Jalapeño Popper Mac and Cheese — a plant-based American recipe by BOSH!
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Jalapeño Popper Mac and Cheese

This one is genuinely one of our all-time favourite comfort food mashups. Jalapeño poppers meet mac and cheese, and honestly, it's as good as it sounds. You get that creamy, cheesy sauce coating every piece of pasta, with smoky plant-based sausage crumbled through it and little hits of heat from the jalapeños. It's the kind of bowl that makes you go back for more even when you're already full. If you're after a crowd-pleasing weeknight dinner that feels a bit special, make this tonight.

Cook: 20 min
Serves 4

Before You Start

  • Large saucepan
  • Sieve
  • Grater
  • Microplane or box grater for nutritional yeast

Ingredients

  • 1 tbsp plant-based butter
  • 120g jalapeños chopped
  • 1 white onion
  • 3 plant-based sausages crumbled
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp pepper
  • 70g plant-based butter
  • 50g plain flour
  • 500ml plant-based milk
  • 150g plant-based cheese
  • 25g nutritional yeast
  • 250g macaroni pasta
  • breadcrumbs to garnish
  • 100g jalapeños to garnish

Method

1

Cooking the jalapeños

  • Add 1 tbsp dairy-free butter to the pan along with the onion and jalapeños
  • Cook until soft then add your cook plant-based sausages, crumbling them into the pan
  • Set the mixture aside
2

Cook the macaroni

  • Put the saucepan on the stove, pour in the water from the kettle, add a generous pinch of salt, pour in the macaroni and cook for 9 minutes (or follow the cooking instructions on the back of the packet)
3

Make the roux

  • Melt the dairy-free butter in the pan, sieve in the flour and stir it into the dairy-free butter to make a thick, sticky roux
  • Pour the dairy-free milk into the pan gradually, stirring constantly, until the sauce is smooth and creamy
4

Finishing the dish

  • Grate the dairy-free cheese and sprinkle the nooch into the pan, stirring constantly, until the dairy-free cheese has melted and combined with the sauce.
  • Sprinkle with black pepper
  • Add the jalapeño and sausage mix to the sauce along with the cooked macaroni
  • Stir until everything is combined
5

Time to serve

  • Serve in a bowl with toasted breadcrumbs and jalapeños

Tips & Variations

  • Dial up the heat: If you love it spicy, leave the jalapeño seeds in. If you want it milder, scrape them out. Either way it's delicious, just depends how brave you're feeling.
  • Sausage swap: We use plant-based sausages here but crumbled smoked tofu works brilliantly too. Ian's tried it loads of times and it gives a really nice texture.
  • Make it saucier: If your mac and cheese tightens up before you serve it, just splash in a little oat milk and stir it through. It loosens back up perfectly.

Why This Works

The trick here is cooking the jalapeños and onion low and slow so they go really soft and sweet before the sausage goes in. That base is what gives the whole dish its depth. The crumbled sausage adds smokiness and texture that makes it feel way more satisfying than your average mac and cheese.