Vegan Mac & Cheese Throwdown | GF So Delicious v. Annie’s
Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post. I was not approached to review these products or paid to review either of these. I purchased both products with my own money.
We eat a whole lot of mac and cheese in this house and while having little ones could be my excuse it’s really just because we simply love mac and cheese. I have probably made about 40 different versions of mac and cheese that ranged from amazing to absolutely dreadful.
The thing that we don’t often have though is boxed mac and cheese so I have decided that I want to try them all. I mean who else grew up on Velveeta Shells and Cheese or Kraft Mac and Cheese or if you were so lucky to grow up in Canada like my hubby you would have had Kraft Dinner which is completely different that Kraft Mac and Cheese. I am on a mission to find the best boxed vegan mac and cheese out there because frankly I think it will be fun.
For this first round I went with two that I didn’t even know existed until the other day at Whole Foods. The first is Annie’s Homegrown organic and gluten free elbows with a creamy sauce.
Ingredients required: non-dairy milk and optional non-dairy buttery spread (I used unsweetened almond milk and Earth Balance)
Cook time: Pasta was supposed to cook in 8-10 minutes but really took closer to 12.
Texture & Consistency of Pasta: chewy and slimy and not what I would describe as elbows.
Photo on the box v. actual dish: Close but the photo on the box shows off more flexible noodles and a thicker sauce
Taste: sweet, funky, disgusting
Thoughts: I’ll tell you “elbows and creamy sauce” should have been a giveaway that this was no real mac and cheese but alas we tried it anyway – oh and by tried it I mean Edith, Alder and myself all put one bite in our mouth and promptly spit it out after a few seconds of chewing.The sauce for this one is a base of sweet potato and pumpkin and now reflecting on the ingredients I don’t see anything in it that would make it remotely cheesy. Anyway regardless of whether or not this was intended to be a vegan mac and cheese (which I think it was because it is listed under vegan mac and cheese on the Annie’s website) or not this creamy sauced pasta was dreadful.
Would I Purchase Again? I wouldn’t even take a box if I found it for free.
Next up we have the Gluten Free So Delicious Dairy Free Mac & Cheese Cheddar Flavor. 
Ingredients required: non-dairy milk (unsweetened So Delicious coconut milk recommended) and non-dairy buttery spread (I used unsweetened almond milk and Earth Balance)
Cook time: Pasta was supposed to cook in 9 minutes and it did!
Texture & Consistency of Pasta: I thought that the pasta was great for gluten free pasta.
Photo on the box v. actual dish: I think it was pretty close to looking just like the photo.
Taste: creamy, sort of cheesy, a little tangy
Thoughts: So this mac and cheese was okay. I didn’t find it overly wonderful and I honestly thought it had a bit of a sour or off taste to it but it was edible. I ended up eating a small bowl of it with a ton of sriracha, Edith had a few bites but I think she wasn’t over the moon about it, however Alder ate his plate and most of Edith’s as well so we had at least one fan!
Would I Purchase Again? I would eat it if someone served it to me but I don’t think I would go out of my way to purchase it again. I will however be trying the pizza flavor because I’m curious to see how it is.
Clearly the winner of this throwdown is the Gluten Free So Delicious Dairy Free Mac & Cheese Cheddar Flavor.
Which two vegan mac and cheese should I try next?
