Look, there are a lot of reasons a person might set out to find the best vegan boxed mac and cheese. They could be vegan, lactose intolerant, FODMAPing, or just super into trying dairy alternatives (@my dad). But no matter what your reason for reaching past the classic boxed mac and cheese and choosing a vegan alternative, we here at Sporked want to make sure you know what you are getting yourself into.
That said, what makes vegan mac and cheese the best vegan mac and cheese?
As a cheese lover who happens to be friends with a bunch of vegans (I know, what happened?!), I have some thoughts. The best vegan mac and cheese needs to resemble mac and cheese. It needs to be creamy, it needs to be umami, and it should be reminiscent of real cheese in some way but not necessarily all ways (I’ll get to this later). It should not have any extremely off flavors, weird funks, or sit in a strange uncanny flavor valley of “tangy but distinctly not in a ‘cheddar’ way.” We tried a bunch of popular brands—including vegan Kraft mac and cheese—to find the best of the best, so without further ado, let’s see which boxed vegan mac and cheese had us (vegan) cheesin’.
(Okay wait, a little more ado: When you are using milk be sure to use a neutral flavored milk; I used an unsweetened soy milk for one of them that still happened to have a bit of a vanilla flavor to it—I disregarded that in my scoring, but just a warning to the vegans out there.)
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- Plant Based Kraft Mac & Cheese White Cheddar Style With NotCheese
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This vegan Kraft mac and cheese is extremely creamy. It has great texture—we love the medium-sized shells—and is a bit less tangy than the other Kraft vegan mac and cheese we tried (stay tuned for that). That said, if you are looking for a mild, creamy, white shell mac, this will do the trick. One negative note is that this mac does have a bit of a sweet, almost frosting-like flavor, and before you tell me it’s because I used the wrong soy milk to make it, the other Kraft mac I tried still had a bit of this same flavor even when I used a more neutral milk. I think it must have to do with the NotCheese.
Credit: Merc / Walmart
- Annie’s Vegan Mac Gluten Free Rice Pasta and Cheddar Flavor
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Annie’s vegan mac and cheese is the best vegan mac and cheese if you’re vegan and gluten free. It’s salty and creamy but not at all funky. The noodles are rice-based and have very little flavor, and I would definitely recommend cooking them on the longer side of the range in the cooking instructions. It’s 100% user error but the lower end of the range was…ahem…not enough time. I did, however, give ’em a little nuke in the microwave and the noods softened right up. This vegan boxed mac and cheese has a good, mild cheese flavor, will satisfy you if you are gluten and dairy-free, and is way less funky and more nostalgic than the other gluten- and dairy-free options we tried.
Credit: Merc / Target
- Plant-Based Kraft Mac & Cheese Original Flavor With NotCheese
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This vegan Kraft mac and cheese is creamy, tangy, salty, and sweet—I know “sweet” sounds weird, but it’s not in a super off-putting way. It’s unexpected but tasty, and it is offset by the fact that this stuff looks exactly like regular Kraft Mac & Cheese. A crucial difference though: the sauce is a bit thicker and stickier than the non-vegan OG, there is a little bit of a vanilla-y, nutty aftertaste, and it has a slight tang that I think is meant to evoke cheddar cheese but instead reminded us of cream cheese (or vegan cream cheese, I supposed). This is a nice, bright, boxed-mac-n-cheese orange, and it is also saltier than the other Kraft offering, in a good way. Spruce this up with a dash of hot sauce and some mix-ins, like frozen broccoli and/or vegan chicken, and you’re in business.
Credit: Merc / Walmart
- O Organics Vegan Mac Cheddar Style
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Never in a million years did I expect O Organics—a proprietary brand at Albertsons-owned grocery stores—to beat out big names like Kraft, Daiya, and Annie’s, but here we are. This boxed vegan mac and cheese isn’t super creamy (though the sauce definitely thickened as it cooled), but we ranked this so high because it tastes so much like the classic Kraft mac and cheese you knew and loved when you still ate dairy while still being vegan. It is salty and umami. If you’re looking for that nostalgic, bright-orange boxed mac and cheese flavor, this is the best vegan mac and cheese to seek out.
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Goodles Vegan is Believin’ Plant Based White Cheddar with Spirals
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We were so gosh darn pleasantly surprised by Goodles vegan mac and cheese. This white cheddar vegan mac is cheesy and garlicky in the best way and tastes exactly how cheesy garlic knots from a pizza place smell. The texture is like non-vegan Annie’s shells, except the pasta is fusilli-esque. One important thing to note is that while this is creamy, umami, and delicious, it doesn’t taste like cheese, per se. It’s a savory, creamy, vegan flavor bomb, and it pulls that off beautifully. Also, 12g of protein? Truly a win-win here. I would genuinely buy this one again for myself, and as previously stated, I am not vegan. Not even a little. That’s how I know it’s the best vegan mac and cheese.
Credit: Merc / Target
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Yes!!! I’ve been a big fan of O Organics for awhile now. Way better than most.
And it pairs well with vegan chick’n nuggets.