Description
Creamy Avocado Mac and Cheese is vegan, gluten-free and loaded with healthy fats, fibre and protein! So you can eat clean and enjoy cozy comfort food at the same time!
Ingredients
For the avocado cream sauce:
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup raw cashews
- 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 1 medium-sized ripe avocado
- 1 clove garlic
- 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
For the pasta:
- 4 cups of uncooked green pea rotini (or gluten-free pasta of your choice)
- Plenty of water for cooking pasta
- 1 cup grape tomatoes, whole
- 1 cup red pepper, chopped
- Additional nutritional yeast and crushed red pepper flakes, to taste
Instructions
- Make the creamy avocado sauce: Add the cashews and water to a resealable glass dish or mason jar, and soak for 3-4 hours or overnight. Once soaked, drain most of the water, reserving 4 tbsp. In a blender, add the cashews, reserved water, almond milk, avocado, garlic, nutritional yeast, salt and red pepper flakes and blend on high until smooth and creamy. Set aside.
- Assemble the mac and cheese: In large pot or wok, bring water to a boil and cook pasta according to package instructions. Once cooked, drain water and rinse pasta with hot water. Add the pasta back to the pot/wok, add the tomatoes, red peppers and avocado sauce, and stir to combine. Sprinkle on additional nutritional yeast and/or red pepper flakes and serve immediately.
Notes
- I like to add raw tomatoes and red peppers to this mac and cheese because it adds a nice crunch and it prevents the veggies from getting too mushy when I re-heat the pasta as leftovers. If you prefer, you can sauté the tomatoes and peppers for a few minutes before adding them to the mac and cheese.
- Store any leftover avocado cream sauce and/or mac and cheese in an airtight container in the fridge and enjoy within 2-3 days.
- The recipe for the avocado cream sauce was inspired by Christie at Home‘s recipe for cashew cream.