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Healthier Mac’n’Cheese
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
- Diet: Vegetarian
Ingredients
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- 500 g macaroni (elbow) pasta
- 2 cup pumpkin, chopped + peeled
- 2 cup zucchini, chopped + peeled
- 2 cup cauliflower, chopped
- 100 g cheddar cheese, shredded
- 100 g cream cheese
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 tsp salt (skip salt completely if you’re making it for little ones)
- 1/4 cup breadcrumbs (if baking)
Instructions
- Boil macaroni in water for 7-8 minutes or until cooked.
- While macaroni is cooking, chop vegetables. Set the oven to fan grill on a high heat, 250c/480F (if baking).
- Remove macaroni from pot, drain and place in a casserole dish. Add vegetables to the same pot and fill with water, covering the vegetables. Cook for 7 minutes or until pumpkin can be pierced with a fork. Drain water.
- Place vegetables, salt, milk, cream cheese and cheddar cheese into a blender. Blitz until smooth.
- Pour sauce over the pasta and mix. Serve as is or bake under the grill for 5-10 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
Notes
This is comfort food made healthy! It’s rich, it’s creamy and also loaded with six sneaky serves of vegetables – making it ideal for kids and adults alike. You can’t taste or see the vegetables at all. This will keep in the fridge for a few days and can also be frozen. Enjoy!
- You don’t have to bake the mac and cheese. Kids will enjoy it just as much. Once the sauce is on the pasta, it’s ready to go – making this a 20-minute meal.
- The smaller your vegetables are chopped, the quicker they will cook. You can keep the skin on the zucchini, but it will affect the colour (and kids may notice).
- This recipe simply requires six cups of vegetables. If you only have pumpkin and cauliflower, just add another cup of each. Adjust depending on how much you have or each veg.
- If you want to save time, get chopped pumpkin.
- For a healthier option, use pulse or legume pasta. Use gluten-free pasta to make this recipe gluten-free.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
