My husband said that this is one of my best recipes to date so I’m pretty proud of it. It’s also a GREAT recipe for hidden veggies because I swapped out cheese for butternut squash. No, I haven’t lost my mind. I promise it works. Let’s dive in.
Almost Vegan Mac & Cheese
Ingredients
1 butternut squash, cubed
1 1/2 cups dairy or plant-based milk
1/3 cup Bob’s Red Mill nutritional yeast – this is the secret to the cheese flavor without using real cheese
2 tsp salt
Pinch of black pepper
Pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 box pasta of choice – I used Banza chickpea pasta
Directions
- Peel and cube the butternut squash and place in a pot of boiling water for 20 minutes
- Once the squash is cooked, transfer the squash to the blender and use the leftover boiling water to cook the pasta (follow box directions for cooking time)
- Combine milk, squash, nutritional yeast, salt, garlic powder, and pepper into blender
- Blend until smooth. Add a dash of milk if it seems too thick.
- Drain the cooked pasta and transfer back into the same warm pan
- Combine the “cheese” sauce and the pasta in the pan and enjoy!
Notes
- We added some sliced venison hot dogs because my husband grew up loving hot dogs in his mac & cheese. So feel free to top it with a protein! The chickpea pasta does have a decent amount of protein in it, but the hot dog slices on top were really delicious.
