80% of a box (16 Oz / 454g) of elbow macaroni pasta
- 90% of a bag (16 Oz / 454g) of frozen peas, carrots, green bean medley (Adjust depending on the ratio of veggies to pasta you want)
- Homemade blended lentil chickpea sauce (see below)
Lentil chickpea sauce ingredients:
- 1 cup (uncooked) red lentils
- 1 can of chick peas
- 1 tsp olive oil (I might try adding more next time)
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1/4 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
- 1/2 - 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 4 tsp nutritional yeast
- salt (to taste)
Steps:
- To begin, I started heating a pot of water to cook the pasta in. I also heated a smaller pot of water with a steamer basket to steam the frozen veggie mix.
- I started cooking the red lentils. I cooked them with more water than I normally do because the leftover water would provide liquid for the sauce. If I hadn't used extra water I'd have to add water when making the sauce.
- I measured out the spices I wanted for the sauce while I waited for the lentils to cook.
- Once the lentils were cooked, they had broken down a lot and absorbed most of the water, but there was a perfect amount of water left for the sauce. I added the chick peas, olive oil, and spices to the cooked lentils and blended it together in the pot with an immersion blender.
- With everything ready, I stirred the cooked veggies into the pasta, then I mixed the blended sauce in with everything.
These measurements make about 5-6 meal servings.