The best vegan macaroni and cheese recipe I’ve yet to find is from The New Farm Cookbook, and I was pretty easily able to turn it into a gluten-free and vegan macaroni and cheese dish by using rice pasta and a gluten-free roux. You’ll be totally surprised how much it tastes like the real thing — I’ve served it to discerning mac & cheese lovers and they weren’t able to tell the difference! That’s a pretty solid endorsement.
Gluten-Free & Vegan Macaroni and Cheese Love
This casserole style dish is insanely creamy – and fattening. I’ve halved the amount of oil with no ill effects to the end result, so feel free to take it down a notch to make it a little healthier. Then again, when has mac and cheese ever been healthy?
(BTW, it’s really not this nuclear orange color – it’s just weird lighting. ;)
If you’re vegan, especially vegan AND gluten-free, when was the last time you had a creamy bowl of macaroni and cheese? I can tell you as a former vegan, and a former gluten-free person while I was trying to figure out my autoimmune health, that mac & cheese was basically non-existent for me. For years.
When I found this recipe for vegan macaroni and cheese, which I then made gluten-free, I was SUPER STOKED. Like, seriously. I could not believe my luck, because it tasted just like the mac and cheese I remembered from childhood. Hallelujah!!
Overall, this is great dish for both kids and adults, or anyone with food allergies. I will tell you that it’s best when made fresh, meaning it does not reheat super well. You’re basically making an emulsion… and emulsions don’t like to be heated quickly. If you DO try to reheat it, you’ll have to do it on a pot in the stove. Just add a tablespoon or two of water and heat over medium-low heat, stirring every 30 seconds or so. Covering the pot will help it heat up faster.
So if you’re looking for the best gluten-free and vegan macaroni and cheese recipe on the planet, guess what? You’ve just found it.
Gluten-Free & Vegan Macaroni and Cheese Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 1/2 cups rice pasta dry
- 1/2 cup margarine
- 1/2 cup gluten-free flour blend
- 3 1/2 cups boiling water
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 2 tablespoons tamari gluten free
- 1 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- Turmeric
- 1/4 cup oil
- 1 cup nutritional yeast flakes
- Paprika to taste
Instructions
- Cook rice pasta. In a saucepan, melt margarine over low heat. Beat in flour with a wire whisk and continue to beat over a medium flame until the mixture (called a roux) is smooth and bubbly. Whip in boiling water, salt; soy sauce, garlic powder, and a pinch of turmeric, beating well to dissolve the roux.
- The sauce should cook until it thickens and bubbles. Then whip in oil and nutritional yeast flakes.
- Mix part of the sauce with the noodles and put in casserole dish, and pour a generous amount of sauce on top. Sprinkle top with paprika and bake for 15 minutes in a 350°F preheated oven.