Craving a comfort food dinner that’s still veggie-packed and wholesome? Try this creamy vegan truffle mac with crunchy kale topping! The cooking time is about 45 minutes with both the oven and stovetop. The luscious sauce is loaded up with butternut squash, zucchini, roasted red peppers, potato, leeks, and carrots. For richness and flavour, I incorporate truffle oil, miso, Tamari, garlic, spices, nutritional yeast, lemon, and soaked raw cashews. Serve this unbelievably rich sauce with cooked pasta of your choice and crushed up crispy-baked kale on top. This dish is ideal for the lovers of creamy vegan pasta options.

Certain vegetables can be blended up into a creamy sauce and offer a shockingly rich mouthfeel. I used pretty much all of my go-tos in this creamy vegan truffle mac! Dices of carrot, potato, leeks, butternut squash, peeled zucchini and jarred roasted red peppers get blended up with all sorts of punchy ingredients for a robust, ultra creamy sauce. Rich truffle pasta, but with a health vibe spin. This sauce is a more veggie-packed version of the one in my baked potatoes with cheesy roasted red pepper sauce & broccoli.

I utilize a lot of umami-rich ingredients and just very strongly flavoured pantry items to punch up the sauce (so that it doesn’t taste like glorified puréed vegetable soup). Miso, truffle oil, and Tamari bring savoury depth. Nutritional yeast has that slight cheesy flavour. Lemon juice is squeezed in for tang. Grainy mustard and spices play their part too. Soaked raw cashews offer that crucial richness! If folks are curious, I use this truffle oil by Martelli, which contains only olive oil and white truffle.

More cozy vegan pasta recipes:

• 30-Minute Easy Lentil Bolognese
• Creamy Vegan Spinach and Mushroom Pasta
• Pasta with Creamy Eggplant-Walnut Pasta Sauce
• Creamy Vegan Penne Pasta with Rosé Sauce

I top this vegan pasta with crushed up kale chips essentially. Any time I’m making a mac and cheese-inspired recipe, I absolutely need a crunchy topping for texture contrast. I thought the kale would be a fun and unusual option here that would also provide a pretty visual. It also brings us up to 7 vegetables total! I usually have to stop myself from eating half of the kale before the pasta’s done haha.

This recipe is best right when it’s made. I find that the sauce thickens a bit too much as it sits with the pasta. You can definitely make the sauce alone up to 5 days ahead of time though! Just keep it in a sealed container in the fridge and reheat on the stove before combining with pasta.

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Creamy Vegan Truffle Mac with Crunchy Kale Topping

This creamy vegan truffle mac contains 7 vegetables! The lush texture of the blended sauce comes from cooked squash, potato, zucchini, and roasted red pepper. Leeks, miso, garlic, nutritional yeast, spices, lemon, and truffle oil bring flavour and depth to the sauce.

5 from 11 votes

Print Recipe

Prep Time: 45 minutes mins

Cook Time: 45 minutes mins

Total Time: 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Servings 4

Ingredients

Crunchy Kale

• 4 cups chopped kale, lightly packed
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• ¾ teaspoon garlic powder
• ¾ teaspoon onion powder
• sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste

Truffle Mac

• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 medium leek (white and light green parts only), sliced (1 heaped cup sliced leeks)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• ¾ teaspoon onion powder
• ¾ teaspoon garlic powder
• ¾ teaspoon paprika
• 1 medium potato, peeled and chopped (1 cup chopped potato)
• ½ small butternut squash, peeled and chopped (1 cup chopped squash)
• 1 small zucchini, peeled and chopped (1 cup chopped zucchini)
• 1 medium carrot, peeled and chopped (½ cup chopped carrot)
• sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 ½ cups vegetable stock or water
• 1 roasted red pepper (from a jar)
• ½ cup raw cashews, soaked for at least 2 hours and drained
• ¼ cup nutritional yeast
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 ½ tablespoons light miso
• 2 teaspoons grainy mustard
• 2 teaspoons truffle oil
• 1 teaspoon Tamari
• 1 lb (454 grams) elbow pasta (I used whole wheat)

Equipment

• Blender

Notes

•  I prefer roasted red peppers in a jar here because they tend to be sweeter and have more flavour overall. 
• Cashews really do make this sauce so creamy. If you need to substitute them, my go-tos are raw sunflower seeds, pine nuts, or raw macadamia nuts (soak mac nuts for at least 8 hours).
• Peeling the zucchini enhances the creamy orange colour of the sauce. If the visuals are not important to you, you can leave the skin on.
• You need just enough vegetable stock/water to barely cover the vegetables as they simmer. If in doubt, veer towards less as you can always add more to the blender when whizzing up the sauce at the end.
• The truffle oil that I buy (by Martelli Foods) contains just olive oil and white truffle. I recommend seeking out something similar!

Instructions

Make the crunchy kale:

• Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Place the kale on the baking sheet and toss with the olive oil, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper. Rub the oil and seasoning into the leaves and then spread out in a single layer. Bake in the oven until beginning to crisp up, about 15 minutes. The kale will continue to crisp as it cools. Set aside.

Make the vegan truffle mac:

• Heat a medium (3 quart) saucepan over medium heat. Once hot, pour in the olive oil and swirl it around. Add the leeks and sauté until soft, about 3-4 minutes. Add the garlic, onion powder, garlic powder, and paprika. Sauté for another minute.
• Add the chopped potato, butternut squash, zucchini, and carrot to the pot and stir. Season well with salt and pepper. Pour in the vegetable stock and cover the pot. Bring the vegetables to a boil and then simmer until potatoes are tender when pierced with a knife, about 15 minutes.
• Transfer the vegetables and broth to an upright blender. To the blender, add the roasted red pepper, drained cashews, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, miso, mustard, truffle oil, and Tamari. Blend this mixture on high until you have a thick and creamy sauce, adding more stock/water if necessary. Give the sauce a taste and adjust seasoning to your tastes if necessary (more salt, lemon, truffle oil etc).
• Cook the pasta according to package directions, drain, and return to the pot. Pour the sauce over the pasta and stir to combine. Put the pot back on the stove to heat through if necessary.
• To serve, portion the truffle mac into bowls and then crush the crunchy kale over top with your hands. I like to grind extra black pepper on the top as well.

Author: Laura Wright

Course: Main Course, Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Diet: Vegan, Vegetarian

Keyword: baking sheet, blender, butternut squash, carrots, cashews, fall, garlic, garlic powder, grainy mustard, kale, leeks, lemon, lemon juice, miso, nutritional yeast, olive oil, onion powder, paprika, potatoes, roasted red peppers, saucepan, spring, tamari, truffle oil, winter, zucchini