Vegan French Onion Mac & Cheese

Like most people with taste buds, I like French Onion Soup and Mac & Cheese, so naturally I had to put them together for this French Onion Mac & Cheese but Vegan!

I’m guessing you like the same since you are here, so let’s go over the ingredients!

ingredients for vegan French Onion Mac & Cheese

These are pretty straight forward ingredients, but here’s some tips and substitutions too!

The Onions!

We’ll need to caramelize some onions. This does take time, so you can make my Freezer Friendly Caramelized Onions for convenience if you like.

• Onions – I prefer using Yellow / Brown Onions, but feel free to use any onion that you like! I’ve never tried Red Onions, but I know some folks do that.
• Vegan Butter – You can also just use some oil or a mixture of both.
• Salt – This will not only help season the onions, but will speed up the cooking process by drawing out their water.
• Sugar – I don’t typically add sugar, but you can towards the end to help sweeten them a bit more.
• Vegan Beef Broth – We’ll be adding this to infuse the French Onion Soup flavor. You can use veggie broth instead.
• Worcestershire Sauce – This gives the onions a savory and acidic kick. Make sure it’s vegan, I also have a recipe to make it from scratch.
• Brandy – This is totally optional but a nice splash of Brandy really goes well if you have some handy!
• Thyme – Fresh Thyme will also lend to the flavor of French Onion Soup!

mac & Cheese

For the Mac and Cheese, we won’t be getting too crazy, but here’s some notes!

• Pasta – I like Elbows, but you can use Cavatappi or any similar shaped pasta.
• Bechamel – We’ll be making a simple bechamel with vegan butter, flour and milk.
• Dijon Mustard – I really love adding a little Dijon for some extra “French” flavor (plus I love mustard!)
• Cheese – For the cheese, use your favorite Vegan Cheese! I like Follow Your Heart, I’ve used their Mozzarella, Gouda and Parmesan in this and it works out great. Go easy on the Gouda as too much will overpower the sauce.

How to make French Onion Mac & Cheese.

First, let’s tackle the onions! These do take some time, but they are very easy to make and worth it!

First, slice your onions in half, and then julienne them, between 1/8 – 1/4 inch. Make sure you slice them pole to pole.

If you are unfamiliar with this, if the onion was the Earth, slice it as if you were slicing from the North Pole to South Pole. Don’t slice them along the equator. This will help the onions from becoming mushy.

Melt some vegan butter in a large dutch oven or wide skillet. You can also use two separate pots or pans if you have the stovetop space. This will speed things up, or you can do even more onions.

Add the onions, stir to coat them in the butter. Add a few pinches of salt, stir again. And now, we wait.

At first, you can crank the heat to medium high, this will speed up the process. Just stir the onions every minute or so. Just keep an eye on them and if it seems like they are going to burn, lower the heat.

Then simply cook them until they are golden brown, keeping an eye on the heat and adjusting as needed.

This is what mine look like after about an hour. Finish off with an optional splash of Brandy, the Vegan Beef Broth, Worcestershire and Thyme.

Remove the onions from the pan and set aside. Then add in the vegan butter and let it melt.

Add some red wine vinegar, and then a bit of the flour. Whisk to combine, and then add more flour and whisk again. Repeat this until all the flour has been incorporated, it should look like wet sand!

Next, do the same with the plant milk. Add in a bit and whisk to combine, and repeat until all the milk has been incorporated. It will be very thick at first, but don’t worry, just keep adding milk and it’ll get silky smooth eventually.

Next add in the Dijon Mustard and Vegan Cheese, stir to melt.

Stir in the onions and pasta, and you are done!

Can I bake this Mac & Cheese?

I haven’t personally tried baking this, but you could certainly try it. I would say 350 F for about 30 minutes would do the trick.

What I did test out was simply topping it with more cheese and broiling it, and if you like the cheesy crust from a baked mac but don’t want to risk drying it out, it’s a good option!

Storage & Reheating

Store in the fridge in an airtight container for 3 – 5 days.

To reheat, you can do so on the stovetop, or I typically just microwave it in 30 second intervals, stirring in between until it’s as hot as I like it (which takes about 90 seconds or so per serving). Feel free to add a bit more milk if it feels dry.

Vegan French Onion Mac & Cheese