Baked Vegan Mac and Cheese with Everything Bagel Crust

This Everything Bagel Vegan Mac and Cheese is the best easy family dinner recipe for inspiring more Meatless Mondays in your family.

Course Main Dish

Cuisine American

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 1 10

Total Time 1 25

Servings

Calories 563kcal

Preheat oven to 400 F.
To a large nonstick skillet, heat the olive oil over medium low heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until fragrant and caramelized, about 45-60 minutes.
Meanwhile, to a high speed blender, puree the cashews, broth, lemon juice, salt, nutritional yeast and turmeric until very smooth.
Meanwhile, cook the whole grain pasta for 2 minutes less than the recommending cooking time on the package.
Add the pasta and sauce to the skillet with the caramelized onions and toss to coat.
In a bowl, mix together the poppyseed, sesame seeds, garlic flakes, onion flakes and kosher salt.
In another bowl, mix the vegan butter and panko.
To a 9 inch square or round oven-safe dish, layer half of the pasta and top with 1 cup of the vegan shreds. Add the remaining pasta.
Top with the remaining 1 cup of vegan cheese shreds, the panko breadcrumbs and the everything bagel spice. Bake for 10-15 minutes on the top shelf until browned. Serve immediately.

You can make your everything bagel seasoning ahead of time. You can combine the ingredients and store it in an airtight container inside of your pantry for up to a year and use it in whatever you like.
If you don't have panko, you can substitute in (gluten free) breadcrumbs.
Be patient with the onions. Caramelized onions need time to slowly cook and deepen in colour, flavour, and sweetness. Onions have natural sugar in them that'll help with caramelizing so you don't need to add any extra sugar.
Make sure you are using raw cashews (not roasted) and that they're soaked beforehand. If you forgot to soak them, you can try and the quick soak method by boiling it in water for around 20 minutes.