This delicious and creamy vegan pumpkin mac and cheese is the perfect comfort food to welcome Fall. It’s an easy meal that comes together quickly with simple ingredients!
After removing gluten and dairy from my diet due to my food sensitivities, I’ve been missing mac and cheese in my life. There’s something so comforting and nostalgic about those creamy, cheesy bites, and they always take me back to college when I used to eat them all the time.
These days, I cannot go back to those boxed versions without getting sick, but I’ve tried several version of gluten free dairy free mac and cheese. This pumpkin version is so creamy and flavorful, and perfect for the Fall.
Vegan Pumpkin Mac and Cheese Recipe
This gluten free and vegan mac and cheese made using canned pumpkin (can use fresh pumpkin if you want!), and the result is so creamy and delicious. I just love all the Fall spices that go into the cozy sauce. Even without dairy, it tastes cheesy from nutritional yeast and cashew butter. Best of all, the recipe is simple and straightforward and doesn’t require too many steps.
How to Make Vegan Mac and Cheese with Pumpkin
To make this gluten free dairy free mac and cheese, you just need a few simple ingredients, along with several spices to flavor the sauce.
- First, cook the gluten free pasta according to package instructions. Drain, then toss with extra virgin olive oil to keep from sticking. Set aside.
- Heat avocado oil in a large pot over medium heat.
- Add minced garlic and cook stirring until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes.
- Stir in the rest of the ingredients, along with all the spices: pumpkin, almond milk, cashew butter, nutritional yeast, salt, dijon mustard, dried sage, cayenne, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice.
- Once the sauce is heated through, transfer to a high-speed blender to blend everything to a creamy texture. You can add more almond milk if you want the sauce to be thinner.
- Pour over pasta, and enjoy!
Additional Tips for Making Vegan Pumpkin Mac and Cheese Recipe
- I used canned pumpkin for this recipe, but you can use fresh cooked pumpkin for an even better flavor. You just need 2 cups of pumpkin puree.
- Your pasta cooking time will differ depending on the brand and type you use. Check the package instructions to follow how long to cook it.
- I like my pumpkin mac and cheese sauce nice and thick, but if you prefer thinner, just add a more almond milk 2 tbsp at a time.
- A high speed blender works best to blend the sauce into a creamy texture that’s not lumpy.
- If you are strict paleo, you can enjoy the gluten free dairy free mac and cheese sauce over roasted cauliflower or zucchini noodles.
Made Using O Organics® and Open Nature® Products
This vegan pumpkin mac and cheese recipe was made using O Organics® and Open Nature® products from Albertsons. Open Nature offers minimally processed, high quality products for everyone in the family, like the delicious and creamy cashew butter I used. O Organics® offers high-quality, USDA-certified organic products that reflect uncompromising purity and quality. Both the organic lentil penne pasta and the almond milk I used are O Organics brand.
I love that they are made with clean ingredients, budget-friendly, and minimally-processed. It was so easy to make this pumpkin mac and cheese recipe using these products!
I shopped at Albertsons in my local area, but you can also find Open Nature® and O Organics® products exclusively at the Albertsons Companies family of stores, including Albertsons, Safeway, ACME Markets, Jewel-Osco, Vons, Randalls, Shaw’s Supermarket, Star Market, and Tom Thumb. Albertsons also offers Grocery Delivery and Drive Up & Go™ for convenient ways to shop!
If you enjoyed this vegan mac and cheese recipe, you might also like:
- Paleo Cauliflower Nacho Cheese
- Paleo Pumpkin Hummus (Whole30, Vegan, Keto)
- Dairy Free Queso Dip with Ground Beef (Paleo, Whole30, Keto)
- Paleo Shrimp Alfredo with Artichokes Hearts (Whole30, Keto, AIP)
- Paleo Instant Pot Butternut Squash Risotto (Whole30, Vegan, AIP)
Vegan Pumpkin Mac and Cheese (Gluten Free, Dairy Free)
Ingredients
- 16 oz O Organics red lentil penne pasta or your favorite gluten free pasta
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp avocado oil
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 1 15 oz canned pumpkin
- 1 cup O Organic unsweetened almond milk plus more, if needed
- 1/3 cup Open Nature cashew butter
- 1/3 cup nutritional yeast
- 1½ tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp dijon mustard
- 1/2 tsp dried sage
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/8 tsp cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp allspice
- Optional: Fresh parsley flakes for garnish
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
- Add pasta to the pot and cook according to package instructions (around 7-8 minutes for red lentil pasta). Stir occasionally while cooking so the pasta doesn't stick to each other.
- Drain, then add olive oil and stir to coat. Set aside.
- Heat avocado oil in a large pot over medium heat.
- Add garlic cloves and cook stirring for 1-2 minutes until fragrant.
- Add the rest of the ingredients (except pasta), and stir to combine and heat through for about 3-4 minutes.
- Transfer the heated sauce to a high speed blender and blend until smooth.
- Blend in more almond milk if you want the sauce thinner.
- Pour over the pasta, then stir together. Serve, garnished with parsley flakes.
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I made a cauliflower and ‘cheese’ version of this. Just roasted two bags of frozen cauliflower at 425F for about 20 minutes, made the ‘cheese’ sauce and mixed it all together. It was so good. And so easy.