Baked Vegan Mac and Cheese

Finicky dinner guests? This dish is a winner! It sneaks in some cauliflower and peas and is notoriously hard to stop eating.

Prep time: 30 min

Cook time: 30 min

Serves: 12

Ingredients:

• 1 small head fresh cauliflower, chopped to bite-sized pieces

• 1 bag (~12 oz) frozen peas

• 1.5 cups raw cashews

• Juice of 3 lemons

• 2/3 cup nutritional yeast

• 1 tsp garlic powder

• 2 tsp kosher salt

• 7 oz. bag of shredded vegan cheddar cheese (we like Vitalife brand)

• 12-14 oz. elbow pasta

• 2 cups panko bread crumbs

• 4 Tbsp. vegan butter

• 1 tsp smoked paprika

• 1/2 tsp black pepper

Instructions:

1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9x13" casserole dish.

2.) In a small sauce sauce pan, cover the cashews with hot water. Heat on hi until reaching a boil. Then turn off heat and let cashews sit for 10 min.

3.) Drain cashews and blend in a high powered blender with 1 cup of water, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, salt, and shredded cheese. Add additional water if needed to reach a yogurt like consistency.

4.) Cook pasta according to package instructions, drain, and return it to the pot. Add cauliflower, peas and cashew mixture and stir until everything is well coated. Pour mixture into prepared casserole dish.

5.) Melt butter in a pyrex measuring cup in the microwave. Add melted butter, breadcrumbs, paprika, and pepper to a large mixing bowl and combine thoroughly.

6.) Spread breadcrumb mixture evenly over macaroni in the casserole dish and bake for 20 - 30 minutes or until everything is warmed through and the bread crumbs have browned. (To achieve browning, you can also broil for a few seconds while watching carefully not to burn.) Enjoy!