This Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese is an easy vegan mac and cheese recipe made healthier using a butternut squash cashew sauce. Bonus, this delicious healthy vegan dinner is also oil-free and ready in 30 minutes.
If you are after an easy healthy vegan dinner, like my Creamy Butter Beans, Red Lentil Pasta Recipe, or Hidden Veg Pasta Sauce, then this butternut Mac-n’-Cheese is for you. It’s packed with fresh butternut, cashews, and vitamin B12-fortified nutritional yeast for a dairy-free cheesy flavor.
I guarantee that this vegan cheese pasta sauce has nothing to envy to classic mac and cheese sauce. It’s thick, creamy cheesy and kids love it. So it’s a great way to add vegetables to your plate and use your winter squash this fall.
Let me show you how to make this easy vegan pasta recipe.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Butternut Squash – A medium size squash for this recipe. The best is to peel, deseed, cube, and measure the vegetables you have. This recipe calls for 4 cups of fresh butternut squash cubes. Don’t add too much to the recipe or then the balance of spices and flavors will be off.
- Cashews – Unsalted and unroasted.
- Cooked Macaroni Pasta also called elbow pasta.
- Vegetable Stock – You can swap for just water if you don’t have stock.
- Almond Milk – You can also use oat milk or any non-dairy milk you love. I found unsweetened almond milk the best match because it doesn’t add a sweet taste to the sauce.
- Onion Powder – for flavor.
- Dijon Mustard – or American mustard. You’ll get more flavor from Dijon mustard.
- Paprika, Ground Pepper, Garlic Clove – for perfect flavors.
- Nutritional Yeast – Pick a B12-fortified version!
The Secret Of The Butternut Squash Sauce
Many recipes call for roasting the butternut squash in the oven, and while this is a great idea, adding flavor to the dish, I found that baked butternut squash becomes too sweet.
Plus, it adds oil, increases the cleaning needed, and makes the recipe a bit longer to make.
My secret to making quick and easy butternut squash mac and cheese is to boil the butternut and cashew together.
How To Make Butternut Squash Mac And Cheese
All you need to make this creamy butternut sauce are a few simple ingredients and a blender to pulse all the ingredients together into a sauce.
- Place the butternut squash cubes and cashews in a large pot filled with boiling water.
- Boil until a pick inserted in the center of the vegetable comes through easily. It takes about 12 minutes.
- Drain the vegetables and cashews in a sieve over the sink and let them steam out for 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, cook the pasta following the packaging instructions. Drain them and set them aside until the mac and cheese sauce is ready.
- Next, fill the jug of a high-speed blender with vegetable stock, almond milk, garlic, onion powder, paprika, salt, pepper, Dijon mustard, and nutritional yeast.
- Fold in the cooked vegetable and cashews.
- Blend on the high-speed setting which is speed 8-9 of a Vitamix blender until all the ingredients are smooth and a creamy butternut pasta sauce forms.
- Pour the sauce over the cooked macaroni.
- Stir to evenly coat all the pasta with sauce and return to medium heat until everything is warm which takes 2 to 3 minutes. If the sauce dries out, add more water or almond milk to thin it out and prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the saucepan.
Serving Vegan Mac And Cheese
Serve the butternut mac n cheese plain or with some of the vegan toppings below:
- Vegan Parmesan Cheese
- Chopped Parsley
- Extra Nutritional Yeast
- Drizzle Olive Oil
- Drizzle of store-bought cashew cream or soy cream
- Black Pepper
- Some bread like my 2-Ingredient Bread or Sweet Potato Bread Rolls
Storage Instructions
This macaroni and cheese pasta can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. It’s the perfect vegan dinner to meal prep and to serve days of healthy comforting dinners. You can also freeze the leftover and keep them in the freezer for up t o1 month.
Thaw the dish the day before in the fridge and rewarm in a microwave-safe plate or in a non-stick saucepan over medium heat. The sauce dries out a bit when you rewarm the pasta, and you may like to thin out the sauce with water or almond milk.
Allergy Swaps
- Nut-Free – If you have some nut allergies you can replace the cashews with raw sunflower seeds. They are a bit more bitter and flavorsome, but they thicken the sauce pretty well while adding similar nutrients to cashew. Next, swap the almond milk for low-flavor plant-based milk like hemp milk.
- Gluten-Free – This butternut squash pasta sauce is naturally gluten-free. Make sure you use a gluten-free pasta variety made out of rice, buckwheat, or quinoa to avoid adding gluten to the dish.
Frequently Asked Questions
Below are the answers to your most frequent questions about this recipe.
Yes, you can use other pumpkin varieties or even orange sweet potatoes. But keep in mind that some winter squash varieties like acorn squash are higher in water and the sauce comes out thinner.
Yes, you can use this recipe to make a baked mac and cheese casserole. To do so, cook the pasta according to the packaging instructions minus 1 minute. This matters because the pasta keeps cooking in the oven later. Next, spread the pasta covered with sauce in a large 9-inch x 11-inch baking dish. Sprinkle some wholegrain breadcrumb and your favorite vegan grated cheese on the top.
No, store-bought or restaurant mac and cheese are made with real cheese, milk, and butter. All of these ingredients are milk-derivative products and therefore not vegan.
Yes, you can cover the butternut squash cubes with a drizzle of olive oil and bake on a lined baking sheet. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and bake for about 20 minutes, shaking halfway. You will have to soak the cashew in a bowl covered with boiling water for about 30 minutes. Drain the nuts and blend them with roasted butternut squash and the remaining ingredients.
You can blend the ingredients into a food processor, but it might make the sauce a bit gritty because it doesn’t have the same strength to blend the nuts. Another option is to use an immersion blender or coffee grinder to blend the nuts.
More Vegan Pasta Recipes
Below are some more delicious pasta dinner recipes for you to try:
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Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese Vegan
Ingredients
- 4 cups Butternut Squash - peeled, cubed (- about small butternut)
- 1 cup Cashew
- 16 ounces Macaroni - Elbow Pasta 450g
Vegan Mac n Cheese Sauce
- 1 cup Vegetable Stock
- 1 cup Almond Milk
- 2 Garlic Cloves - crushed
- ¼ cup Nutritional Yeast
- 1 teapsoon Onion Powder
- 1 tablespoon Dijon Mustard
- ½ teaspoon Paprika
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- ¼ teaspoon Ground Pepper
Instructions
Cook Pasta
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add macaroni pasta and cook following packaging instructions. Drain and set aside.
Make the sauce
- Peel, deseed, and cut the butternut into cubes. Measure 4 cups.
- Fill another large pot with cold water, cover with a lid and bring water to a boil over medium-high heat.
- Reduce to medium heat, remove the lid and add butternut squash cubes and cashews to the boiling water. Cover and cook over light boil for about 10 to 12 minutes or until the squash is fork tender.
- Drain squash and cashew in a sieve and let steam out for 10 minutes.
- In a high-speed blender jug, add the boiled squash and cashew, vegetable stock, almond milk, garlic, onion powder, nutritional yeast, Dijon mustard, paprika, salt, and pepper.
- Blend on the high-speed setting until creamy and smooth.
- If too thick, thin out with extra water and blend after each addition.
- Taste the sauce and adjust with more salt, pepper, or nutritional yeast to boost the cheesy flavor.
- Pour the sauce over the cooked macaroni and return to low heat few minutes until the dish is warm to serve.
Storage
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days or freeze for up to 1 month in sealed boxes and thaw in the fridge the day before.
I’ve tried several butternut squash inspired variations for creamy pasta, and this is the best. For me good pasta almost always come back to a creamy addition. Glad I tried this one!