Cheesy, creamy, and comforting – this easy, vegan mac and cheese leaves you satisfied on so many levels. A rich, oil-free vegan cheese sauce comes from roasted sweet potatoes and soaked cashews. Gluten-free chickpea noodles make this a dish everyone can love. Your family will be begging you for more!
Making an Oil-Free, Plant-Based Vegan Cheese Sauce
This recipe hinges on creating a delicious, oil-free vegan cheese sauce. While a traditional mac and cheese will use dairy cheese, I wanted this to be 100% plant-based. Therefor, I used roasted sweet potatoes as the base for my creamy sauce. Then, I added roasted cashews and nutritional yeast for extra richness and umami flavor. A dash of garlic powder adds another layer of flavor.
A few simple ingredients come together in the blender for a sweet-salty vegan cheese sauce 
Make a double-batch of this sauce and freeze extras. 
Gluten-Free Vegan Chickpea Noodle Mac and Sweet Potato Geez! – Healthy, Plant-Based, Oil-Free, Dairy-Free, Kid-Friendly Pasta Recipe from Plants-Rule
Freezer-Friendly Sauce: Perfect for Weekend Meal Prep
This sweet potato vegan cheese sauce is freezer-friendly. It’s the perfect recipe for doubling (or tripling) during weekend meal prep. If you love cheesy flavor, you can use this sauce over other plant-based dishes. Pour it over Lentil Tacos, roasted Brussels Sprouts, or Stuffed Baked Potatoes.
Chef Katie’s Plant-Based Cooking Tips:
No Chickpea Pasta? Gluten-Free Chickpea pasta is a healthy way to add extra plant-based protein to your meal. However, you can use any whole grain pasta for this recipe. Whole wheat pasta, brown rice, and lentil pasta all work well.
Quicker Microwave Version: For a quicker version of this recipe, cook the sweet potato in the microwave. Pierce it a few times with a sharp knife and place in the microwave on “potato” setting. If you don’t have this setting, cook for 90 seconds, flip over, cook another 90 seconds, flip, and repeat until the potato is knife-glide tender. A medium potato usually takes about 5-6 minutes in the microwave.
No time to Soake Cashews? If you don’t have time to soak the cashews, do a quick-soak in warm water, while the sweet potatoes roast. With a high-power blender, you may not need to pre-soak the nuts at all. Just let the blender run for a longer time (2-3 minutes) to get the smooth, creamy consistency.
Nut-Free: Swap out the cashews for firm tofu, cooked white beans, cooked chickpeas, or soaked sunflower seeds.
Other veggies: Besides peas, add any other frozen vegetables. Broccoli, cauliflower, and frozen green beans would all be delicious additions to this recipe.
Oil-Free Mission: I’m on a mission to get rid of empty calories, and oil is the most calorie-dense food. For this recipe, roasted cashews and macadamia nuts add rich, nutty flavor, while also bringing healthy fiber and key nutrients. You can substitute with other roasted nuts and seeds (Brazil nuts, almonds, sunflower seeds are my favorites).
Nutritional Yeast: Nutritional Yeast adds cheesy, umami flavor to many vegan recipes. Use it sauces, soups, stews, dressing, mashed potatoes, and stuffed sweet potatoes. Besides great flavor, it has healthy protein and essential vitamins like B-12.
Roast or microwave the sweet potato until knife-glide tender 
Creamy sweet potato puree is the base for this vegan cheese sauce 
Gluten-Free Chickpea pasta is loaded with healthy protein, fiber, and other key nutritients 
Cook the pasta “al dente” so it still has some texture 
Use the pasta water to help thicken the sauce 
Gluten-Free Vegan Chickpea Noodle Mac and Sweet Potato Geez! – Healthy, Plant-Based, Oil-Free, Dairy-Free, Kid-Friendly Pasta Recipe from Plants-Rule
Gluten-Free Vegan Mac and Sweet Potato “Geez!”
Medium | Servings: 4 | Ready In: 60 minutes | Yield: about 8 cups
Enjoy on its own, serve with Kale Avocado Salad, top with 5-Minute Vegan Cashew “Parm”, and finish the meal with 5-Minute Chocolate Banana “I-Scream!”.
Gluten-Free Vegan Mac and Sweet Potato “Geez!”
Ingredients
For the Vegan Sweet Potato “Geez!” Sauce:
- 1 medium sweet potato roasted (about 1 ½ cups or about 330g roasted potato)
- ½ cup roasted cashews soaked overnight
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 cups water use the water from boiling the pasta
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- Makes about 4 ½ cups sauce
For the Gluten-Free Chickpea Pasta and Peas:
- 4 servings chickpea pasta shells
- 1 cup frozen peas thawed
Instructions
To make the Vegan Sweet Potato “Geez!” Sauce:
- Place the sweet potato on a baking pan and roast at 375F until it is knife-glide tender. It will take about 60-75 minutes, depending on the size of your sweet potato. Remove from the oven and let cool.
- While the sweet potato cools, boil the pasta.
To Cook the Gluten-Free Chickpea Pasta:
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook just shy of what the packaging says. You want the pasta to be “al dente” (with a little bite), so cook about 2 minutes shy of done. When the pasta is ready, portion out 2 cups of the cooking water. You’ll use this for the sauce. Drain the pasta well. Return back to the pot. Finish the sweet potato sauce.
- When the sweet potato is cool enough to handle, peel off the skin. Measure 1 ½ cups of the sweet potato flesh into a blender. Drain and rinse the soaked cashews and add them to the blender. Add the remaining ingredients, along with the 2 cups of reserved pasta water. Puree until smooth, scraping down the sides of the blender as needed. Taste to adjust seasoning.
To finish the Vegan Mac and Sweet Potato “Geez!”:
- Pour the sweet potato “geez!” sauce into the pot with the pasta shells. Add the peas and stir well to combine.
- Serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition Facts
| Nutrition Facts | |
|---|---|
| Servings 4.0 | |
| Amount Per Serving | |
| calories 357 | |
| % Daily Value * | |
| Total Fat 11 g | 17 % |
| Saturated Fat 1 g | 6 % |
| Monounsaturated Fat 4 g | |
| Polyunsaturated Fat 1 g | |
| Trans Fat 0 g | |
| Cholesterol 0 mg | 0 % |
| Sodium 416 mg | 17 % |
| Potassium 282 mg | 8 % |
| Total Carbohydrate 51 g | 17 % |
| Dietary Fiber 12 g | 48 % |
| Sugars 9 g | |
| Protein 22 g | 45 % |
| Vitamin A | 245 % |
| Vitamin C | 12 % |
| Calcium | 26 % |
| Iron | 36 % |
| * The Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet, so your values may change depending on your calorie needs. The values here may not be 100% accurate because the recipes have not been professionally evaluated nor have they been evaluated by the U.S. FDA. | |
Shopping and Gear List
- Banza Chickpea Pasta – High Protein Gluten Free Healthy Pasta – Cavatappi (Pack of 6)
- Frontier Culinary Spices Garlic Granules, 2.7-Ounce Bottle
- Bragg Premium Nutritional Yeast Seasoning 4.5 Ounce
- Sincerely Nuts – Whole Cashews Roasted and Unsalted
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