Creamy Swede Vegan Mac And Cheese
This dairy free, creamy mac and cheese is thanks to a cunning combination of blended swede and cashew. It’s probably the best swede recipe I’ve tasted…!
Swede (or rutabaga as our American cousins call it) is one of those autumn/winter vegetables many people seem to struggle with. What to do with it? Boil it, roast it, puree it? It’s an enigma.
Fear not, I’m here to provide the tastiest swede recipe of them all. This creamy mock mac recipe. The blended swede is the key to this dish. It provides a wonderful smooth “cheesy” sauce for the pasta. If you’re looking for more tasty swede recipes, be sure to check out a list of my favourite swede recipes.
When To Eat
Swede is in season throughout autumn and winter in the UK. To enjoy this dish to the fullest, cook from October to February. Outside of these months you can switch out the swede for summer squash.
Creamy Swede Vegan Mac And Cheese
This meal is around 85% less polluting than the average UK meal.
Eating this recipe will save around 2.51 KG CO2e per person.
That’s equivalent to the emissions produced driving 20.71 KM in a modern car.
How do I calculate this?Ingredients
- 6 Tablespoons Nutritional Yeast
- 2 Teaspoons Miso Paste
- 1/2 Teaspoon White Pepper
- 2 Teaspoon Dijon Mustard
- 200 g Cashews (soaked overnight, or alternatively soak for 30mins in freshly boiled water.)
- 1 Medium (around 700g) Swede (peeled and cubed)
- 2 Medium Onion (peeled and roughly chopped)
- 2 Cloves Garlic (roughly chopped)
- 2 Slices White Bread
- 800 g Small Pasta
- 1 Tablespoon Vegetable Oil
- 100 ml Water
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 200˚c.
- Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and tip in the pasta. Boil for around 1/2 the recommended time on labelled on the packet, until the pasta begins to soften but still has a lot of bite. This normally takes about 3 minutes. Drain the pasta and leave to rest until needed.
- Place the soaked cashews into a high speed blender with the 100ml of water. Blitz until the cashews are smooth and creamy.
- Place the cubed swede, onion and garlic in a large saucepan and cover with water. Salt heavily, then cover and simmer for 20 minutes until the swede is soft.
- Once the swede is cooked, drain the vegetables and tip then into the blender with the cashews. Sprinkle in the nutritional yeast, white pepper, mustard and miso paste. Whiz the vegetable mixture until smooth. You may need to scrape down the sides of the blender to make sure everything mixes well.
- Place the slices of bread in a toaster and cook until golden brown. Place in a small blender and whiz into rough breadcrumbs.
- Combine the blended swede and pasta in a large oven safe pan. Top with the breadcrumbs and drizzle with the vegetable oil. Sprinkle a little kosher salt over the breadcrumbs. Then place in the oven for 15 – 20 minutes until the top of the mac and cheese is nicely browned.
- Serve immediately with seasonal veggies.
10 Comments
Kostja
November 22, 2020 at 6:29 pm
This was absolutely delicious, thank you! I chopped the veg rather fine so they were done in 10 minutes, which turned this into a dinner that was only very enjoyable, but also quite fast.
hugo
November 22, 2020 at 6:30 pm
Amazing, great to hear!
Katie
March 28, 2021 at 5:00 pm
I had been fretting over what to make with a swede that was about to go bad and right before I gave in and made yet another stew I found this recipe. Absolutely delicious and easy. We’ll definitely be making this again.
hugo
March 28, 2021 at 5:06 pm
Amazing Katie – glad you enjoyed it. I love this recipe too!
Claud
April 14, 2021 at 9:25 am
Tried it last night as I had some Swede left over, and what a great dish! Loved it! Although only had half of the ingredients, I found it fed 4 people well as a side with some vegan sausages :-)
hugo
April 14, 2021 at 9:26 am
Delighted to hear Claud!
Sam Hartshorne
July 31, 2021 at 12:50 pm
Thanks for the recipe for using the Swedes gonna try the red lentil and Swede soup. Nice to get a recipe with out the 30,000 word essay before the instructions. Will keep you posted
hugo
July 31, 2021 at 2:51 pm
No problem Sam, hope you enjoy it.
Frances
March 21, 2022 at 7:02 pm
This is so good! I’ve only licked the back of the spoon so far, but let’s face it, that’s the ultimate test. Very easy to follow instructions. I put in more miso and mustard, but I pretty sure I overdid so be careful out there!
How long do you think the sauce alone will freeze for?
hugo
March 22, 2022 at 9:22 am
Haha so true, the spoon test never fails! The sauce should be fine for up to a month in the freezer. Enjoy!