Serves 4
Time: 30 minutes (not including sunflower seed soaking time)
The most important people in my life are my recipe testers. Luckily, my sister and mom are included in their numbers, so all of my bases are covered.
Recipe testers are why my cookbooks work. Before a recipe gets to you, it has already been tested by a bunch of people, all over the world. They all have different levels of experience, from beginner cooks to lifelong kitchophiles. Some live in rural areas and harvest their own kale, while others lug huge bushels home from the farmer’s market on the subway. And there’s a happy medium in between.
But not only do testers test my recipes, they also give me inspiration. I can ask if there’s anything I’m missing, anything they’re craving, or just any ingredients they need to use up. It’s a great way to get ideas!
And over the years, I’ve learned many of their quirks, likes, loves and allergies. One of my most favoritest testers who has been there with me from the very beginning is Jess Sconed. I can’t say enough about her amazingness! I mean, not just as a recipe tester but as a friend and as a person. She is always creating something, always making the vegan community a better, more awesome, and more fun place. She started Vegan Iron Chef and is one of the organizers of Vida Vegan Con. She has like 20 blogs, but you might know her from Get Sconed, where she’s been blogging for ever. This recipe, created in her honor, is totally fitting because she’s a lot like a sunflower. One with dyed black pigtails and purple nail polish, but a sunflower all the same! Just a glowing ray of tofu light.
I know how she feels about raw onions and cilantro (not too good), and so I often come up with recipes keeping that in mind. And recently Jess has developed a tree nut allergy! I can’t imagine a worse fate right now, what with the cashew craze and my out of control almond butter lust. Knowing how much she loves vegan macs, I wanted to experiment with a sauce that I knew Jess would love, using ingredients that would be good for her, too. And so I pulled out the sunflower seeds.
I really wasn’t sure what to expect. Was this going to taste very 70s health-foody? I mean, it’s sunflower seeds. Our grandparents put them on their oatmeal. Would they even blend well? Cashews slurp up water and get tender and ready to puree. Sunflower kernels seem so hard and unwelcoming. I had my doubts, to be sure.
But all those doubt washed away as I poured the perfectly creamy sauce over the little macaronis in a positively cheddary orange waterfall. Sunflower seeds have a mellow nutty quality that fit right into a cheezy sauce. The backdrop of garlic and onion, with a hint of vegetable sweetness from carrots, and the rich toastiness from the sunflowers had me at the first creamy forkful. Bottom line: I really dug it! And from now on, I’ll have a canister of sunflower seeds standing proudly beside the cashews in my cupboard. Thanks for the inspiration, Jess!
I love to serve my mac with some steamed kale, so here was my plate.
The mac is under there somewhere! Steamed broccoli would be a good choice, as well. PS If you’d like to see all the testing that Jess did for Veganomicon, you can check out her post here.
8 oz macaroni pasta (I used whole wheat, use brown rice pasta to make it gluten-free)
1 cup unroasted sunflower seed kernels, soaked (see directions)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup thinly sliced carrots
1 small onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups vegetable broth
2 tablespoons organic cornstarch
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Sweet paprika for sprinkling
Place sunflower seeds in a bowl and submerge in water. Let soak for about 2 hours and up to overnight. Drain well.
Boil a pot of salted water for your pasta.
Preheat a sauce pot over medium heat. Saute carrots and onions in oil with a pinch of salt for about 10 minutes, until onions are translucent and carrots are slightly softened. Add garlic and saute for 30 seconds or so, then remove from heat.
Place the carrots and onions in a blender or food processor. Add vegetable broth, corn starch, nutritional yeast, tomato paste and sunflower seeds. Blend until very smooth. This could take up to 5 minutes depending on the power of your machine, so give your blender motor a break every minute or so and test the sauce for smoothness. It should be very smooth, with only a slight graininess.
If your water is boiling, prepare the pasta according to package directions.
In the meantime, transfer the sauce back to the sauce pot. Turn the heat up to medium and let cook, stirring very often, until thickened. This should take about 15 minutes. Add the lemon juice and taste for salt and seasoning.
The pasta should be done while the sauce is thickening, so drain and place back in the pot you cooked it in. Set aside.
When sauce is thick, pour most of it over the pasta, reserving some to pour over individual servings. Mix it up, and serve with extra sauce and paprika for sprinkling.
My husband makes white sauce from sunflower seeds. Looking forward to trying this!
Awww its the cashews cheaper cousin.
This looks really interesting! I love sunflower seeds and they are pretty good for you too.
This is adorable! I will absolutely make this in honour of Jess. Thanks, Isa!
I would LOVE to be a recipe tester! I am constantly trying new things and reading recipes is a passion of mine.
This sounds goo-ood!
AWWW. that is the sweetest recipe dedication! And for such a wonderful person! I love her blogs!
You really go above and beyond with your substitutions!
Woh, I cannot tell you how happy I am that you posted this. I am allergic to nothing, NOTHING except…you guessed it…cashews. Ugh. It’s a vegan-food-loving nightmare. I’m always wanting to try some delicious cheese sauce at a raw restaurant and feeling totally sorry for myself. I was so excited to get Cafe Gratitude’s book of desserts and then realized almost everything was made with cashews. Grrr. So I can’t wait to try this out!
This sounds fabulous! Nice to learn about alternatives to nuts for people who can’t eat them. Looks really good on the kale too!
hahaha, I was so excited at first to make this for my friend with nut allergies, then I noticed it has tomatoes and I am allergic to tomatoes. Allergies, man! (that’s ok though, we still have plenty of things we can both eat.)
This is such a sweet post! Seriously. It’s so nice to see people appreciating each other. Isa, you rock and your cookbooks are the reason I love being vegan. I want to thank YOU! And thank you, Jess, for testing Isa’s recipes so people like me can have happy vegan tummies! 🙂
Hooray for creamy cashew-free mac & cheese! My husband’s allergic to nuts too, so I’m sure he’ll appreciate this.
This is perfect! My mom is allergic to cashews and I have been craving mac ‘n’ cheeze here at college! So making this when I get home! 🙂
I love you.
YAY! I’m allergic to cashews 🙁 so this is awesome! thank you so much for experimenting and sharing!
We were looking for a new mac & cheese recipe to try next week–thank you! It is always nice to make delicious vegan food as inclusive as possible to those with allergies!
This looks SO GOOD!!!!! Thank you SO MUCH for your dedication to creating healthful and delicious vegan food. <3 We love you, Isa!
I always use sunflower seeds, in my mixes, nut butters, salads, as a snack.
I love that you add it to your pantry!!!
I want to be a recipe tester!!!!! 😀 For real!
Is this a good recipecto make for when non-vegans come to supper, or is the kind you save for appreciative vegans?! I’m cooking dinner for my mum-nearly-in-law on Thursday & need something simple but tasry 🙂
What a fantastic Mac-n-Cheese version. I love the idea of sunflower seeds.
Wow, it’s like you read my thoughts once again, Isa! One of my best friends is allergic to nuts and I’ve been wishing and hoping for a “cheesey” vegan dish we could actually share, without having to resort to an Earth-Balance-sauce. I love you more each and every day 😛
If you are ever looking for new recipe testers, I would be incredibly honored to serve you in that capacity!!! This looks amazing; I never would have thought to use sunflower seeds. Katy, I would try subbing mustard for the tomato paste, or maybe just omit it. don’t let it stop you – forge ahead!!! 🙂
Thank you so much for posting this recipe! I also have a severe nut allergy and am always discouraged by all the cashew recipes out there that I can’t try. I can’t wait to get this cooking for dinner tomorrow night! Thank you thank you thank you!
Your mac and cheese sounds very delicious! I love sunflower seed based sauces. I started experimenting with them a while ago, because cashews are so expensive over here. In Germany sunflower seeds are used in many vegan spreads and I also find them as versatile as cashews.
What a fabulous recipe! Comfort food all wrapped up in good for you makes me happy! Love that you serve it with kale!
Thank you! My daughter is allergic to cashews. Your recipes are the best! You are the best!!!
It’s a vegan cheesey sauce students can afford! <3
Which makes me wonder… Peanuts are the cheapest nut-like thing in lots of places, so could one do the soak-and-blend with peanuts as well? How about soy beans??
Peanuts have such a strong flavor, you’d really just have peanut sauce. Soy beans are pretty different, have you tried the edamame pesto from my blog?
My (non-vegan) fiancee is allergic to tree nuts, so I’m always on the lookout for things I can cook without killing her. This is going to be awesome, especially when I add some of the Italian sausage from the recipe a few days ago. One question: if i wanted to make the whole thing into a baked casserole, what would you recommend for a crust?
I don’t think a mac & cheese casserole needs a crust.
Yum, I love that you used sunflower seeds in this. It’s about the only seed/nut that I can handle without getting weird reactions. I’m with you on the recipe taste testers. Like you mentioned, it’s good to have a couple of them. Sometimes I’ll make something that my boyfriend absolutely hates, but my neighbors love, and I do too… good to have all bases covered!
awesome! now the mighty isa has tried the sunflower seed “cashew creme” i am much more positive about applying it to other cashewy based vegan delights. Big loves for this, it means a lot to us treenut aphobes
Yesssss something I can finally eat!! I too have the cashew curse. 🙁
i can’t wait to try this with brown rice pasta!
soaking the sunflower seeds to make this for dinner tonight!
Here’s to Jess Sconed! <3
Sunflower cheeze sauce, go figure! Perfect for kids and everyone. Thanks.
This looks so good! Got ingredients to make it but accidentally got roasted sunflower seeds. Would they be okay to use? Would anything in the recepie change besides omitting salt?
I think they’ll be fine! Maybe a little more toasty tasting…
I made it immediately after I got home yesterday (and soaked the seeds, duh). Delicious! Next time I will let them soak overnight so they are very soft. I also couldn’t resist adding some curry powder for even more yellowness. Thank you, Isa, for appreciating the humble sunflower seeds! They are also great in pesto 🙂
yum! this also makes the recipe more affordable, sunflower seeds being way cheaper than cashews, and they are rather creamy.
I’ve been meaning to share that I recently did the vinagrette for the Everyday Chickpea Quinoa Salad from Appetite for Reducation with sunflower seeds instead of cashews and it was awesome! I ran out of cashews but I so craved this salad. I figured sunflower seeds are creamy, why not try? well, it was yum, not quite as thick, next time I think I would put in a few more seeds, but otherwise quite good. You should try it sometime!
I made this tonight, and found I wanted to do some tweaking because the raw-bean taste of the sunflower seeds was a little overpowering. I added one more tablespoon of tomato paste (a kind with no salt added), tripled the nutritional yeast, and used smoked salt instead of regular. I found those things helped, and also noticed that serving the sauce with the pasta and kale (rather than tasting it right out of the pot) made the flavor seem more on target. Next time I might try lightly roasting the sunflower seeds. I really like the idea of using them instead of cashews, so this is something I’ll keep playing with. Thanks for the recipe!
Amazing. I just made this, but didn’t have tomato paste so I subbed salsa to taste. Now it’s a fantastic nacho cheese sauce…
Thanks for your brilliance!
I heart jess scone.
I’ll have to try this. My daughter loves mac and cheese, but I hadn’t found a great vegan recipe for one yet. Can’t wait!
I’m making this today! My 2 year old boy will love this – Mac and cheese is his favorite and I’ve been searching for a worthy vegan version. I love you Isa! You always save the day! 🙂
Quick question – do you think the sauce would freeze well? Like if I made a batch and portioned it out in freezer bags to pop out for individual meals?
Thank you so much! My husband and kids are all severely allergic to peanuts and tree nuts – so the cashew craze is such a downer, there are so many recipes I can’t make. FINALLY I can make a ma-cheese recipe for them!!! Thank you so much!
Bag of sunflower seeds, I know what I’m going to do with you now and it’s not just dump you on top of my oats! Thanks Isa xx
Just made it and poured over fresh spinach, tomatoes and red peppers. Tasty!!! Next dish is NACHOS!! mmmm. Thanks lovely Isa
Jut made this…holy Jesus it’s good
This sounds fantastic! I’ll have to add raw sunflower seeds to this weeks grocery list!
Just made this! Awesome flavor, easy recipe. Made a ton of sauce – could have used more pasta. I’d like it to be a tiny bit less grainy, though. I’ll have to work on that. Thank you for the fab recipes!
Just blend longer! It’s hard to gauge sometimes if you blended enough, but better safe than sorry. Happy you liked it!