When it comes to vegan chefs, I’m a hardcore Chloe Coscarelli stan. Let me be quite clear: I have all her cookbooks (some of which are signed), I’ve watched pretty much all her Today Show appearances, and my husband and I make her recipes all the time.

The reason I love Chloe so much is because her recipes are not only ASTOUNDING, but also unbelievably easy. Seriously, most of her recipes take less than 20 minutes to make and require only a few easy-to-find ingredients. Chloe’s the chef that first taught me about avocado pesto pasta (OMG!), how to make my own Bolognese sauce from scratch (so simple and delicious), and that shitake mushrooms, when roasted right, taste just like bacon.

Last year, I picked up Chloe’s newest cookbook, Chloe FLAVOR, and have been working my way through it. And this week I tried a recipe that truly blew me away, her Butternut Mac. My husband loves anything creamy so I thought this would be an interesting recipe to try – especially since, at first glance, this seemed almost too easy. It has so few ingredients, and with almost no oil, it’s actually a healthy version of this classic dish.

But let me tell you, you would never know this shit is healthy because it tastes downright naughty. Seriously, when we first made the sauce we were eating it out of the Vitamix with bread like fondue – that’s how good it was! I’ve made many vegan version of mac and cheese over the years, and not only was this one the most simple, I can honestly say it’s my new favorite.

I wanted to share the recipe so I reached out to Chloe and asked if it was cool and she gave me permission — thank you, Chloe ❤️ So now, without further ado, here is the most incredible vegan mac & cheese recipe in the world. You’re welcome!

Butternut Mac

Serves 6

About 5 cups (20 ounces) peels and cubed butternut squash

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 ¼ teaspoons sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 pound elbow macaroni (we used whole wheat fusilli)

2 cups water, plus more as needed

½ cup raw cashews

1 garlic clove

½ teaspoons dried rosemary

To roast the butternut squash, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. On a small rimmed baking sheet, toss the squash with the olive oil, ¼ teaspoon of the salt, and season with pepper. Roast for about 30 minutes, until fork tender, turning occasionally with a spatula during baking.

Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook to al dente according to the package directions. Drain the pasta and return it to the pot, off the heat.

In a blender, combine the roasted butternut squash, water, cashews, garlic rosemary, and remaining 2 teaspoons of salt. Blend on high speed for a bout 2 minutes, until very smooth. Add the sauce to the pot with the pasta and toss to coat. Taste and adjust the seasoning. If the sauce is too thick, add water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the desired consistency is reached. Dust with smoked paprika.

**Just a note here. My husband and I added half a cup of nutritional yeast to the sauce to give it more a cheddar-y taste. It was still incredible without it, but we think it added an even cheesier flavor. Additionally, Chloe recommends adding her shitake bacon to this pasta, we opted for broccoli this time around. We basically took the florets of a couple heads of broccoli and lightly steamed them before adding to the pasta and sauce.