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This super healthy yet satisfying and craveable ‘mac & cheese’ recipe mimics the flavor of the classic dish with a superbly easy, 5-ingredient vegan cheese sauce made out of sweet potatoes. Served over zucchini noodles (zoodles), this gluten free, flavor packed and veggie-filled dish is also low carb, oil-free and comes together in 30 minutes. You won’t believe it’s cheese-less!
Mac & cheese lovers, raise your hands! ?? (That’s both of my hands. If I had more, they’d be raised too!)
Macaroni & cheese was probably my favorite food growing up. Whether from the box, from scratch or those super decadent homestyle versions out at restaurants, mac & cheese was totally my jam. To this day, I love it – but I’ve pretty much said goodbye to ever eating it out at a restaurant or even from a box now with my triple whammy of being gluten free, vegan and healthy eating focused.
The good news is that I’ve had some pretty tasty homemade mac & cheese over the last few years since going vegan, but the recipes often seem to call for a good number of ingredients and be time consuming.
Well my friends, that’s all changed with this Healthy ‘Mac & Cheese’ recipe with a seriously simple 5-Ingredient Vegan Cheese Sauce, served with spiralized zucchini noodles!! This ranks up there for one of the easiest recipes on the blog, and a go-to you can come back to again and again when you’re craving something warm and creamy, need an easy meal or want to show your friends (or yourself!) how simple and delicious vegan and gluten free eating can be.
Of course, you can use any type of gluten free macaroni or pasta here – I opted for zoodles to keep it light and low-carb, but it would obviously mimic real mac & cheese even better over real pasta.
RELATED: Spicy Bean Balls with Zucchini Pasta
LET’S TALK ABOUT THIS VEGAN CHEESE SAUCE!
A 5-ingredient, real food vegan cheese sauce – yes, it’s totally legit and delish. How can it be only 5 ingredients, you ask?
A key part is using the new McCormick Garlic, Onion, Black Pepper & Sea Salt All Purpose Seasoning that just hit shelves at Walmart. With no filler or preservatives, this clean blend makes cooking a breeze. Literally just one seasoning shaker, and you’re done. No getting frustrated and rifling through your spice cabinet tonight!
I really appreciate the simple and balanced ingredients in this All-Purpose Seasoning Blend – just sea salt, garlic, mustard bran, onion, black pepper, lemon peel, chili pepper, oregano and parsley. This one is perfect for mac & cheese, as in the past I’ve always had to use salt, pepper, garlic, dried mustard, onion and some kind of chili and Italian seasoning all SEPARATELY (that’s 7 different bottles)!
RELATED: Quick & Easy Cashew Basil Cheese & Vegan ‘Parmesan Cheese’
The new McCormick All-Purpose Seasoning Blends are a “secret weapon” that takes the guesswork out of flavor. These seasoning blends are versatile and crafted with transparent ingredients and can be found in the spice aisle at Walmart. In total McCormick now has 5 All-Purpose Blends to choose from:
- Basil, Oregano, Garlic & Sea Salt All Purpose Seasoning
- Crushed Red Pepper, Oregano & Garlic All Purpose Seasoning
- Garlic, Herb, Black Pepper & Sea Salt All Purpose Seasoning
- Garlic, Onion, Black Pepper & Sea Salt All Purpose Seasoning –> Used in this recipe
- Himalayan Pink Salt, Black Pepper & Garlic All Purpose Seasoning –> I also tried this one and it too was delicious and could also be used in this vegan cheese sauce
If you don’t like cooking, then this easy recipe is for you! This may even inspire a love of home cooking when you discover just how easy it is – wait and see. 🙂
In fact, you don’t even need a recipe with these All-Purpose Blends in your kitchen. Leave bland behind and achieve bold flavor with just a few shakes of a bottle. They’re especially great for those nights you’re winging-it in the kitchen (read: most nights for me)!
Preparing this healthy mac & cheese requires only 3 steps:
- Boil chopped sweet potatoes
- Combine vegan cheese sauce ingredients in a blender
- Spiralize zucchini and toss in the sauce back on the stove to warm
Presto! Does it get any easier!?
I hope you love this recipe and these McCormick All-Purpose Seasoning Blends as much as I do!
Leave a comment below letting me know – are you a fellow mac & cheese lover? What are your favorite comfort foods?
Sarah Newman, Vegan Chickpea
serves 2 people
This super healthy yet satisfying and craveable ‘mac & cheese’ recipe mimics the flavor of the classic dish with a superbly easy, 5-ingredient vegan cheese sauce made out of sweet potatoes. Served over zucchini noodles (zoodles), this gluten free, flavor packed and veggie-filled dish is also low carb, oil-free and comes together in 30 minutes. You won’t believe it’s cheese-less!
10 minPrep Time
20 minCook Time
30 minTotal Time
Save RecipeIngredients
- 2 cups peeled and diced sweet potato (about 1 medium to large potato)
- 1/2 cup almond milk or any unsweetened plant milk
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
- 2 tsp McCormick Garlic, Onion, Black Pepper & Sea Salt All Purpose Seasoning
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
- 3 Tbsp water
- 2 medium zucchini, spiralized
Instructions
- Boil the sweet potatoes until soft, about 15 minutes.
- Combine the sweet potatoes in a blender with the rest of the cheese sauce ingredients, and blend until well mixed.
- Pour sauce back into the pot and add the zucchini noodles. Heat over medium heat until warmed. Add extra seasoning, salt and/or pepper to taste (I added a few more pinches each of McCormick, salt and pepper.)
Notes
This recipe easily doubles, triples, quadruples, etc.
Instead of zucchini noodles, try gluten free macaroni or other pasta for a true mac & cheese craving!
Adapted from Simple Vegan Blog
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