Dairy-free Homemade Mac’n’Cheese

This dairy-free homemade mac’n’cheese makes the dairy-free life so much more bearable and delicious! Creamy, smooth, and flavorful is what this macaroni and cheese is all about. Not only is it delicious, but it is also allergy friendly and super easy to make! The homemade cheese sauce uses simple, healthy ingredients and you can easily use your favorite allergy friendly pasta, which I’ll recommend my favorite brand later on. I love making this dairy-free mac’n’cheese and it makes eating dairy-free so much fun!

This post may contain affiliate links. See our Disclosure for more information.

Modern Pioneer Recipe

Mac’n’cheese is totally a modern pioneer recipe! How could you get more modern than a classic American food staple like mac’n’cheese? Despite being a modern day recipe, we can easily convert this traditional recipe into one that is healthy and simple.

Using simple ingredients that are easy to find and may already be stocked in your pantry as well as being healthy and sustainable makes this recipe a modern pioneer recipe. There’s so much about traditional mac’n’cheese that makes it less than allergy friendly. From all the dairy to gluten-based pasta to added sugar and other preservatives, color enhancers, and flavor additives, I just new I had to make a healthier version for modern pioneers! Here’s what makes this mac’n’cheese recipe so allergy friendly!

• dairy-free
• gluten-free
• nut free
• grain-free
• soy free
• corn free
• egg free
• sugar free
• anti-inflammatory

Just how allergy friendly this recipe is will depend on what brand of pasta you use, but thankfully there are a few healthy brands of pasta that can help make this recipe as allergy friendly as mentioned above. However, if you want to stretch your modern pioneer skills on this recipe, try making your own pasta! I know it’s on my pioneer to-do list and I’ll probably even share the recipe with you once I get one nailed down.

Either way, both the cheese sauce and the pasta for this mac’n’cheese are simple, healthy, and allergy friendly, making this an excellent modern pioneer recipe! 

What About the Cheese?

I’m not a huge cheese fan, but there’s two cheese based meals that I absolutely love, pizza and mac’n’cheese. So when I went dairy-free to cut down on inflammation causing foods in my diet, I didn’t think it was going to be too big of a deal to cut out cheese. But it was, it sure was hard, especially on pizza night. Not only did I go dairy-free, but I also had to avoid dairy alternatives that contained tree nuts.

Ever wonder how I survived to tell you all this? It’s thanks to dairy-free and nut free brands like Daiya, SoDelicious, and NadaMoo! as well as the creative masterminds behind the dairy-free recipes I use for inspiration. I mean, who would have thought you could take ingredients like tapioca, coconut, or nutritional yeast and turn them into foods that mimic their dairy counterparts!?

In this mac’n’cheese recipe, nutritional yeast is the star ingredient. I was skeptical when I first saw ‘fake’ cheese recipes that didn’t use nuts and instead used nutritional yeast. However, nutritional yeast does have a cheesy flavor that is pretty similar to cheddar cheese. I also love how the nutritional yeast gives the cheese sauce the yellow color of traditional mac’n’cheese!  So yes, mac’n’cheese can still have that cheesy flavor and color while still being dairy-free!

Dairy-free on the Homestead?

Living dairy-free on the homestead may seem kind of ridiculous, but when you have a dairy intolerance or allergy, you kind of have no other choice. For us, we have more of a dairy intolerance, so we could probably handle raw dairy if we wanted to raise a dairy goat or cow. However, for some, dairy is not an option, raw or not. That’s when dairy-free becomes more of a lifestyle rather than option. This dairy-free mac’n’cheese fits into any dairy sensitive diet!

Need some more dairy-free recipes? Check out these dairy-free options:

• Brownie Ice Cream Pie
• Cheesy Ham Quiche
• Maple Bacon Frittata
• Broccoli Soup
• Butternut Squash Soup
• Peanut Butter Protein Bars

Choosing a Pasta

In order to make this dairy-free homemade mac’n’cheese as allergy friendly as possible, I wanted to use a gluten-free pasta that was also free of grains and corn. I have found two brands that make legume and pea based pasta varieties. Ancient Harvest and Banza are two gluten-free and grain-free pasta brands that I have tried.

Ancient Harvest makes some gluten-free pasta that is made with lentils. Banza makes pasta using chickpeas. Of the two brands, the Banza chickpea pastas are my favorite. The Ancient Harvest lentil pastas are good, but they are a softer pasta and over-cooking them even just a little bit makes them mushy and sticky.

I have had great success with the Banza pasta and I love the taste and texture. Plus, Banza makes so many varieties of chickpea pastas, from shells to elbows to penne to every other kind of pasta you could want! The chickpea pasta is delicious and is very high in protein. Combine that with the high protein and high B-vitamin content of the nutritional yeast, and you have a very healthy version of mac’n’cheese! 

Make sure you check out this Gluten-free Venison Pasta Salad recipe for another pasta-based meal idea!

Storing Mac’n’Cheese

This mac’n’cheese recipe makes a great on-the-go or travel food because it is so easy to make-up ahead of time and store. There are two ways you can store this mac’n’cheese. First you can make the cheese sauce and cook the pasta. Then you can either store the two separately and combine them before you eat it, or you can mix the cheese sauce in with the pasta and store it all mixed together.

Either way makes for delicious results! I have found that mixing the cheese sauce into the pasta while it’s still warm is easier than mixing the cheese sauce into cold pasta. However, both methods are totally doable.

Whether the sauce and pasta are combined or not, everything should be stored in air-tight containers and kept in the fridge. I like to store the cheese sauce in a pint canning jar and the pasta or mixed mac’n’cheese in an anchor glass dish with a sealed lid or silicon lid. Mixed together, the mac’n’cheese can be stored in the fridge for 3-4 days. Kept separate, the ingredients can be stored for up to 7 days in the fridge.

I have not tried freezing this mac’n’cheese or the cheese sauce, so I don’t know how freezing and unthawing this recipe would work. 

Recipe Tips

It wouldn’t be mac’n’cheese if the recipe wasn’t simple, so I tried to keep this dairy-free version as simple as possible. The cheese sauce is really the only part of this recipe that may seem daunting, but it’s actually really easy to make.

I’ll have to admit, I was kind of skeptical when I started making the ‘fake’ cheese but I was really excited to see how it would turn out. It met all of my expectations and we loved trying the leftover cheese sauce on other foods too! The leftover cheese sauce was delicious with grain-free tortilla chips, taco meat, burgers, and in sandwiches! Here are a few recipe tips when making this dairy-free mac’n’cheese:

Tips:

• Have all the ingredients in the pot before you turn on the heat to keep the tapioca flour from clumping.
• Using a whisk is really helpful for keeping the cheese sauce smooth and lump free.
• The coconut milk can be full fat from a can or unsweetened from a carton.
• I have not tried making the cheese without grinding the nutritional yeast flakes, so I don’t know if they would dissolve or not. Alternatively you could use nutritional yeast powder.
• Make sure you whisk the mixture almost continually while you are waiting for it to boil and thicken so that the contents don’t stick to the bottom of the pot.
• You only need 1 cup of cheese sauce per 2 cups of uncooked pasta, so you will more than likely have leftover cheese sauce, which is delicious on other foods too!
• When cooking your pasta, make sure you don’t over cook it and always air on the low side of the cook time. You can sample the pasta to see if it’s soft enough and done cooking.
• If you are storing the cooked pasta separately, I suggest a adding a tablespoon of olive oil or butter to the warm pasta to keep it from sticking during storage.

Dairy-free homemade mac’n’cheese will be a favorite amongst young and old alike! I love the simplicity of the recipe and how much healthier it is compared to traditional mac’n’cheese. The creamy, smooth, and rich taste and texture will be just what you want while being dairy-free!

Where to Find the Ingredients 

• Pacific unsweetened coconut milk 
• Gluten-free nutritional yeast 
• Bob’s Red Mill tapioca flour 
• Simply Organic onion powder
• Simply Organic garlic powder
• Braggs Organic extra virgin olive oil
• Simply Organic paprika 
• Banza chickpea pasta
• Supplies: large saucepan, stainless steel whisk 

This dairy-free homemade mac’n’cheese is allergy friendly, healthy, and super easy to make! It’s the perfect modern pioneer recipe for on-the-go meals, a great travel meal option, or simply just a comfort food! The rich taste and creamy texture of the cheese sauce and gluten-free pasta is just what you want in a bowl full of mac’n’cheese!

Want more of what’s served on the modern pioneer chuckwagon? Make sure you’re signed up for our weekly pioneer newsletter so that you can get both modern pioneer and traditional pioneer recipes too! 

By Alexa