Butternut Squash Mac n' Cheeze

Last night, my kid ate squash, nutritional yeast, and a whole pile of kale! A miracle... or Angela Liddon?

Angela is a woman who knows how to make the healthiest food even more fantastic, and I love combing her site for recipes that not only deliver the nutrition but work well on a boat too. Yesterday, I spotted this simple "mac n' cheese" recipe, which was originally vegan and gluten free. You can do that too by subbing in the appropriate spots, but I went ahead with the dairy and multi-grain elbow pasta.

Here is the result:

Four year old happily eats bowl of squash and kale!

You will need...

1 cup cooked and smashed butternut squash. I bought a bag of frozen cubes. You could use canned.
1 tbsp butter (or a non-dairy butter replacer)
1 cup milk (or use unsweetened rice or almond milk)
1 tbsp cornstarch
5 tbsp nutritional yeast. How I love nutritional yeast!
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp garlic powder
3/4 tsp kosher salt (or to taste) & ground black pepper, to taste
4 servings multi-grain macaroni (8oz or half a 16oz package). Use brown rice pasta if gluten free.
2-3 cups kale finely chopped (or spinach, peas, etc.)

1)  Warm squash in pan with a little water to prevent burning. When warm and soft, smash with fork.

 

2) Prepare the cheeze sauce in a saucepan on the stove top. Add butter over low-medium heat. In a bowl, whisk together milk and cornstarch (or flour) until clumps are gone. Add into pan and whisk. Stir in remaining ingredients (nutritional yeast, Dijon, garlic, salt and pepper) and whisk over low heat until thickened ~5 mins.

Sizzle sizzle

This sauce is so yummy! I couldn't stop "sampling" it.

3) Cook your pasta according to package directions. The sauce makes enough to cover 4 servings of pasta.

 

When the pasta is done cooking, drop your chopped kale on top, into the water. Give a quick stir, count to five, and drain.

4) Blend your smashed squash with the cheeze sauce in same pan. You don't need a blender, if you have thoroughly smashed your squash, it will blend in nicely by hand.  If using canned, it will also stir into the sauce nicely.

Blend and blend and blend.

5) Return the drained macaroni and kale to pasta pot. Add cheeze sauce and blend. Warm gently if needed. 

 

6) Serve into bowls and enjoy!

Angela's pics are better than mine, but it tastes great!!