23 Vegan Mac and Cheese Recipes You Must Try

Taste buds evolve as we age and palates become more refined with experience, but there’s nothing like aging than mac and cheese. Sure, chefs have improved the childhood classic by adding truffle oil or crispy vegan bacon, but the fact that this comforting pasta dish can go high or low speaks to its universal appeal.

How to Make Vegan Mac and Cheese

Traditional macaroni and cheese relies heavily on dairy. In addition to cheese, most macaroni and cheese recipes call for cow’s milk and butter. Luckily, with just a few simple swaps, making plant-based mac and cheese is nothing short of easy and delicious.

Instead of animal-based dairy, a variety of plant-based foods help recreate the classic creamy taste of this dish. Store-bought vegan butter and plant-based cheese crumbles are easy to use when veganizing macaroni and cheese.

Home cooks who choose to make this dish from scratch often rely on a mixture of cashews, potatoes, squash, carrots, plant milk, vegetable stock, and/or nutritional yeast to create the perfect cheesy sauce.

Vegan Macaroni and Cheese Recipe

Whether you crave stovetop or casserole-style, elbow or rotini-shaped, these 23 vegan mac and cheese recipes are all you need right now.

Basic, perfect

Spirit of the Sweet Potato

1 Nut-Free Vegan Mac and Cheese by Sweet Potato Soul

If you search for vegan mac and cheese recipes, you’ll find that most contain nuts. This great recipe is perfect for those who suffer from the unfortunate nut allergy.
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Rachel Carr

2 Gluten-Free Mac-N-Cheese by Rachel Carr

Even if you’re not gluten-free, this recipe deserves a shot. The secret is the super velvety cashew-based cheese sauce. Whip it up on the stove and you’ll go from thirsty to comfortable in 45 minutes.
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Kylie and Ashley Nice

3 Real Deal Vegan Mac and Cheese by Kylie and Ashley Nice

When you start with an exceptional vegan cheese, your meal is going to be an A plus. This recipe combines Miyoko’s mozzarella with the subtle flavors of white miso, coconut milk, yellow mustard, and hot sauce for a truly complex and satisfying pasta dish.
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Jessica in the kitchen

4
Vegan Baked Pumpkin Mac and Cheese by Jessica in the Kitchen

Not only is this a fantastic recipe, it only requires one pot, just like the boxed version. For some reason, squashes, like pumpkins, work very well in vegan cheese sauces. No more PSL season, but let’s see it tonight.
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Vegan Rhino

5Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese by The Vegan Rhino

If you don’t have rotini pasta on hand, you’ll want to buy a box for this recipe. The spiral shape of this noodle clings to the sauce allowing each bite to burst with cheesy goodness. Be sure to pay attention to the chef’s tips below for a quick vegan sage butter sauce recipe on top of your pasta.
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6 Mac and Cheese by Tabitha Brown

Tabitha Brown has mastered vegan macaroni and cheese, and now, she’s sharing her next level of mac secrets, and it’s all in the sauce. The actress and social media sensation starts with potatoes, nutritional yeast, cashews and slices of vegan cheese. Butternut squash helps it achieve Classic Mac’s signature, radiant glow. Check out the full recipe on TikTok.
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Fusion Mac

Robin Robertson

7 Creamy Vegan Thai Mac by Robin Robertson

If you love curry, you’ll love this cheesy pasta mashup. The smooth coconut milk-based sauce is flavored with Thai red curry paste and topped with roasted peanuts, cilantro and Thai basil. It’s unexpected, but delicious all the same.
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8Plant-Based Baked Potato Mac and Cheese on a Budget

This meal is the definition of carb-on-carb-on-carb. The recipe calls for mixing mashed potatoes with sauce-filled pasta and topping with breadcrumbs. How does it taste? Like the love child of cheesy potatoes and baked mac and cheese.
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Nut-free vegan

9
The Nut-Free Vegan’s Philly Cheesesteak Mac ‘n’ Cheese

No shade thrown at an actual Philly cheesesteak, but this pasta serving might be better than its music. It comes together quickly for store-bought vegan cheeses and meats, so all you do is dump, stir and bake. It really helps to lift spirits after a stressful workday.
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Vegan Yak Attack

10American Buffalo Chickpea Mac n’ Cheese by Vegan Yak Attack

There are a lot of ingredients going into this dish, but the end result is worth it. The flavor combination is like a mashup of vegan buffalo wings and mac and cheese. Gooey, cheesy pasta sits on a bed of crisp romaine then topped with crispy, buffalo sauce-busted chickpeas and vegan ranch drizzle. This isn’t a symphony of flavors and textures—it’s a rock concert.
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Vegan Richa

11Masala Mac and Cheese with Indian Spices by Vegan Richa

You may not have all these spices on hand, but they are worth the investment. Vegan Richer Indian recipes are amazing, and after having success with this fusion dish, you’ll want to try them all.
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Korean vegan

12Kimchi Mac and Cheese from The Korean Vegan

Basic mac and cheese might not do it for self-proclaimed “heat seekers,” but that’s where this recipe comes in. Not only is the cashew and potato-based sauce infused with kimchi juice, but it’s also flavored with jalapeño, gochujang. , Korean chili powder, and chipotle chili. Gochujang is a spicy casserole topped with sesame oil-coated breadcrumbs and caramelized kimchi. Spicy enough for you?
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Bianca Zapatka

13Bianca Zapatka’s German Cheese Spaetzle

We love a good elbow macaroni, but spaetzle takes basic mac and cheese into a whole new world of wonder. Spaetzle is similar to dumplings in consistency, meaning they are soft and tender but retain a delicious chew. Drizzled with vegan cheese sauce and topped with caramelized onions and mushrooms, we swear a vegan angel gets her wings.
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Kid-friendly vegan mac

Healthy steps

14Instant Pot Vegan Chili Mac and Cheese in Healthy Steps

What’s easier than a one-pot recipe? An instant pot recipe. For those who grew up with Chili Mac, there’s no need to mourn its loss after going vegan. This recipe nails it.
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Make it dairy free

15Vegan Fried Mac and Cheese Balls by Make It Dairy Free

What do you do on the rare occasion you have leftover mac and cheese? You deep fry it and serve it with collard greens. These slightly spicy golden nuggets are very crispy on the outside but incredibly creamy on the inside. Level up thus level up.
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hot for food

16Mac and peas by heating for meals

Kids love a play-on-word that explains why they want to eat their vegetables when parents call it “mac and peas” or “mac and tree.” Well, it could be pasta and vegan cheese sauce. Regardless, this cheesy dish is a great way to serve up veggies on any veg-hater’s diet.
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Veggiekins

1710-Minute High-Protein Mac and Cheese by Veggiekins

Free of nuts, oils, gluten, dairy, and sugar, it’s the healthiest mac and cheese you can hope for. Protein comes from silken tofu and chickpea-based pasta, and the sauce gets its savory flavor from a combination of nutritional yeast, garlic powder, white miso, and other umami spices. Despite what it lacks, this healthy mac is spot-on when it comes to taste and texture.
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18 Box hack

Homemade mac and cheese is great, but let’s not forget it’s also the ultimate convenience food. You don’t need many ingredients or 45 minutes to enjoy this humble comfort, you just need a box and enough culinary skills to boil water. For your favorite vegan boxed mac and cheese (see our official guide), toss a few broccoli florets into the water while the pasta is cooking. For frozen vegetables, add them to the cheese sauce to prevent overcooking. Top with store-bought vegan bacon such as pigout. Finish with a drizzle of truffle oil if you’re feeling fancy.

19BBQ Jackfruit Mac and Cheese by BOSH!

For a meatier mac, check out this quick recipe. After all, when you’re at a barbecue, why have your Mac on the sidelines when it can be the star?
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Date Night Mac

The Sasquatch Book

20Mac and cheese from Plum Bistro in Makini Havel

Taken from its pages Plum: Satisfying vegan dishes from Seattle’s Plum Bistro, this recipe defines white tablecloth mac and cheese. A luxuriously thick, thyme-infused cheese sauce flows over baked elbow macaroni and is finished with toasty breadcrumbs and smoked tofu. Plum’s Vegan Mac is definitely date night worthy.
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Alex Sheetsman

21Vegan Cashew Mac and Cheese with Lobster Mushrooms by Lisa Dawn Angarum

The old rule of separating cheese and seafood doesn’t apply when it’s vegan! Cheesy, roasted garlic sauce pairs with chewy lobster mushrooms for a refined dish you won’t get from a box.
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Lauren Hartman and Julie Grace

22Vegan Baked White Mac and Cheese by Lauren Hartman

There’s one in every crowd – some people just love vegan white cheddar. This breadcrumb and toasted pecan-topped white mac and cheese is just for you.
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Rabbit and wolf

23Truffled White Vegan Macaroni and Cheese by Rabbit and Wolf

Really want to impress someone? Invest in a bottle of quality truffle oil. This recipe is fairly straightforward and the ingredient list is intentionally kept short so that this tempting ingredient can shine. Just be aware: once you’ve acquired a taste for truffles, it’s hard to go back to the original.
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