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.
I really wish I liked nutritional yeast, but no matter how much I try to love it, I always find it mediocre at best. Every recipe for vegan mac-and-cheese looks yummy to me, except if there was no nutritional yeast. I’ve tried sneaking down the amount of it as much as I can, but anything more than a tablespoon still tastes nooch-y. Any recommendations for nooch-haters?? 🙂
Thanks for all the awesome recipes!
I make the mac & shews recipe (on this blog) all the time without the nutritional yeast. I prefer it that way! This one needed it for the body.
Try substituting miso (start with white miso) for nutritional yeast (and reduce the salt in the recipe if there is any). Not exactly the same effect but sort of cheesy (in a good way).
Made this last night and it was fabulous. Even my non vegan husband had seconds.
I did have heaps of sauce left over and not sure if it will freeze ok. I am going to try it but just wondering if I am wasting my time.
Thanks for all of your recipes- they are the bomb!!!
I think freezing would be fine! I use so many veggies in mine that I didn’t have any sauce leftover to freeze.
can’t wait to try this (another cursed with thentree nut allergy that magically appeared out of no where- grr..) i am super excited for happy comfort food 🙂 <3
Oh, now I feel dumb because I guess I assumed the mac & shrews recipe on this blog was the same as the one in V’con. Hah. I’ll have to give it a try…
This looks absolutely lovely. 🙂 I haven’t tried a seed-based sauce yet, but this one looks worth the trip to the co-op for a jar of sunflower seeds!
just tried this…at first i tasted straight from the blender and thought…ehh, it’s okay. but, THEN, i cooked the sauce for a few minutes and tasted again…hmmm, better. and, THEN, i sauteed my noodles in the sauce and threw in some broccoli and tasted again…WOW! fantastic, Isa! **I did add a little curry and cayenne, but your recipe is a winner, so thank you!!
What an interesting take on mac and cheese. The hardest thing for me to give up in order to become vegan is cheese, but thanks to you and many others out there, there are a lot of great vegan m-n-c recipes that will help me over the hurdle!
I made this tonight & am so excited (and surprised!) that I have leftovers for tomorrow! It was such yummy comfort food & definitely will become one of my staples. One thing I discovered though, the sauce spits everywhere when thickening, like a volcano! Don’t know if this was my fault but I say use a big pan 🙂
I could only find roasted sunflower seeds, how do you think it will affect the mac n cheeze?
Eh, give it a shot!
I added a bit of dry mustard and Mrs. Dash. It was very good. It had a lighter feel than cashew cheese, and much easier to digest. I’m going to substitute sunflower seeds for all cashews in sauces. I wonder if Sunbutter would work as well.
Anybody know if it’s safe to eat sunny seeds that have been on the counter soaking for 24 hours? Put ’em up to soak before leaving for work yesterday to be ready for dinner, but then we had a change of plans and I forgot about them till this a.m.
They’ll be fine!
Wow. I just added a bunch of Frank’s Hot Sauce (of Buffalo Wing fame) to it – it’s great nacho sauce. Hard to put down.
This recipe is so delicious. I love the diversity of all your different “cheese” sauce recipes. I didn’t expect the sunflower seeds to give it such a light subtle taste! Excellent. Thank you!
Ok, so I made this and when I tried the first bite, my heart skipped a beat. Can someone say obsession? This stuff is great!
Wow! This was amazing. I made this for three picky young kids and a non-vegan who hates everything – and it was a huge hit.
Thanks for the oversoaked seeds feedback. Nancy B. – I like the hot sauce idea. Here I was with lots of sunny sauce left, not wanting more pasta, and a bag of blue corn chips and nothing to dip them in. Both problems solved.
Isa, thanks for this, and I miss you! So after my sad break from veganism (I really need to find some support from vegans with omni kids..it’s tough!!) I’m back and have been craving mac like crazy. Looking forward to making this!
Excellent! I’ve tried other versions that were awful, this one is a keeper. I love that sunflower seeds are much more affordable than cashews. Tip: when she says to “blend until really smooth”, she means it! Otherwise it’s a bit grainy, but still yummy. I can see myself trying some spices (curry?) for a bit of adventure. Also, for the purpose of leftovers, it might be a good idea to cook less pasta, save some of the sauce, and boil new pasta (otherwise you’ll be eating disintegrating pasta leftovers).
I fed this to my 5 kids (ages 6 and under) and they gobbled it up! They used to eat Kraft so I’m thrilled they’ll eat this instead.
Delicious! I added some sautéed smoked tofu for extra om nom nom-ness.
Thaks for another great recipe! This is the best vegan mac recipe I’ve made. It tastes super healthy, and didn’t fry my cheapie Walmart blender! I froze this into single serve containers so I’ll have a creamy, delicious lunch for work.
Heeey! ///I/// put sunflower seeds in my oatmeal, thankyouverymuch!
…But, no, really, THANK YOU VERY MUCH for another glorious mac option. I regret having already eaten dinner tonight.
I would like to add this: as a cheat, if you want this NOW and cannot wait to soak the seeds, cover them in boiling water for 15 or so minutes. this does the job perfectly! (;
Aw, this is so freakin’ WONDERFUL! EVeryThiNg i’ve made so far has been super! I am SO happy that I found you! I’ve been a vegetarian, cooking vegan a lot of the time, for something like 22 years. It’s always cool to find a recipe that rocks, here and there, but to find your website = GOLD MINE. Thank you thank you thank you thank you I will pay you back by buying your cookbooks for myself and every veg/vegan i know in the years to come.
This looks great! The last vegan mac I made from Vegan Yum Yum came out too sweet for some reason, and kind of turned me off to the idea of making vegan mac again, but this looks super promising! I’m going to make it for my housemates in a couple of days, but I want to try doing it casserole style. Once the sauce is blended, i’m going to pour it over the cooked macaroni in a baking pan, then top that with some panko or sesame cracker crumbs and italian herbs. I like everyone’s suggestions to use curry powder. Would baking it suffice for the cooking needed in order to let the sauce thicken?
Yep, I think that would work well!
Made this today for lunch and it was spot on. I didn’t tweak anything at all. Thank you for another yummy recipe Isa!
Made this today with my partner for lunch. It was so GOOD! We’ve been trying different mac and cheeze recipes but for some reason I can’t take the amount of nutritional yeast in them. This was surprisingly (no offense Isa) so good even with nutritional yeast in it. Even my skeptic of a foodie mother liked it.
Thanks Isa your food is simply the best!
This was one of my first vegan recipes attempts and it is so YUMMY!
When I made this a few weeks ago I doubled the sauce and froze half, and am happy to report that it was just as creamy and tasty in a casserole this week! And my toddler loved it. This is my new default mac and cheese. Thank you Isa!
My husband and I have been vegan for 7 weeks. He is also allergic to ALL nuts (as well as several other foods). I found your site tonight and saw this and feel so inspired. He loves sunflower seeds (after all, this is all he has ever had for any type of “nut”) and I can’t wait to try this. THANK YOU!!
I just made this sauce, but need to travel before I will be able to thicken and enjoy it. Out of the blender I thought it was wonderful. i have no choice but to freeze it, so I will give it a go when I’m back in town. I’ll let you know how it goes!
Oh, wow. Thank you SO MUCH for this. I also have a tree nut allergy so I can’t have any of the cashew-based cheesiness. It’s great to know that sunflower seeds can do the trick!
Would it maybe taste okay if you made it with roasted sunflower seeds?
Yep i think so!
I am SUCH a huge fan of Isa and her recipes but I did not care for this one. I’m chalking it up to being a non vegan with no food allergies who is mighty fond of nooch. If that sounds like you try the excellent recipe for mac and trees in Appetite for Reduction!
I have a ton of roasted sunflower seeds that I need to use up. Could I use roasted sunflower seeds or would it be too strong of a flavor?
Whups! Someone already asked. Well, looks like I will have to try this now 🙂
I finally got around to making this today. I tweaked it a bit (more nooch, more tomato paste, some curry powder, hickory smoke salt) and while I probably could have blended the sauce a bit more, it turned out GREAT. I can’t wait to play around with this recipe some more.
I have eaten this every day for the last three days and am mildly concerned I could continue eating it forever until I morph into an actual ball of pulverised sunflower seeds. I’m an officially rubbish cook and this still turned out amazing. Gracias!!
Holy cow, this stuff rocks. Isa, you never cease to amaze me.
I doubled the recipe because I used a 16 oz. package of pasta. Note to recipe-doublers: there is no need to double it. This makes a lot of sauce. I am happy I did it though, because now I have some in the freezer…
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
This is a great recipe! I made it for some non vegans (well, i’m not vegan either, i just love the food on this site!) who had no idea it wasn’t cheesey!
I did substitute cahsews, since I live in Panama and it’s near impossible to find sunflower seeds. The cashews here are amazing though, home grown and roasted and unbelievable!
If anybody has an idea of a substitute for nutritional yeast? I’ve been surviving without it as there are no “specialty stores” or anywhere where i can find it…any suggestions?
Im not a fan of nutritional yeast:( i want something that tastes like the boxed crap from the store but without all the junk. Does that recipe’ exist??
This sounds great! The only problem I have with some vegan recipes is the nutritional yeast – I am allergic to yeast! Can you recommend a substitute?
this was my first attempt at vegan mac and “cheese” and it was a resounding success! i forgot to thicken the sauce at the end, and it was still delicious:) Vegan “cheese” no longer scares me, and I am going to have to check out more nut/seed based sauce recipes. Thanks!