Serves 4
Total time: 30 minutes
Active time: 20 minutes
Photo by Vanessa Rees
This is a beautiful bright orange mac, flavored with pepperoni type pizza seasonings; fennel, thyme, and oregano. I used to call it Pizza Mac & Cheese, actually! I’ve written a lot about vegan Mac & Cheese in the past, so I’ll skip all the broohaha, and just tell you to check out the latest Make It Vegan video and then get your mac on! For roasted brussel sprout directions, use this recipe.
Notes
~I always have a jar of roasted red peppers on hand, but making your own doesn’t take much time or effort. If you’ve got the oven on to cook something else, anywhere between 350° and 425°F, simply sneak in a pepper or three on a small baking pan. Roast whole for 20 to 30 minutes, or until the pepper appears collapsed, then transfer to a paper bag immediately and close the bag up securely. This will steam it, so that when cool the skin comes off easily. Once you get the skin off, open the pepper up (if it hasn’t already broken open) and discard the seeds. Voilà!
~If you don’t have any pizza seasoning laying around, simply use these spices: 1/4 teaspoon fennel seed or ground fennel, 1/4 teaspoon oregano, 1/2 teaspoon thyme, 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic)
~You can make this a baked mac, if you prefer! Transfer the whole shebang to an 8×8 casserole and bake at 350 F for 20 minutes.
~If you forgot to soak the cashews, have no fear. You can boil them for the same creamy effect, and still have this on the table in 30 minutes. Just submerge in boiling water for 15 minutes, drain, and proceed.
Ingredients
1/2 lb macaroni or other small pasta
3/4 cups unroasted cashews, soaked in water for 2 hours
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 small yellow onion, diced medium
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups vegetable broth
1 1/2 tablespoons organic cornstarch
1 tablespoons nutritional yeast (optional)
1 roasted red peppers (jarred or homemade)
1 tablespoons tomato paste
1 1/2 teaspoons pizza seasoning (see note)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground mustard
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
Directions
Preheat a 2 quart sauce pot over medium heat. Saute onions in oil with a pinch of salt for 5 to 7 minutes, until onions are translucent. Add garlic and saute for 30 seconds or so, then transfer to a blender or food processor.
Boil a large pot of salted water for cooking the pasta. Once boiling, cook pasta according to package directions.
Drain the cashews and add them to the blender along with the vegetable broth, corn starch, nutritional yeast, red peppers, tomato paste, pizza seasoning, salt, mustard and turmeric. Blend until very smooth. Scrape down the sides every 30 seconds or so and test for smoothness.
Transfer the sauce in the blender back to the sauce pot where you cooked the onions. Turn the heat up to medium and let cook, stirring very often, until thickened. This should take between 10 and 15 minutes. Taste for salt. It should taste slightly salty because you’re going to be pouring it on the pasta.
The pasta should be done while the sauce is thickening, so drain and place pasta back in the pot you cooked it in. Set aside.
When sauce is thickened, add it to the pasta in the pot, and use a large slotted spoon to mix well, taking care not to break the pasta. Serve!
Isa! Your videos are the best! Would you please make more? LIke maybe a hundred more videos? Yes, something like that will do.
Haha, I hope to make more! Keep sharing the vids and maybe it’ll happen.
Your dancing is adorable! I’m making this this weekend.
isa – you are truly my vegan hero. i just got your new book from your publisher to review and i have to say that i fell in love on page 2. i always make a joke when i write or talk about my vegan cooking journey that i tried the broccoli millet croquettes from veganomicom and i failed miserably. if this was the book i was starting with i might have succeeded and gotten in the kitchen sooner. thanks for this! and of course thanks for this recipe. i can’t wait to make this for my son and i know it is going to become a staple in our house. xo lisa
Thanks, girl!
ha, we use small bowls too, and then end up going back for 2nds, 3rds, and 4ths 🙂
love the videos.
see you in berkeley soon!
I know this was some years ago now, but please do more videos!! 🙂
Where do you buy cashews? They’re in a lot of your recipes I’d like to try, but every time I pass them in the store I think “damn, they’re so expensive” and end up not buying them. Is there some site where you can get them cheaper in bulk or something? I need to make this and the chowder. I live in new england and crave it every once in a while when I see people enjoying it at those little shacks by the beach. Which is weird because I never liked seafood even before becoming vegan.
I buy them in bulk or at Trader Joes. I don’t bother with organic. Usually they’re like $2 a cup. Not too bad!
You’re videos crack me up more them your cookbooks! So saucy! You are my vegan food hero.
Love it!! Hurry up and arrive my copy of “Isa does it”!!!!!!!
I’m salivating. This sounds fantastic. Thanks. 🙂
This sounds freaking awesome! Yum!
Big bags of cashew pieces are cheapest at an Indian market.
Thanks. I haven’t been to a trader joe’s in a while. I’ll look for them there. I’ll check to see if there are any Indian markets north of the city too. Thank you.
You twerk, you do the robot, AND you give jazz hands while shaking your tush? Ridiculously amazing!
The pasta looks good too 🙂
Making it tomorrow! LOVE. LOVE, LOVE the videos. They are so fun!
Sharing the videos far and wide 🙂
This looks so delicious! Does it reheat well if you want to make a double batch?
Uh MAZ ing! Tastes like pizza! I just made a bunch of it this morning and as it cooled off it congealed a little. When I reheated I just added a little water to it and it loosened right back up. Great for leftovers. Thanks for another delicious recipe!
YUM. This looks incredible! Love the orangey color!
“Even though French fries ARE the vegan French fry.” LOL
And I pronounce turmeric TumAIRic, as well. Is it really pronounced “tumERic”? Cause that just doesn’t sound as nice.
I LOVE these videos and am SO enjoying them; you are pure entertainment. 🙂 (Though your twerking needs a LITTLE bit of work. 🙂 )
I am so making this for dinner tonight. The video was great! So excited to try it, it looks so yum!
Wow! Great recipe! And so easy to make! Even my 8 year old daughter, who is like my own (very picky) little food critic, ate more than 5 bites of it and said it was ok! That means it was delicious…I think… 😉 And I love your videos! i watch them every time I don’t know what to cook for dinner (like every day). Looking forward to new ones 🙂
Just made this. It’s GREAT! So pizza-y! I love it. I used a pound of ww fusilli, which I guess because of the shape soaked up a lot of sauce, so it’s not as saucy as yours looks. So maybe next time I’d use like 14 oz. of pasta for something. Whatever, that doesn’t matter. It’s great.
Isa recipe says 1/2 lb pasta so that would be why yours was not as creamy. Made this tonight and it was AWSOME! It was so easy and man that sauce is so orange and creamy. It’s addicting, wish I had some green veggie like broccoli to throw in with it (next time).
Eating this right now and it is AWESOME! Thank you so much Isa!
“this is fairy dust” made me cackle
you are great! i am loving your videos. thanks for taking the time to share all your knowledge! i cannot wait to make this!
IDOL. Love your new book btw <3
Isa you rock! This video was great. Can’t wait to try this Mac n cheese. Just made your scalloped potatoes with eggplant bacon. You are my hero! Keep the videos coming.
Made this for dinner – really yummy. I couldn’t find my nutritional yeast so that was left out. It tasted like a creamy pepper-tomato sauce more than cheesy. Loved it! My 11 yo daughter said “whoever made up this recipe is genius!”
OK, after drooling over the Rosemary Chocolate Chip Cookies,( my daughter and I went through several of your videos/recipes). But, I was vegan hungry for mac & cheese, this one appealed to me immediately. However, I live in Costa Rica and resources are limited. First, the recipe is great! But here are the regional adaptations I had to make: had to buy a small can of cocktail nut cashews (in another season women from Nicaragua come and sell organic marrones, (cashews). I rinsed, soaked and and boiled (for 15 minutes), remember they were salted and roasted! I was able to obtained most other ingredients: the roasted peppers, (did myself) the nutritional yeast? brought down by my daughter months ago, vegetable broth, again, bullion cubes brought from US, other items, available. Ah! I had turmeric from my move down here! So . . . have to say, I don’t think the “roasted and salted cashews” inhibited the overall quality of the recipe. I have used the raw cashews in a variety of recipes before and couldn’t tell the difference. Thank you so much. My daughter and I “share screen” your videos and then go our separate ways for cooking. Enjoy your personal humor and perspective.
Yeah!
how much water do you use to soak the cashews? thanks Isa! I am getting your cookbook for Christmas! 🙂
Just enough to cover them by an inch or so.
Isa, as with ALL your recipes I loved this one!! (and so did everyone else dining at my house tonight). I love the fennel seeds – so subtle and delish! And I freakin’ LOVE your videos. Rock on sister!
I’m munching my first(!) serving right now. This, is EXCELLENT. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Isa,
I have recently discovered your website and books and I am hooked!. I have a son who is allergic to tree nuts therefore I was curious as to what is a good vegan substitute for cashew cream? I see that you useit inseveral recipes. Is it essentially the same as a bechamel sauce? If so I think I could make a bechamel sauce using dairy free butter and coconut milk.
isa, you are a goddess.
lovvvin the vids and IDI!
I jus made this tonight and it was awesome!! I will be making it again. I didn’t have time to cook brussel sprouts which are one of our favorite veggies so I did a salad! Thank you Isa for sharing this and your videos are so helpful to me!! It’s better than Food Network which I don’t watch anymore since I went vegan!
Making this tonight!
First of all, I LOVE the videos! The snark, the food, the Kim Deal- it’s like all my favs in one place.
Second, I just made this tonight (the only alteration being that I pan fried the teeny tiny farmer’s market brussels I had instead of roasting them) for myself and my omnivorous boyfriend and we both loved it. The perfect, bright yellow, comfort-filled restorative after a crazy week.
Thanks!
Cat
hi isa!
long-time reader, first-time commenter here…
i have an emergency question for you: found out last night that my son is apparently allergic to cashews! yikes! what would you say is the next best thing for sauce base (i’m guessing something fatty, creamy, and neutral) ? sunflower or pumpkin seeds? hemp ($$$$!)?
thanks for the awesome recipes, your site is a treasure trove!
I made this yesterday and I’m currently enjoying more of it for dinner. I mixed in some spinach and sundried tomatoes. I love how creamy it is, and sans cheese it won’t upset my stomach.
I wish you’d do a whole cookbook of cashew cream sauces. I’m so glad to be living in a time when it’s widely known that we can make vegan sauces like this and they’re really foqing good!
Also, the videos you’ve been doing with Breville have been very pleasing
I just made this for lunch and my husband and I both loved it! We have tried this one, the chipotle and the squash cheese sauces…and I like the consistency of this one the best. Wonder what would happen if I added cornstarch to the others and thickened them after??? Experimento! Thanks for the delicious recipes!!!
Isa I have a question! Sorry I am just so late on this post but for this recipe and MANY others, would it be best to use/but nutritional yeast in powder form or flake form? I am not sure what would be best, I have never used it before. Also, could Wheat germ be a good substitute? Thank you!
Hello Isa, I just make the Roasted Pepper Mac and Cheese last night after looking at your video. It was delicious, I sprinkle a bunch of Buffalo Hot sauce, (Frank Red Hot) before eating it, , and it was super good. A breeze to do with my Vitamix, yeap, I am Queen of France! I did not need to soaked the cahews. Anyhow, it was so easy, and it make a nice huge quantity. Super good the day after. Way to Go, its a recipe I will keep making over and over. Oh! and the music rock and your DVD is excellent. Bon Appétit! Sylvie.
I made this last night sans the pizza seasoning. I replaced it with sriracha sauce. YUM!
Isa, my daughter and I love your recipes! We have a lot to do…any reason why we can’t make the sauce tomorrow (Sun.) through the blending stage and then refrigerate until Thurs. am…then cook and mix with macaroni? We’re making the Seitan roast with leeks and mushrooms too and many other vegan and non vegan things and trying to save time.
Absolutely amazing recipe! So easy and delicious. I recommend going ahead with the entire 1lb package of pasta and doubling the recipe, because you’re going to wish you did!
I used a food processor, instead of a blender (just threw my blender out). The sauce was still very grainy, BUT, it was delicious. My vegetarian, cheese loving husband said he would definitely eat it if the sauce was smooth, which says a lot since he is addicted to the boxed mac and cheese bullshit. When I get a blender, going to make this a regular meal in my house. I still ate it, grainy and all. So yummy!! Thanks again, Isa.
I made this and it came out amazing! I am very skeptical of vegan macaroni and cheese, but this was great. I’ve been making your recipes for a few years and should’ve known better not to be weary about making your mac & cheese recipe! 😉
Isa! What would you think of substituting the Pizza Seasoning with Taco Seasoning for our Mexican Christmas Feast?
I love sharing home-cooked vegan meals with family, but I have no intention of giving these leftovers away. Simply divine, scrape-the-pot-clean-with-a-spoon creamy goodness!