To make vegan cheese at home is easier than it seems, there are so many different recipes you can do and is always delicious. I’ve shared with you some recipes, but my favorite is this vegan cheese which is made with potatoes. When you eat it, you can’t believe it’s not a real cheese.
The recipe I wanna share with you in this post is also amazing, but is oil-free, that’s why I prefer the other recipe, because it tastes better, although this cheese is lighter and also healthier. You need to give this fat free vegan mac and cheese a try, even if you don’t like cauliflower because you can’t notice its flavor.
I also use this cheese to make other recipes or even like a dip. It’s the better cheese you can eat if you’re on a diet because is fat-free. I’ve added some turmeric powder to get the beautiful color you can see in the pictures. Feel free to remove the turmeric if you don’t like it.
I was cheeseaholic, I ate cheese every single day, it was my favorite food in the whole world. It was hard to quit eating cheese, so if I could, you can!!! Since I’m vegan, I’m happier and healthier than ever, it was the best decision I’ve ever made. There are hundreds of recipes you can make and many vegan cheeses you can buy, especially if you live in a country with many vegans (here in Spain sometimes is not easy to find vegan food).
If you can’t find nutritional or brewer’s yeast, you can use regular or gluten-free beer instead the water to get the cheesy taste.
If your blender isn’t as powerful as mine, maybe the sauce will be lumpy, if it happens, don’t worry, just add more water (or beer) and blend again. Add other spices or herbs if you want, I add cayenne powder sometimes.
I usually add some vegan Parmesan cheese on top, but it’s not fat-free because is made with cashews. Besides, you can add some oil (instead of water) to make this delicious vegan mac and cheese creamier and tastier, it’s totally up to you.
Fat Free Vegan Mac and Cheese
- Prep: 5 mins
- Cook: 15 mins
- Total: 20 mins
- 4 1x
- Main dish
- Vegan, Italian
Servings 4 1x
If you’re on a diet, you should give this fat free vegan mac and cheese recipe a try. It’s light and tastes amazing. The cheese is made with cauliflower.
Ingredients
- 8.5 oz gluten free pasta (240 g)
- 2 ½ cups chopped cauliflower (450 g)
- ½ cup water (125 ml)
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp onion powder
- ¼ cup nutritional or brewer’s yeast (16 g)
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp soy sauce or tamari
- ¼ tsp turmeric powder
Instructions
- Cook the pasta according to package directions.
- Cook the cauliflower for about 10 or 15 minutes or until is soft. You can steam or boil it.
- Blend the cauliflower and the rest of the ingredients in a blender until smooth. Add some salt if you want.
- Drain the pasta and pour it into the pan with the sauce. Stir and serve.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/4 of the recipe
- Calories: 270
- Sugar: 3.6g
- Sodium: 474mg
- Fat: 2g
- Saturated Fat: 0.6g
- Carbohydrates: 51.8g
- Fiber: 8.2g
- Protein: 11.6g
I found this a couple months back, but only just got around to trying. I like my vegan mac & cheese to be gooey-melty, so I added a tapioca slurry and a pinch of xantham gum, a natural, fermented sugar bacteria that adds thickness. I don’t like garlic so I used cumin instead. (I put cumin in everything-it’s amazing!). I love Pete’s hot sauce too, so mixed that in once everything was incorporated. Topped with pan-browned bread crumbs. It was a hit. Thank you for the inspiration!
I modified this recipe by adding two tablespoons of Dijon mustard. I also added a little bit of sea salt. I then browned some panko with a little vegan butter in a frying pan and covered the top of the Mac and cheese (that added a little extra fat, but not much). I then baked it at 400° for 30 minutes. It made the 4-star a 5-star!
★★★★
Hi Maureen! Sounds amazing 🙂
This was super good! Even my non-vegan dad liked it. It had a similar savory taste but sadly didn’t live my cheesy dreams. But add a little salt and more nutritional yeast on top makes it ten times better. Overall a great recipe to incorporate vegetables while maintaining good taste. Thank you!
Hi Catherine! So glad you guys liked it 🙂 You’re so welcome!
Hi! Love this article and trying to “Pin it” using the hover button on your photos. However, I get an error message from Pinterest saying that your site doesn’t allow pins?? Just a heads up for you b/c this is definitely one to pin!!
Hi Diane! Thank you so much for your comment, but I’ve just tried to pin a picture with two different laptops and it worked. Sorry for the inconvenience!
Made this last night. My omnivore dad, my vegetarian husband, and my vegan kid all had seconds! I am a gluten-free vegan with a sensitivity to nightshades so I was thrilled to find a recipe that didn’t use potatoes for the cheese sauce. It was delicious! Thank you for sharing this.
★★★★★
Hi Ann! I’m so happy to hear that 😀 You can add some oil to make the sauce even creamier, if you want 🙂
Thanks, I’ll try that. I will definitely make this again!
You’re welcome! Have a nice day 😉
Hello
I am a big fan of your blog and have been using your recipes from the moment I started cooking! I have decided to prepare a vegan mac and cheese inspired by your blog for a community healthy dinner at my university and was wondering if I could use your photo for advertisement of this event! This photo will only be printed off on posters around campus and shared to my university’s faculty page.
Thanks
Lily Ren
★★★★★
Hi Lily! Thanks a lot, we’re happy to help 🙂 It’s a great idea, but could you link back to our page? Something like: Photo by simpleveganblog.com Have a nice day!
I’ve tried a lot of different vegan cheese sauce recipes and I really haven’t found one I absolutely love…this one was not necessarily comparable to regular Mac and cheese, in my opinion, but had such a unique flavor. I really like it. Was easy to make too! I didn’t feel so left out as the rest of the family ate Mac and cheese because I had this yummy creation! Thank you. 🙂 I look forward to checking out your website 🙂
Lauren
http://WWW.TheZenFashionista.com
Hi Lauren! Thanks a lot! You should try this cheese: http://simpleveganblog.com/vegan-cheese/ It’s my favorite one! 😀
My partner and I are bodybuilders and we recently discovered the magic of nutritional yeast! I was wondering though, how strong is the onion/garlic flavor with these measurements? I am still new to cooking savory dishes (I mostly do sweets) so am still a beginner in this field!
Hi! I’m Spanish, so I love how garlic and onion taste, but maybe this recipe can have a strong flavor for you. You can add less, taste the cheese and add more if necessary 🙂
Just made this- thank you for providing weight measurements! It is sooooooooo good! I had it on vegetables and leftovers and- this sauce saved the day! Thank you for an awesome recipe =D
★★★★★
Hi Emma! I’m glad you liked the sauce! Thank you so much for making the recipe 😀
I don’t know if it was because I was lacking the turmeric or what but all I could taste/smell was cauliflower. It sort of threw off the idea that it was ‘cheesey’. I still plan to try your other cheese recipe though so I’m not giving up on your recipies.
★★★
Hi Anj! The nutritional yeast is the ingredient that gives the cheesy flavor to this recipe, not the turmeric. You could try our other cheese recipe, everybody loves it! Have a nice day 🙂
This really works! I didnt have brewers or nutritional yeast so I used some mid strength beer. The consistency has a dragging feeling to it like a very melted cheese. I’m going to try it in a vegetarian nachos and see if anyone realises it isn’t cheese 🙂
★★★★★
Hi Jenna! I’m glad you like it! This sauce works really well with vegetarian nachos 🙂 Have a nice day!
What? “When you eat it, you can believe it’s not a real cheese.” Proofread, please.
Hi Earl! Sorry, it was a mistake, thanks a lot!
Sheesh.
I’m so happy to have found your beautiful vegan blog!! I’m not 100% vegan but love the vegan diet and am making some changes to my diet this year .. love the vegan mac and cheese! I probably do eat cheese every single day so I can’t wait to try this vegan cheese!!! love this!
Thank you so much Alice 😀 This vegan cheese sauce is amazing, but I prefer this one: http://simpleveganblog.com/vegan-cheese/ Have a nice day!
This looks great! I make a similar vegan cheese sauce but have never tried turmeric in it for a little zip! Will have to try this. You have beautiful photography on your page 🙂
Thanks a lot Micheline! Add turmeric the next time you make vegan cheese, I love it!
For a vegan & healthy mac and cheese this does look incredibly cream-y and cheesy! I have to try out your recipe!
Thanks Thalia! It’s really creamy and tastes so good 😀
Hi Iosune and Alberto – This looks delicious! We made a similar recipe using cauliflower for New Year’s Eve and love topping it with some vegetables like asparagus and peas. I’m excited to try your version, too, along with your favorite potato cheese! Does turmeric add lots of flavor or just mostly color in your opinion? I haven’t used it too often.
I was so happy to find your blog – my husband is from Sevilla and we travel very often to Andalucia but finding ingredients since going vegan has been a challenge and oftentimes frustrating. I’m excited to know that being vegan there may be more accessible than I originally thought there. Do you have any suggestions where we can look for things like nutritional yeast on our next trip in a few months?
Hi Kelly! Turmeric add both flavor and color, so if you don’t like how it tastes, don’t use it, the cheese will be delicious 🙂 Alberto is from Sevilla and although is not as easy to be vegan as in other countries/cities, it’s possible! We buy in supermarkets or vegan stores (we love Red Verde ). Nutritional yeast is not easy to find here, so we usually use brewer’s yeast, you can find it in some supermarkets like Mercadona or El Corte Inglés, you can also find tofu in both supermarkets 🙂 Do you know Happy Cow? It’s a web to find vegan places, it’s so useful when you travel: https://www.happycow.net/europe/spain/sevilla/ Have a nice day!
Thanks for the tips! I’m not familiar with Brewer’s yeast here in the US since nutritional yeast is quite prevalent- I’ll have to test it out and tell our family in Spain about it and about your Spanish site. And yes, Happy Cow is great! We have found a few gems in Sevilla but Red Verde will be new to us this trip. Gracias! Un saludo.
You’re welcome 🙂