Dairy Free, Gluten Free Vegan Macaroni Cheese

One of my favourite comfort foods is macaroni cheese & making a vegan version of this classic meal was much easier than I expected.

In my first few weeks of going vegan, I survived (only just barely) on smoothies, fruit juices, veggie drinks, soups & salads. However, I am getting quite good in compiling vegan versions of my favourite meals.

One good example is pancakes. I love pancakes & Shrove Tuesday (aka Pancake day) presented me with the opportunity & challenge of making a vegan (egg-free) pancake. As it happens, it turned out quite good and was much tastier than I expected! You can see the pancakes I made here.

Last night, we had macaroni cheese for dinner. Macaroni cheese is a fairly simple meal consisting of pasta, white sauce & cheese. The white sauce presented a little bit of a challenge as white sauce generally consists of butter, flour, & milk…..all three ingredients which are a problem for me as

I am gluten intolerant, so I can’t have flour
I am vegan & diary intolerant so I can’t have milk
I am vegan & can’t have butter

So here are the substitutes I used for this meal:

Gluten-free flour in place of the flour
Soy milk in place of diary milk
Olive Spread in place of butter.

Here are the ingredients I used. Obviously, this recipe can be adapted for non-vegans simply by using non-vegan choices:

1 cup of pasta – my choice was fusilli
About a cup of soy milk; non-vegans can use regular milk
Two tablespoons of Olive Oil Spread; non-vegans can use regular butter
Two tablespoons of gluten free flour; others can use regular flour
One tablespoon freshly chopped parsley – you can use dried parsley instead
One teaspoon of dried red chilli flakes
Half a teaspoon of freshly chopped garlic – optional
Half a teaspoon of mustard powder – optional

I cooked the pasta till al dente or just done. The pasta will continue to cook in the oven, so I did not cook it completely. As a guide, follow the directions for the cooking time that is listed on the pack and minus about 2 minutes.

The pasta was then drained and set aside.

Next, I made my white sauce. In a saucepan, I heated up the olive spread and then added the flour, stirring and cooking for about 2 minutes. Then I poured in the milk, stirring constantly. You need to keep stirring to avoid lumps. A good tip is to use a whisk to stir the sauce. When it is thickened, I added the chilli flakes, garlic, mustard powder and parsley, stirring as I did so.

At this point, non-vegans, can add 1-2 cups of grated cheddar cheese. This is what I did for my husband’s version. Yeah, I had two saucepans going on the cooker – lol!!

Finally, stir the pasta (gently) into the sauce and pour into greased baking pans.

Non-vegans can sprinkle some grated parmesan on top of the macaroni cheese, if they wish.

Bake in a heated oven for about 30 minutes and then add another 10 minutes to get a nice crispy brown top layer.

I enjoyed this macaroni cheese with a light tomato salad.

It was so tasty, I almost finished the entire contents of the pan in one meal!

So far this vegan journey is yummy on my taste buds & yummy on my tummy!!

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3 thoughts on “Dairy Free, Gluten Free Vegan Macaroni Cheese”

TeaJae

February 25, 2012 at 8:24 pm

that looks really amazing paige, i will have to try this. I’m not vegan but I’m gonna do that version. I bet no one would even know this isn’t traditional mac and cheese, look how it bakes up, girl

- Paige-Ellean
  
  March 1, 2012 at 2:13 pm
  
  Thank you, darling!
  
Clarissa Mitzie

March 6, 2012 at 4:29 pm

omg!! it looks so good….even without cheese!