This vegan mac & cheese soup is creamy, comforting and packed with flavor!
How do you make your favorite comfort food even more comforting? Turn it into soup!
Soup is pretty much always super cozy and comforting, and a surprising number of dishes can be turned into soup (without being gross). I did this with cabbage rolls, enchiladas, lasagna, and even cheeseburgers. All turned out delicious!
So when I saw mac & cheese soup on the menu of a local lunch place, I knew right away that I had to create a vegan version.
Vegan Mac & Cheese
But wait. Regular old vegan mac & cheese in and of itself sounds like a challenge to create.
It's really not though. I have two go-to methods for making vegan mac & cheese. Method number 1 involves making dairy-free cheese out of cashews, like I did with here.
Method number 2 involves making a roux out of coconut milk and seasoning it up to taste cheesy, like in this recipe.
The coconut milk option seemed to make a lot more sense for a vegan mac & cheese soup, so that's what I went with.
How to Make Vegan Mac & Cheese Soup
Cook your pasta before getting started, so that it's ready to be added to the soup when you need it.
Now heat up up a bit of oil in a pot. Add some onion and cook it for a few minutes to soften it up. Now add some garlic and cook it for about a minute, until it becomes very fragrant.
Stir in some flour to form a thick paste with the oil. Continue stirring and cooking for about a minute. Now it's time to add that coconut milk. You'll want to slowly whisk it in to prevent the flour from forming any big clumps. Once you've added the coconut milk, you can add some more non-dairy milk (anything unflavored and unsweetened), along with some seasonings: bouillon, nutritional yeast, and hot sauce.
Let the mixture simmer for about 10 minutes. It should thicken up during this time.
I like to add some broccoli during the last few minutes of simmering.
The pasta goes in last.
Take the soup off of the burner and season it with some salt, if needed.
Grab a bowl and dig in!
Vegan Mac & Cheese Soup Tips & FAQ
- I recommend serving your vegan mac & cheese soup right away. The pasta will absorb the sauce as it sits, and before long it will cease to be soup, and will just be vegan mac & cheese.
- Is this soup spicy? The Cholula gives it a slight kick. It also adds a lot of flavor (and even makes the soup taste cheesy), so I don't recommend skipping it. If you must omit it or cut back, consider adding a splash of vinegar or lemon juice to balance the flavor.
- Does this soup taste like coconut? Not to me! However, if you are super sensitive to the taste of coconut, you might be able to taste it. You can substitute a different non-dairy milk if needed, but the soup probably won't be as rich and creamy (since coconut milk is pretty high in fat).
- Not into broccoli? Feel free to skip it or substitute your favorite veggies. Cauliflower or peas would work nicely.
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📖 Recipe
Vegan Mac & Cheese Soup
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups dry elbow macaroni
- 2 tablespoons olive oil (or high-heat oil of choice), plus a dash for the pasta
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 (14 ounce of 400 ml) can full-fat coconut milk
- 3 cups unflavored and unsweetened soy or almond milk, plus more as needed
- 3 vegetable bouillon cubes (enough to make 3 cups of broth), crushed
- ⅓ cup nutritional yeast flakes
- 2 tablespoons Cholula hot sauce (or a similar vinegar-based hot sauce)
- 1 ½ cups fresh broccoli florets
- Salt, to taste
- Fresh chives, for serving
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
- Add the macaroni and cook it according to the package directions.
- Drain the pasta into a colander and return it to the pot. Toss it with a dash of oil to prevent sticking.
- Coat the bottom of a large pot with the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil and place it over medium heat.
- When the oil is hot, add the onion. Cook the onion for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until soft and translucent.
- Add the garlic and cook it for about 1 minute, until very fragrant.
- Add the flour and stir to form a paste that coats the onion. Cook the mixture, stirring frequently, for about 2 minutes.
- Begin adding the coconut milk, a bit at a time, whisking between each addition to eliminate any lumps from the flour. Stir in the soy or almond milk, bouillon, nutritional yeast, and Cholula.
- Raise the heat and bring the liquid to a boil. Lower the heat and let the mixture simmer for about 10 minutes, until it thickens up a bit. Feel free to thin the soup with additional non-dairy milk if it gets too thick for your liking.
- Stir in the broccoli and continue simmering for about 4 minutes, until the broccoli is tender and bright green.
- Remove the pot from heat and stir in the pasta. Season the soup with salt to taste.
- Ladle into bowls and optionally top with chives. Serve.
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OMY!!! OH MY YUM!! Yes, that's right. you get your own acronym on this one!! made tonite it was so quick and easy after the busiest monday ever round here. Used fine chopped kale instead of broccoli and subbed 3 c vegetable broth for the additional milk, along with a bit of homemade almond milk I needed to use up. Gluten free macaroni for us and the rest I followed perfectly. Was so incredibly good!!!
I did not yet make it, but I'm sure that it's worth five stars a sI know your ""regula"r Mac & Cheese recipes. --- Remember that I was worried about what to eat durng the Fall and Winter (I became vegan in August). Thank you for the many, many (almost abundant) recipes that brought me over the Winter soo far...
I'm so glad you're enjoying the recipes! I think this is a great one for winter. :) Enjoy!
I am a longtime fan, and make a lot of your dishes, but this is my first comment. I made it as described and if I didn't have to use coconut milk it would be a 15!! I love this stuff but the sweetness of the coconut milk doesn't work for me. I guess I could sub some cashew cream but that is more work than I wanted to do. Any other suggestions?. I may try it again and use a little more oil and full oat milk in place of the coconut milk. I will let you know.
WestSoy unsweetened soy milk is actually my favorite non-dairy milk for savory recipes. It has a bit more fat than most non-dairy milks, which might help make up for the richness that would be lost my skipping the coconut milk. That might be worth a try! I'd love to hear how it (or any version you make with a different type of milk) turns out if you try!
Could cashew milk be substituted for the almond milk?
Yup! Just about any non-dairy milk should work, as long as it's unsweetened and the flavor is pretty neutral.
Bouillon is in the ingredient list, but I don't see it in the instructions. Do you put it in while the soup is simmering, before adding broccoli?
Sorry about that! It goes in with the nutritional yeast. Just fixed it. Thanks for letting me know!