Creamy Cashew Mac
Ultra-creamy, golden-baked, and pull-apart cheesy — all from cashews.
What you'll need
The cashew sauce
- 1½ cups raw cashews, soaked in hot water 15 min
- 1½ cups unsweetened plant milk
- 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- Juice of half a lemon
- Salt to taste
To finish
- 12 oz whole-grain elbow pasta
- ½ cup whole-wheat breadcrumbs
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
Let's cook
- 1
Boil the pasta until just shy of tender — it keeps cooking in the oven, so leave it a little firm.
- 2
Drain the soaked cashews and blend them with the plant milk, nutritional yeast, Dijon, spices, and lemon until completely silky. Give it a taste and salt it well.
- 3
Fold the sauce into the pasta — it'll look a touch loose, but that's what keeps it creamy after baking.
- 4
Scrape into a baking dish, toss the breadcrumbs with the olive oil, and scatter them over the top.
- 5
Bake at 400°F for 20 minutes until bubbling with a golden crust. Rest 5 minutes so the sauce clings to every noodle.
Why this works
Blended cashews turn luxuriously creamy — that's the old Southern baked-mac richness with zero dairy. Nutritional yeast brings the savory, cheesy depth, so it eats every bit as indulgent as the original.
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