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Healthy Mac and Cheese (Vegan and Oil-Free)

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Wondering how to make healthy mac and cheese? Try this easy blended vegan macaroni and cheese recipe. It’s so delicious, but it’s also filled with vegetables and it’s oil-free!

Healthy Homemade Mac and Cheese

I don’t know about you, but mac and cheese is definitely one of my happy childhood food memories. That’s why I think it’s critical to have a healthy mac and cheese recipe up my sleeve.

This low calorie and low fat recipe lets me enjoy the macaroni experience, but also leaves me feeling energized and well afterwards.

This recipe uses hemp hearts for creaminess (no cashews!), carrots for color, and nutritional yeast for flavor. It’s completely delicious and 100% kid approved! It’s the perfect way to sneak hidden veggies into your kids diets.

Healthy vegan mac and cheese surrounded by the ingredients.

How to Serve Healthy Macaroni and Cheese

I love adding additional vegetables to this pasta. My favorites are broccoli and cauliflower florets.

If you want to serve this without pasta, you could also serve it over zoodles.

Vegan Mac and Cheese Sauce

This recipe is naturally vegan, dairy-free, and plant-based, and doesn’t need any alterations!

Gluten Free Macaroni

The only alteration you need to make to keep this recipe gluten free is to swap regular pasta for gluten free pasta. This is the healthy gluten free pasta I used for these photographs, and it was such a delicious combo!

Nut-free vegan mac and cheese on a white plate.

If you like healthy versions of vegan junk food, try my Healthy Spinach Pesto or my Cheeseless Pizza! They’re both delicious and very popular.

Cheeseless pizza on a marble board.

What You’ll Need

This is a super simple recipe, but you will need a few basic tools and pantry staples.

These are my favorite brands of the pantry ingredients you’ll need:

If you wanted to up the umami flavor in this recipe, you could also add a teaspoon of white miso paste! It’s a delicious addition.

The tools you’ll need are a small lidded pot (I love this one) and a blender. You don’t necessarily need a high speed blender for this recipe, but they do make the absolute creamiest vegan sauces. I use mine daily and love the results I get with it.

Yield: 2 cups

Healthy Mac and Cheese

Nut-free vegan mac and cheese on a white plate.

Wondering how to make healthy mac and cheese? Try this easy vegan macaroni and cheese recipe. It's so delicious, but it's also filled with vegetables and it's oil-free!

Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 6 minutes
Total Time 11 minutes

Instructions

  1. Bring a small pot of water to a boil. Boil the chopped carrots until fork tender (about 6 minutes). Drain the carrots.
  2. Combine the boiled carrots, hemp hearts, canned chickpeas or cannellini beans, nutritional yeast, garlic granules, Kosher salt, and water in a blender. Blend until completely smooth.
  3. Toss over cooked macaroni noodles and serve warm.

Notes

I prefer this with cannellini beans because they have a much more neutral flavor. It will work with either cannellini beans or chickpeas though.

I love keeping this dish extra healthy by serving it with grain-free gluten free pasta. This is my favorite brand, and I highly recommend it for this recipe!

If you don't have a high speed blender, I'd recommend using a food processor. If you don't have a food processor, I'd recommend straining the puree through a sieve after blending it with a standard blender. To strain it, you'll need to move it around and push it through the sieve using the back of a spoon.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

6

Serving Size:

1/6

Amount Per Serving: Calories: 114Total Fat: 3.6gSaturated Fat: 0.4gTrans Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 179.2mgCarbohydrates: 11.9gNet Carbohydrates: 6.6gFiber: 5.3gSugar: 2.1gProtein: 7.3g

Nutrition information isn’t always accurate. The nutrition information for this recipe does not include any pasta.

DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE?

Tag @KeyToMyLime on Instagram so we can see your delicious meal!

If you try this recipe, please let me know what you thought in the comments or on Instagram! @keytomylime #keytomylime

Be sure to pin this recipe for later!

Two images of healthy vegan mac and cheese.

Try making the best healthy mac and cheese!

Healthy mac and cheese on a plate.

1 thought on “Healthy Mac and Cheese (Vegan and Oil-Free)”

  1. I made it! It’s good enough as far as vegan foods go. I’m not vegan but low fat right now, and it doesn’t taste too beamy I used cannelloni. I did add some extra seasonings onion powder, mustard powder, chili and paprika. Not a lot though I put hot sauce on the Mac and cheese and it’s easy to forget it’s not. Also I used a bullet blender and it got smooth enough

    Reply

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