Comfort food doesn’t have to come at the expense of your health. This baked plant-based mac and “cheese” was created as part of the ongoing recipe development behind my RISE & REPAIR project, where every meal is intentionally designed to nourish the body with whole, minimally processed plant foods.
Unlike traditional macaroni and cheese, this version replaces dairy with a creamy sauce made from white beans, riced cauliflower, raw cashews, nutritional yeast, and unsweetened soy milk. The result is a rich, satisfying dish that’s packed with fiber, plant protein, vitamins, and minerals while remaining completely dairy-free and oil-free.
Wait! It Gets Better!
To make it even more nutritious, the casserole is filled with zucchini, cauliflower, carrots, celery, onions, and hearty whole wheat pasta. Every serving provides generous amounts of vegetables and legumes, creating a meal that’s both comforting and deeply nourishing.
One of my goals with the RISE & REPAIR project is to create recipes that are practical enough for everyday life while supporting long-term health. This casserole is a perfect example. It comes together with simple ingredients, bakes in one pan, reheats beautifully, and makes excellent leftovers for meal prep throughout the week.
Whether you’re following a whole-food, plant-based lifestyle, looking for healthier comfort food, or simply trying to eat more vegetables and beans, this baked mac and “cheese” proves you don’t have to sacrifice flavor to make nourishing choices.
Sometimes the foods that help us heal are also the ones that bring us the greatest comfort.
CONTINUE THE JOURNEY
If this casserole is your first step toward comfort food that actually loves you back, here is where to go next.
Why There Is No Oil in This Recipe
You may have noticed something missing from the ingredient list. No butter. No olive oil. Not a tablespoon anywhere.
That is deliberate, and it is not about calories.
The cashews in the cheese sauce bring fat, but they bring it the way YHVH packaged it, still wrapped in fiber and protein and minerals. That is a different thing from a bottle of extracted oil. I explain the full reasoning in this post, and once you understand it, the missing oil stops feeling like a sacrifice.
Whole Wheat Bread Recipe: Fat-Free Vegan for the Zojirushi Machine
Another Creamy Sauce Built From Beans
Once you have made a cheese sauce out of white beans and cauliflower, you start seeing possibilities everywhere.
Legumes can do the work of cream. They can do the work of mayonnaise. This chickpea-based white sauce proves the point on a smaller scale, and it will change how you think about dressings and dips.
Mexican White Sauce Made Healthier with Chickpeas
What to Do With the Mirepoix Scraps
Eight cups of carrots, celery, and onions leaves you with ends and peels and the sad half-onion in the crisper.
Do not throw them out. Dehydrate them and blend them into a seasoning powder. Waste not, want not, as my mother said.
Reduce Food Waste with Mom’s Seasoning Blend
The Framework Behind the Food
This recipe did not come from nowhere. It came from a conviction that the Creator’s original design for human food is still the design that heals.
Genesis 1:29 is not a diet. It is a blueprint. The Eden Way is the whole conversation, and it explains why a casserole made of beans, vegetables, and whole grains is not deprivation. It is a return.
The Eden Way: Reclaiming Your Body, Mind, and Spirit
More From the Kitchen
Every recipe here is built the same way. Whole food. Plant based. No added oil. Nothing you cannot pronounce.
Baked Plant-Based Mac & “Cheese” with White Beans & Vegetables
Equipment
- 1 9×13 Casserole dish
Ingredients
Casserole
- 8 cups cooked whole wheat elbow macaroni slightly undercooked
- 4 cups cooked cannellini or Great Northern beans
- 4 cups riced cauliflower
- 2 diced zucchini
- 8 cups Mirepoix
Cheese Sauce
- 4 cups cooked cannellini or Great Northern beans
- 4 cups riced cauliflower
- 4 cups unsweetened soy milk
- 1 cups raw cashews
- 1¼ cups nutritional yeast
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons onion powder
- 2 teaspoons mustard powder
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika optional
- 1-2 teaspoons salt
- Black pepper to taste
- Water to thin as needed
Instructions
- Heat oven to 450°F.
- Blend the cheese sauce until completely smooth.
- In a large bowl combine cheese sauce with the remaining beans, cauliflower, and the rest of the vegetables. Toss everything to make sure cheese is coating all the vegetables and pasta
- Stir everything together until evenly coated.
- Cover tightly and bake for 45 minutes.
- Remove the foil and bake for 10–15 minutes more, until the top is lightly golden and the vegetables are tender.
- Let the casserole rest for 10 minutes before serving.
