Creamy Baked Macaroni and Cheese

[celene]

Best recipe ever!!  I made this for a potluck at work, and no one could tell it was vegan!!  Even my apprehensive boss loved it.  Then I made it for Thanksgiving, and everyone there loved it (we made it for my boyfriend's family in "meat & potato country").  It's our new favorite dish and it's so easy and quick to make, I make it every chance I get.  I love it.  Finally a BAKED macaroni and cheese dish that's creamy and tastes like the real thing!!

[Nate Moore]

This recipe is fantastic. I was hesitant to make anything with fake cheese, and this turned out great. I used follow your heart cheese, and I added more than the recipe said to.

Thanks for this!

[garnet66]

I was also hesatant about using fake cheese. I really didn't think it would taste like real mac and cheese and I was pleasantly surprised. It's pretty darned close. I LOVED the bread crumbs on top. The only thing I'd change is add more "cheese" next time.

[kaya_faerie]

  I don't know where I went wrong but this didn't work out at all. 1/2 c of flour seemed like an aweful lot. I added it very slowly smoothing it out each time but by the time i added the last bit it was almost solid. So I dumped the soymilk in right away and stirred it smooth but it never came to a boil and thickened up so i put the vegan cheddar in ( shredded from a block of casien free vegan cheddar) and stirred but it never melted or blended at all. At this point I was sure the rest was pointless but kept going. Needless to say the casserole was dry and didn't even remotely resemble mac and cheese. Maybe it's my ancient electric stove top, maybe it's the wrong brand of cheese, honestly I don't see how that much flour could work? Help, anyone? I so miss mac and cheese. I would actually prefer not to use fake cheese. Trying to cut down on packaging use without giving up too many comfort foods. Am I crazy, is it impossible?

[megmeg]

kaya_faerie -- did you try whisking the flour, et all together? I too had to add a little extra soy milk as it got pretty dry but in the end it turned out beautifully.

Kudos to this recipe! It was really good -- the only thing I'll do next time is add a bit more soy cheese (I used cheddar jalapeño which was mighty tasty).

[CorinnaJeter]

This was delicious. I halved the recipe (only two of us). I had to add a little bit more soymilk. I also made some frizzled onions to top off the dish. Thanks so much!!

[nessa23]

I had to add almost another cup of soy milk because the mixture was so thick. I think it should have less flour. Even though I added another cup of milk it still came out really thick. It tasted okay but the sauce was just way too thick for my liking. Everyone else agreed with me. I don't think I'll be making this again.

[Jahmoon]

 
I Love this recipe so much.
I've been making this over the past 3 years for July 4th and Thanksgiving and random times in between and I've never heard a complaint. 

[VeganChristine]

I didn't have any issues with the sauce getting overly thick with the 1/2 cup of flour, but despite doubling the vegan cheddar cheese, it had a very strong flour-y taste, even the next day. 

[LeprechaunGirl]

I loved it. Its super cheesy and delghtful. I added a little more soymilk when i was stirring the cheese in because it seemed too thick. Mmmm so good. Thanks for the recipe

[uhblondie]

I don't know where I went wrong but this didn't work out at all. 1/2 c of flour seemed like an aweful lot. I added it very slowly smoothing it out each time but by the time i added the last bit it was almost solid. So I dumped the soymilk in right away and stirred it smooth but it never came to a boil and thickened up so i put the vegan cheddar in ( shredded from a block of casien free vegan cheddar) and stirred but it never melted or blended at all. At this point I was sure the rest was pointless but kept going. Needless to say the casserole was dry and didn't even remotely resemble mac and cheese. Maybe it's my ancient electric stove top, maybe it's the wrong brand of cheese, honestly I don't see how that much flour could work? Help, anyone? I so miss mac and cheese. I would actually prefer not to use fake cheese. Trying to cut down on packaging use without giving up too many comfort foods. Am I crazy, is it impossible?

I know this is a bit late, but what brand of vegan cheese did you use? Some brands just don't melt. Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet melts the best, in my opinion. You can also make mac'n'cheese without fake cheese by making a nutritional yeast "cheese" sauce. There are lots of recipes like that on VegWeb, with which I have had varying success. Hope that helps a little! :-)

[mechacaro]

This is the best vegan mac'n'cheese recipe!

I'd never used vegan cheese before, so I thought this would be a good start. I used the Follow Your Heart vegan gourmet cheedar style. I've made it twice already...

I don't think the flavor is as strong as dairy cheese (that I can remember, anyway), but it tastes like cheese and not mac and yeast. It definitely hits the spot when you are craving some mac and cheese comfort action!
My omni mate liked it a lot, too! ("much better" than mac and yeast)

My recipe amendments: I had to add more soy milk, the flour mix got too thick too quickly on me. I also added a lot of black pepper (I've always added that to mac and cheese, though). My bread crumbs are mixed with some melted margarine and a bit of garlic salt. The second time around, I used less pasta because I wanted it more saucy. I also added broccoli.

[baypuppy]

i didn't make this but i wanted to offer some suggestions for those who had problems with the flour/oil or flour taste.

if i made this, i would mix the oil and flour in the pot and then slowly cook it. the idea here is to "cook" the flour in the fat, which will remove the flour taste. i don't think you need to add the flour to hot oil for this to work and it is always easier to mix cold things together when you want to prevent lumps and other disasters. i do this when i make flour based gravy all the time and it always smooths out and doesn't have the flour taste.

i also recommend getting a "gravy wisk". they look like a "C" of coils that can lay flat on the bottom of the pan. i got mine at ikea but any fancy store will have them. it makes any task like this (where you need to mix hot stuff in a pot) so much easier. i actually use my gravy wisk more than more than my "regular" one because it is so much better at getting things off the bottom of the pan/pot than the balloon style ones.

[annabowman]

I just made this the second time and it is unbelievably delicious. I added a bit of mustard and some onion flakes to bring out the taste, but it was just as good without them.