It’s finally time – BAKED VEGAN MAC AND CHEESE!!!
Can you handle this excitement? Well, you know what they say: if you can’t handle the heat, get out of the kitchen!
Hopefully you can handle a little heat today because this recipe is serious gold and you all need to get it in your lives super lightning fast like. K, thanks!
Seriously though, guys – this recipe is my all time favourite vegan, gluten-free recipe. And can we say hello comfort food? Yup, this vegan mac and cheese is my go to for those days when I need a pick me up. Sort of a hug in a food bowl – you know what I mean? Mmmmmm baked vegan mac and cheese…you always know how to make everything better!
Whenever I make this incredibly cheesy vegan mac and cheese, I always double the recipe, without hesitation. Being my all time favourite recipe on the entire planet, I always make sure that I eat my fair share of this – right Jill? For those of you who may not have had the pleasure of meeting my dear friend Jill, she’s my best bestie and can easily vouch for the pure geniusness of this baked vegan mac and cheese recipe. Plus, I love to toss her name into my posts from time to time to see if she’s living up to her best bestie status and keeping up with the blog. So Jill: this recipe is dedicated to your awesomeness. And your love for all things vegan cheese 🙂
You see folks, my dear, dear bestie has problems with dairy, so this baked vegan mac and cheese recipe is also her favourite thing on the whole planet (see why we’re besties? We’re practically food twins). Every time I tell her I’m making a batch of this vegan goodness, she pretty much begs me to bring her some. It’s lunchtime gold. I actually imagine this recipe to be the twinkies of the lunch table in grade school – the ultimate lunch time tradesies accomplishment. Oh, baby.
The best part about this baked vegan mac and cheese recipe is that is makes use of that awesome vegan nacho cheese sauce recipe that I shared with you last week. Not only is that cheese sauce delicious on it’s own, it’s even better when paired with the goodness of gluten-free macoroni and baked into a ooey-gooey-creamy mess of baked vegan mac and cheese. Oh my gosh, this post is making me sooooo hungry!
You’re going to love this recipe so much, it’s:
Creamy
Gooey
Warm
Melt-in-your-mouth
Crunchy
The best comfort food ever
Yep, I went there. I hereby declare that this baked vegan mac and cheese is the best comfort food ever. Like, EVER ever!
So come on, everyone – what are you waiting for? You should already be finishing this post from your kitchen cause you’ve got some serious cooking, err, baking to do! You’re gonna love this baked vegan mac and cheese so, so, so, so SOOOOOOOO much! Pinky swear and bet my lunch on it!
And remember – post your pictures of any recipes you make from here to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Google+ and tag them with #glutenfreeveganpantry!
- 1 454g package of gluten-free pasta
- 2 cups vegan nacho cheese sauce
- 1 cup rice bread crumbs
- ¼ cup vegan margarine, melted
- 1 tsp paprika
- Cook pasta according to package instructions until al-dente firmness is achieved.
- Preheat oven to 375F
- In a 9 x 9 baking dish, combine pasta and cheese sauce until pasta is thoroughly coated. If you wish for your mac and cheese to be ultra cheesy, increase the total amount of cheese sauce to 3 cups.
- In a small bowl, combine rice bread crumbs and melted margarine. Stir until bread crumbs are moist and crumbly. Top mac and cheese with breadcrumb mixture, ensuring the entire top of the dish is evenly coated. Sprinkle with paprika.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes, until bread crumb coating is lightly browned.
Savanna is the photographer, food stylist, head taste-tester and she-brains behind Gluten Free Vegan Pantry. 
This is a dumb question…
Do you precook the pasta before putting it in the dish?
Hi Katelynn! Yes, precook the pasta 🙂
I’m starting to think vegan cheese just not my thing. I made this dish with chickpea pasta so maybe that altered the taste?
What are rice bread crumbs?
Can the margarine be left out?
They are a gluten-free alternative to bread crumbs. They just happened to be the ones on hand, you could use whichever gluten free bread crumbs you prefer. If you leave the margarine out, it won’t really form a crusty, crispy coating. You could just forego the topping though if you’d like.
Will the queso sauce freeze well? I have extra since I made a small mac.
If memory serves me well, I believe I have frozen my leftover cheese sauce from this recipe and it was just fine.
Made this tonight and you’re right I should have doubled it darn it! This was excellent. My omni husband who is a huge baked mac and cheese fan really really liked it.
Yay! I’m so glad you and your husband both loved it!!
Do you have info on nutritional content?
Thanks
Pat
Hi Patricia,
Thanks for catching that the nutritional info was missing. I’ve gone ahead and updated it. Per serving, it’s about 386 calories. Enjoy!
Savanna
This looks good, but is vegan nacho cheese sauce actually healthy or just another vegan processed food.
Hi Cheryl,
The vegan nacho cheese sauce is actually a homemade version that is made from vegetables. It’s delicious and super easy to make. There’s a direct link to that recipe within the recipe for the baked vegan mac and cheese recipe. Let me know if you have any other questions about the vegan nacho cheese recipe. I hope you enjoy it!
Savanna
The crispy topping on your mac and cheese looks so delicious!
Thanks, Christine! It’s one of my favourite parts about this dish!
total comfort food – I love this!
Ditto!
The pin title says Raw, you may want to change that! Otherwise this looks incredible!
Thanks for catching that editing error, Deanna. I pulled all the pins I posted with raw in the title. Hopefully they weren’t repinned too much!
Wow! This looks so interesting….I just have to try it. Your photos are gorgeous, too! Pinned, Yummed and Stumbled!