Serves 4
Total time: 30 minutes || Active time: 15 minutes
Chipotle Mac & Cheese! Okay? I probably don’t need to say anything else, you’re already rummaging through your pantry for a can of chipotles and some cashews to soak. Mac & Cheese is, after all, the ultimate comfort food. A box of macaroni might as well come with sweatpants, a cozy blanket and an entire season of Mad Men DVDs.
This version is creamy, of course, but also spicy and smoky. But what really sets it apart is how EASY it is. That’s ALL CAPS and throw in an italic EASY.
1) Boil some macaroni 2) Throw some stuff into the blender 3) Put it all together. 4) There you go. I roasted some brussel sprouts, too (as I do), but you can add any manner of veggie; steamed kale, grilled asparagus, sauteed zucchini…you get the picture. I do highly recommend the brussels, though, because they roast away effortlessly, and you are free to prepare everything else. Oh, and of course, they’re also super delicious.
The only thing that’s a little fussy is getting the seeds out of the chipotle. But follow my notes below and you shouldn’t have any problems.
Happy macking, everyone!
Notes
~ The reason we’re removing the seeds, in case you’re wondering, is that seeds are really spicy. With the seeds removed, you can use more chipotles, thus getting more smoky flavor without all the heat.
~ Update! If you’d like to make this was blanched, slivered or sliced almonds, go for it! People have been reporting back that it works well.
~ For a non-spicy version, try one roasted red pepper (homemade or from a jar) in place of the 4 chipotles.
~ I love a milder miso here. I used chickpea, but mellow white would be nice, too. The kind of miso you use will determine the saltiness, and so I suggest salting to taste before and after adding it to the macaroni.
Ingredients
1 lb brussels, quartered
1 tablespoon olive oilFor the sauce:
1 cup cashews, soaked in water for at least 2 hours
4 chipotles, seeded (see note)
1 cup vegetable broth
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
2 tablespoons miso (I used chickpea miso)
Salt to taste
Directions
To make the sauce: Drain the cashews and place all sauce ingredients in a blender and blend away until completely smooth. Scrape down the sides with a spatula to make sure you get everything. Depending on the strength of your blender this could take from one to five minutes.
When the macaroni is tender, drain it in a colander. Immediately place it back in the pot you boiled it in and stir in the sauce. Place pot on low heat and stir for 3 minutes or so, until the sauce is thickened a bit and everything is deliciously creamy. Taste for salt, toss in the brussel sprouts and serve!
(In the pic I put some extra chipotles in, but that was just for show. Unless you like things REALLY spicy you can skip that.)
I think the option of the roasted red pepper is right up my alley. It’s so pretty!
made this last night, sort of. omitted the brussels & chipotles, added extra nooch (because nutritional yeast), left out the garlic and didn’t bother to soak the cashews beyond the boiling time for my pasta. used half of it last night on whole wheat shells and it was amaze-balls, and used the rest of it tonight with steamed broccoli and soba noodles, and my omnivore fiance and “beggartarian” dog loved it! adding this recipe to the short list of cooked comfort foods, and also going to modify it (but only a little!) for raw comfort foods as well. PPK always nails it. love!!
This was EXCELLENT, Isa!!! I made it for dinner for my boyfriend and myself and followed the recipe exactly. I doubled the recipe and I still have a ton of cheese sauce left. I had told my boyfriend that we were having it for leftovers tomorrow night and then he pretended not to hear me and served himself a second serving! Boy, he’s going to be awfully hungry tomorrow night when I’m eating MY portion of the leftovers! Tomorrow night 😉
this recipe is too good to be true! mac and brussels?! YUM!
Made this just now and subbed kale for the Brussels (because I have a husband that’s not the biggest fan of them – just threw them in and let them cook down with the sauce) and tossed in some frozen green peas just for the hell of it too. SO GOOD!
Gonna make this tomorrow and bake it! MMMMM can’t wait.
Um… my head exploded after making this recipe last night. My friend, who has led me into the vegan world, also couldn’t believe this recipe was vegan. Yesterday was my Day 1 of vegan life–and what a way to start! Thank you so much for this!
I did adjust the recipe due to resources; our grocery did not have miso nor fresh chipotles. So, instead, I skipped the miso and we used dried chipotle jalapeno peppers–I doubled the entire recipe and still only ended up using two peppers–and this gave me the mild kick that my lame taste buds can handle and love.
I was just so impressed and can’t wait to try more recipes on here! Thank you for introducing me to my gateway drug!
Made this last night and I was a little concerned about using 4 peppers, but it was just the perfect balance of creaminess and heat. Great recipe, Isa — comes together so quickly.
OMG this is beyond GOOD……IT’S GREATNESS AT IT’S FINEST…..and then some. I didn’t have any canned chipotle, just the dried ones. I used two with the seeds removed, and the smokiness and flavor is I.N.C.R.E.D.I.B.L.E. Don’t be afraid. So very easy!!! You really are amazing, Miss Isa! I so am looking forward to your new book!!!!
Woohoo, thanks!
Made this for dinner last night. I loved the cashew quick-soak trick. It really came together quickly and with a minimum of dishes too (just a blender, knife, pot and measuring spoons/cups)! I don’t have a dishwasher, so that’s a big bonus on weeknights. Made with only a tiny bit of chipotle for the bf, and added a whole bunch to mine to spice it up. We both loved it, thanks, Isa! You never diappoint.
Holy crap. I’m making this tonight.
Yum! This was soo tasty! It would also be delicious with roasted broccoli!
My husband and I just ate this for dinner and it was BOMB. We didn’t have brussels, so we steamed a bunch of kale and mixed that in. We also popped it in the oven with some breadcrumbs on top–YUM. Oh and…..it wasn’t nooch-y enough for us, so we doubled the nooch! Do I have a problem? A nooch problem?
Anyway, thank you for the recipe–wanna try it with roasted red peppers sometime. 🙂
How serendipitous that in my fridge there were chipotles in adobe left over and you posted this amazing recipe. It was excellent with steamed kale. Thanks!
It’s like you were reading my mind! I already made the decision to have mac n cheese today and was trying to figure out what veggies to put with it. Since I just got some fresh brussel sprouts, it seemed like the right choice. Then I logged on to theppk to check in on your mac recipe and this was front page!
And yes, I added the chipotles and it was amazing. Seriously so cheesy and wonderful and I love brussel sprouts. Plus mac n cheese is great for reheating the next day at work.
This was incredible. YUM!! I used all 4 chipotles (in adobo) seeded and my husband and I (who both love spicy food) thought it was the perfect amount of heat. The smoky flavor is divine. We used fresh homemade whole wheat pasta and roasted veggies that I had from the farm market- green beans, vidalias, chard, garlic & zucchini. Can’t wait to try it with brussels too. I’m sad it’s gone after 2 nights in a row of eating it. Really, SO good. Husband said “I could eat this every day all day. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner…” 🙂 Isa for the win, as usual!
Hoooo ray!
I didn’t have any chipotle so I replaced it with two jalapenos and one tbs liquid smoke. It probably didn’t turn out as awesome as yours, but still a pretty good substitue
I couldn’t find chipotles so substituted
1 roast red pepper along with a pinch of
Cayenne and 1 tsp liquid smoke. Yum!
I’m eating this now and it’s delicious! You are a genius. Thank you thank you thank you!!!
I have never before been so excited about a meal! Isa, you’re the queen of all things veganlicious!
OMG this is amazing, probably my new favourite pasta dish. To follow up what the other folks from the UK said about chipotle paste, two tablespoons of paste in place of the four chipotles is a good start.
This was made tonight with broccoli from the farm share instead of Brussels . Incredible !
Seriously the best mac & cheese ever!! I made it tonight but added mushroom and kale sauteed with garlic instead of the brussels sprouts, threw the whole dish in the oven for 10 minutes topped with a wee bit of daiya and panko and I could not believe how spectacular it was! So creamy and flavorful and way better than I ever remember real mac & cheese being. This recipe is a keeper!!
I absolutely loved this! Although I found it was a bit too cashew-y when it first came out of the blender. I added some turmeric, cumin chili powder and lemon juice and it waste much more tangy!
I just made the sauce using sunflower seeds instead of cashews, and it tastes wonderful! I’m just waiting for the mac to finish cooking. Thanks Isa!
Oh. My. God. This was so good. I just ate half the recipe because I couldn’t control myself in the face of such deliciousness. I made it with steamed kale since brussels sprouts are way out of season. It’s fast and easy and creamy and spicy and FULL OF WIN.
Made this for dinner tonight. It is delicious. I did have to scale back a bit on the chipotles even after de-seeding. I guess we have a lower tolerance for spicy. Thank you so much for the recipe.
Sorry if this has been asked before, but does miso paste go bad? I’ve had some for, geez, don’t even know how long!
What a nice twist on mac n cheese. Used roasted cauliflower and kale that were in my fridge and only one unseeded chipotle. Perfection!
This looks amazing! Do you think dried, ground chipotle peppers would work? If so, any ideas how much to use?
I attempted Mac and Cheeze once when I first went vegan and it was literally so repugnant that I couldn’t even consider trying to make it again until this recipe!
Oh I have a half a batch of cashew queso in the fridge – know exactly what I’m going to do with it !!!
Making. This. Tonight. Wow.
holy crap! This looks sooooo amazing! i’m not sure if there is a better combination of food. drooooooool
I’ve made this twice already. 4 chipotles for me was just way too spicy. The 2nd time around I did one chipotle and a roasted red bell pepper, perfection! I also find that it’s really saucy so I used a pound of pasta. Now it feeds my family of 4 (I doubled the Brussels too!) going to be making this often, thank you!!!
Just noticed that it was always supposed to feed 4. Haha! Oops, now you know why AFR is my favorite cookbook…portion control and I are not friends.
Just made this last night – seriously wow! This is amazing. Thank you so much Isa. Now I am thinking of everything else I can put this sauce on… for lunch I have your Baked Falafels from AFR with this delicious sauce on top. Even my husband who usually doesn’t do spicy loved it.
Thank you again! Hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Just something about mac~n~cheese that gets our attention every time! Can’t wait to get this in the bowl. 🙂
Thanks for sharing the goodness.
Haha, so true! If I posted ONLY Mac N Cheese I’d have the most popular blog EVER.
I can’t wait to try this!!
Today I made this for the second time! The first, I didn’t use any peppers, and today I used a roasted red pepper instead of a chipotle (I can’t handle any level of spicy). And I replaced the miso for 1 tsp of dijon mustard to be soy free. This is incredible! I baked it and ate two portions, yum!
I made this tonight – unfortunately no brussel sprouts in the house but the pasta and sauce alone was delicious. Really creamy, smokey, slightly spicy – just so good. I did cook up some green beans and used them to clean up the left over sauce. So easy, so good.
I made this tonight for dinner and loved it! I had to reduce the chipotle to 1 instead of 4 (my kids are wimps) but I saved some of the smokey sauce in the can and added it to my serving of Mac and cheese and it was delicious! This was my first time trying a recipe that uses cashews as a replacement for dairy and I have to admit it was very good. I’m excited to try some of the other variations in the future.
I just made this tonight, came out amazing! I used ancho chile powder instead of the chipotle chili (I have no tolerance for spice). For the veggies I subbed power greens (swiss chard, baby kale and spinach) and grilled portobello mushrooms. YUM!
i make my cheese sauce with, water, cashews, lemon, pimentos, nutritional yeast and sa;t to taste. its really yummy!
This is insanely delicious. I used only one chipotle, as my husband doesn’t like a lot of heat. Also doubled the brown rice pasta and sprouts. It was perfect for our palates.
My husband and I, both meat eaters, recently watched a scary documentary about the current disgusting meat practices in our country (there are studies being done by the industry to try out things like maggots and bacteriophages to kill microbes on the meat. *insert expletive*). Pretty sure I can never eat meat again, and recipes like this make me really hopeful that we can survive a vegan diet! No animal products for two days now and going strong! Going to try to Beet burgers tonight and the vegan sausages in a stew tomorrow night. I ‘m kind of loving this.
Awesome! The transition can be really fun, sounds like you have a good attitude about it. You can always let me know if you have food questions! Sometimes I miss comments here but facebook is pretty reliable.
Sounds so good but I recently have developed a cashew allergy. Can you use soaked almonds? Any suggestions Isa?
Yep, someone has already done blanched almond somewhere in the comments. Maybe I’ll put it in the notes.
With brussels a bit out of season in the markets I frequent, I did this with sauteed cabbage and a nice pot of black beans in day-old sofrito as an accompaniment. YUM.
Ooooooh my this was SO much hotter than I had anticipated. I doubled the cashews and water and it still makes my mouth burn. But in a good way. I loved how creamy and smokey it was!
Great recipe, although next time I make it, I think I’ll add ONE chipotle, because I’m a wuss 🙂
Just made a double batch for dinner. We only had 1 lb of sprouts, so we supplemented it with roasted artichokes. It turned out so great! Then sauce was a perfect combo of creaminess and spiciness. And there’s plenty left for lunch tomorrow! 🙂
Ok so I used olive oil infused with lime on the sprouts, hacho miso (I know so little about miso) which is chocolate colored, and 3 big chipotles. The sauce turned a little darker yellow than I would have liked but it was face rocking amazing!