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Roasted Carrot Mac and Cheese Recipe

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This roasted carrot mac and cheese recipe blends together fresh vegetables, spices, and milk into a thick and luxurious sauce.  No cheese required for a creamy and decadent mac that the whole family will love!

A great way to sneak extra veggies onto your plate without noticing.

I’ve finally done it!  I’ve made the PERFECT vegan mac and cheese!  It is super saucy, thick and creamy, and actually 100% guilt free. The sauce is made entirely from vegetables, a little olive oil, spices, and some almond milk.  Blend together and pour over your favorite pasta of choice.  Yum!

So, not gunna lie, of all the foods in the world mac and cheese is my absolute favorite!  I love good mac and cheese, bad mac and cheese, really any kind I can get my hands on. Vegan mac and cheese has always been difficult to perfect because vegan cheese doesn’t melt well… so making a creamy delicious sauce from scratch has been a major goal.

This Carrot Mac and Cheese Is:

  • Thick
  • Creamy
  • Packed with Flavor: by roasting the veggies for 45 minutes, they caramelize in the pan and give the sauce an incredibly depth of flavor
  • Nutritious
  • Vegan, vegetarian, dairy free and 100% plant based.
  • Versatile: if you don’t have all the veggies on hand you can use what you got

What’s In This Carrot Macaroni and Cheese?

See the recipe card below for full ingredient amounts and recipe instructions!

  • Carrots, Onion, Garlic, Zucchini
  • Macaroni Noodles: you can use normal macaroni, whole wheat, or a veggie macaroni. To make this gluten free, GF macaroni pasta noodles work perfect in this recipe
  • Mustard Powder: I love adding this mustard powder to any mac and cheese type dish – it adds a nice sharpness and bright yellow color.
  • Smoked Paprika: give an additional depth of flavor to this dish.
  • Turmeric – a staple in our spice cabinet! 
  • Nutritional Yeast: not to be confused with bread baking yeast, nutritional yeast has a cheesy nutty umami flavor which is great in all kinds of dishes – I even sprinkle it on fresh popped pop corn and WOW!  Also great in soups and sauces of all kinds.
  • I used unsweetened Almond Milk for my version of this recipe. I prefer almond milk for this recipe, but you can use coconut milk, cashew milk, or any variety you prefer.

Saucy Vegan Mac and Cheese

Lets talk sauce!  The sauce-to-noodle ratio of this carrot mac and cheese is out of control. The noodles are practically drowning in the sauce, which is how it should be.  The sauce is so thick it sticks to every surface of the pasta, giving you maximum flavor in each bite. 

You can add more/less almond milk to the sauce to thin it out, totally up to you.  I like a real saucy mac, so the recipe amount is perfect for me!

How Do I Make This Carrot Mac and Cheese?

  1. Preheat the oven to 425 Fahrenheit.
  2. Cook the macaroni noodles according to package instructions.  Drain and set aside.
  3. On a large Sheet pan, pour the olive oil and toss with the onion, garlic, carrots, zucchini, mustard powder, paprika, and salt.  Toss well so all the veggies are coated in the spices and oil.
  4. Roast the vegetables for 40 minutes, flipping halfway.
  5. Add the vegetables to a blender.  Pour in the nutritional yeast and almond milk.  Blend on high for 2 to 3 minutes until sauce is thick.  Add more milk for a thinner sauce.
  6. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.
  7. Pour sauce over cooked macaroni noodles and enjoy!
hidden veggie mac and cheese recipe blended vegetable macaroni and cheese with hidden vegetables quash and carrot mac and cheese recipes for kids to eat vegetables

I could eat mac and cheese every meal of the day and never get sick of it.  And now I can!  Since this sauce is made totally from vegetables, spices, and almond milk its totally guilt-free in my book.  And unlike regular boxed mac and cheese, this isn’t loaded with sodium.  You can control the amount of salt you use in the dish, not the other way around!

Dietary Modifications

This recipe is vegan, plant-based, vegetarian, and dairy free!  The sauce is totally gluten-free to make sure you use a GF pasta if you avoid gluten.  It’s also way more low sodium than regular boxed mac and cheese, so I’d recommend this version of mac & cheese if you are watching you salt intake.

If you aren’t vegan, you can use any kind of milk you’d like in the sauce.  Just make sure it isn’t sweetened.  To make this nut free, substitute almond milk for regular, soy, or rice milk.  Coconut milk would also be totally amazing.  I should probably test that one out… 🙂

More Favorite Vegan Pasta Recipes

Creamy Vegan Mushroom Tetrazzini

Spicy Peanut Sesame Noodles

Sheet Pan Gnocchi Butternut Squash & Kale

Vegan Mediterranean One Pot Pasta

sneaky vegetable mac and cheese with hidden veggies plant based macaroni and cheese with carrots and zucchini squash recipe gluten free vegetable mac and cheese recipe baked mac and cheese with vegetables

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Roasted Carrot Mac and Cheese

Kelly Jensen
This roasted carrot mac and cheese blends together fresh vegetables, spices, and almond milk into a thick and luxurious sauce.  No cheese required!
5 from 12 votes
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 50 minutes
Total Time 55 minutes
Course Dinner, Pasta
Cuisine American
Servings 8 servings
Calories 333 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • 1 16 ounce box macaroni noodles gluten free
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 sweet onion diced
  • 8 cloves garlic chopped
  • 6 large carrots about 1.5 lbs chopped
  • 1 zucchini sliced
  • 1 teaspoon mustard powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon paprika
  • 1/2 teaspoon Sea Salt
  • 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
  • 2.5 to 3 cups plain unsweetened almond milk

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 425 Fahrenheit.
  • Cook the macaroni noodles according to package instructions.  Drain and set aside.
  • On a large Sheetpan, pour the olive oil and toss with the onion, garlic, carrots, zucchini, mustard powder, paprika, and salt.  Toss well so all the veggies are coated in the spices and oil.
  • Roast the vegetables for 40 minutes, flipping halfway.
  • Add the vegetables to a blender.  Pour in the nutritional yeast and almond milk.  Blend on high for 2 to 3 minutes until sauce is thick.  Add more milk for a thinner sauce.
  • Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.
  • Pour sauce over cooked macaroni noodles and enjoy!

Nutrition

Calories: 333kcalCarbohydrates: 9gProtein: 2gFat: 5gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 3gSodium: 282mgPotassium: 283mgFiber: 3gSugar: 4gVitamin A: 7702IUVitamin C: 9mgCalcium: 122mgIron: 1mg
Did You Make This Recipe?Please leave a rating and comment below, let us know what you loved about it!

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Posted in American, Dairy Free, Dinners, Fall Recipes, Gluten Free, Low Sodium, Pastas, The Herbeevore Recipes, Vegan Recipes, Vegetarian Recipes

17 Comments

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  5. Allison

    5 stars
    This is a delicious recipe! It does make a lot of sauce, so it seemed that we could have almost doubled the noodles, or have extra sauce for another meal. We also added the powder “cheese” from some vegan mac-n-cheese, and it took it to another level! Since we’re not exactly vegan, we just keep real cheese to a minimum, we added 2oz of cheddar to the sauce for extra flavor.

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  9. Kasey

    5 stars
    Loved this!!! I used homemade hemp milk and adjusted the spice levels x3 for each and 1/2 cup of nutritional yeast for an over the top cheesy flavor. I also used an entire head of garlic and subbed in potatoes! Will be doing this again, with sauteed mushrooms next time! Thanks you!

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