- Prep-time: / Ready In:
- Makes 6 cups
- Serving size: ¼ of recipe
- Print/save recipe
This scrumptious pasta recipe is turned into a restaurant-quality meal thanks to a homemade pimiento cheese sauce that’s so delicious you’ll want to lick the bowl. Chickpeas form the base of the luscious sauce, which gets seasoned with cheesy-tasting nutritional yeast, mustard, garlic powder, cayenne, and pimiento peppers. Feel free to use any shape of pasta you have on hand, but classic elbow noodles will really dial up the comfort factor of this quick and easy dish.
Tip: Saving some of the starchy pasta cooking water to stir in with the sauce is the secret to making this dish extra creamy.
Ingredients
- 1 cup canned no-salt-added chickpeas, undrained
- ⅓ cup nutritional yeast
- ½ teaspoon dry mustard
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ¾ cup unsweetened, unflavored plant-based milk
- ½ cup sliced scallions
- ½ cup jarred diced pimientos, drained
- 12 oz. dry whole wheat elbow macaroni
- Sea salt, to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
- For sauce, in a blender or food processor combine the first five ingredients (through cayenne). Cover and blend until smooth and creamy, gradually adding plant-based milk. Stir in scallions and pimientos.
- Cook macaroni according to package directions. Reserve ½ cup of the pasta cooking water; drain pasta. Return pasta to pot. Stir in sauce; stir in as much of the reserved pasta cooking water as needed to make creamy. Season with salt and black pepper. Sprinkle with parsley.
Per serving (¼ of recipe): 402 calories, 80 g carbohydrates, 19 g protein, 3 g total fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 g cholesterol, 211 mg sodium, 12 g fiber, 4 g sugar
Note: Nutritional information is provided as an estimate only.
Comments (11)
(4 from 9 votes)Honestly skip this. It is the first recipe from FoK that we were unable to save. I also agree with another comment that the SMELL is unbearable. I still have the AFTERTASTE even though we've eaten other food. I'm used to increasing the seasoning with recipes from the site, but nothing helped. We tried Dijon, Worcester, vegetable stock concentrate, lemon juice, extra nutritional yeast, and sadly even salt. Really sad about this one, especially after looking up other recipes (when we were searching for ideas to save the sauce). Thankfully we didn't sauce the noodles before tasting the sauce!
I like this with added Dijon mustard seasoned to taste. It gives it the kick it needs so it isn’t so bland. Nice this way
A very bland and literally nearly tasteless dish. There's no way this can be compare to restaurant-style as the recipe states. We have had a lot of cheesy vegan sauces, and this one has no flavor at all. FoK regularly seems to publish recipes that have not been tested even once.
this was not a great recipe and I typically love the Forks over Knives recipes. it was very very bland. I did though add some salt and canned corn and some homemade cashew cheese and then it was delicious. So I would say the recipe is a good base but not very tasty by itself!
Didn't care for this recipe. Chick peas gave it a slightly grainy texture inspite of using a vita mix blender. Flavor was not great either. Would not make again, threw left overs out.
Personally, I was not impressed with this dish. :( I couldn’t get over the smell and the taste was just off for me.
This uses only a partial can of chickpeas. How much of the can's liquid should be added? Can water be substituted if you use beans that you've cooked from dried? I avoid canned goods whenever possible.
The cheese sauce is super delicious. You could use it as a base and then add all sorts of things--chipotle, for example. Really like this recipe.
This sauce is quick and easy to prepare, and quite tasty. I didn't change anything in the recipe, except I omitted the cayenne. Tonight, I may add some frozen peas to the leftover sauce. I served it on whole wheat spaghetti, but I think it would also be a good topping for brown rice or quinoa.
This is the first plant based "mac-n-cheese" I have enjoyed and will definitely make again. First time for me eating pimientos, also. Delicious
Just made the cheese sauce, minus the pimientos and with a dash of vegan Worcestershire sauce, and had it over toast for a tasty vegan Welsh Rarebit!