Nostalgic, creamy comfort food AND a nice serving of vegetables come together to make the most nutritious and delicious mac and cheese you've ever tasted. Oil-free and vegan friendly.
Ingredients
16 ounces dry whole wheat macaroni
½ large sweet potato, roughly chopped
3 whole carrots, chopped
2 small onions, roughly chopped
1 cup water reserved from boiled vegetable pot
½ cup unsalted cashews
½ cup light coconut milk
3 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
Juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
¼ tsp. cayenne pepper
¼ tsp smoked paprika, plus more for sprinkling
Instructions
Chop and measure out all your veggies and spices. I prefer to do these steps before I ever turn on a burner – It makes the rest of your cooking pretty stress-free.
Put a large pot on the stove and add 4 quarts of water. Put a medium pot for the veggies on another burner. Place vegetables in the pot, and then fill with water until covered until there’s about an inch of water over the veggies (for me, this took about 4 cups of water).
Bring both pots to a boil. Once boiling, add pasta to large pot. Cook pasta uncovered for 6 minutes, or until al dente, then remove from heat and drain in a colander. Allow vegetables to boil for about 4 more minutes. They should be fork tender. Remove from heat.
Spoon your veggies out of the broth, and measure out about 1 cup of the liquid from the pot. Let cool for about 5 minutes.
Allow to cool enough to handle, then add the vegetables, the reserved 1 cup of veggie water, all spices, the coconut milk, lemon juice, and cashews to your blender, then blend until smooth. Taste and adjust seasonings if needed.
Pour your macaroni into a large casserole dish, add your sauce, and mix.
Sprinkle with smoked paprika for an extra burst of flavor and color.