Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese. {healthy}
Let me preface this blog entry, I am NOT a fan of mac and cheese. Never have been. Plus my kids aren’t in love with it either. So we harvested 3 butternut squashes today and I had to come up with something to do with them. My girls aren’t in love with butternut squash soup so I wanted to do something different. I began by roasting them.
First step:
Slice the squash in half and place on a cookie sheet (lined or unlined). Sprinkle with salt, pepper and fresh Rosemary. Place in a preheated 425 degree oven for 60-70 minutes or until fork tender. Remove and let cool completely.
Second step… well what to do with these lovely roasted squashes now? I thought I would puree them into a sauce. For what? I still had no idea. So I removed the skin and tossed the flesh into my blender. I added 1/2 cup of non fat, plain Chobani. Too thick for my blender! Ha! I needed liquid. I added 1/2 cup of chicken broth (veggie broth would work as well). Still, too thick! I added 1 cup of white wine. Yes… I did! Then I added some additional Rosemary. 4 garlic cloves. Shaved some asiago cheese (1/2 cup). Salt and pepper. It still seemed really thick. I poured it into a stock pot and heated it up. I added additional broth and kept stirring. It was so creamy and delicious.
Okay so now what??? Ha ha. Sorry but this is my thought process.
Step three! Pasta! I cooked up some tri-colored pasta. Took a ladle full of the pasta water and added it to the sauce. Drained the pasta and then combined the two. Seemed to be reminiscent of a mac n cheese but so much better for you and totally fabulous! I spooned the mixture into a pretty new baking dish and decided it needed a topping!
Step 4: To a mixing bowl I added 1 cup of Panko bread crumbs and 2 tablespoons of melted butter. Give it a good toss to coat and sprinkle on to of the pasta mixture. Broil, on low, for about 1 minute. Keep an eye on this because it will burn fast! Then serve!
This dish was very well-received. Everyone gobbled it down, having NO idea what it was π Ha ha.
Sorry for the babbling and the non-typical writing style for a recipe but that’s how I rolled through this one. You can certainly add, delete by preference. Enjoy!
— Knead to Cook
This sounds great! I’ve been meaning to try a butternut squash mac n cheese for a while now. Glad to know your family enjoyed this even as non-mac n cheese fans!
I kind of like the idea of playing with the proportions a bit to get the sauce to what’s right depending on our own preference. I am a little bit curious about how big your 3 squashes were though and whether you used all 3? Thanks!
They were quite average. Probably weighed 2.5 lbs each. I hope this helps!
I LOVE butternut squash and have been wanting to try this very thing. Just got 3 of them yesterday – this recipe has been added to my list of to-try-soon.
Thanks –
That’s great! I have to admit, it was creamy deliciousness :))) Pop back and let me know what you thought of it! Robin
Ooh, definitely appreciating posts like this since I’m trying to cut back on cheese! Plus I loooove butternut squash- roasted, baked, soup-ed, anything!
I totally get your method- that’s how most of my recipes tend to go π
Ha ha… glad I’m not alone! We loved this recipe… hope you do too! Let me know what you think when you try it. Thanks Christy! oxoxox
This sounds awesome! When I saw it on Facebook, I couldn’t wait to read about it. I have a hard time getting my middle daughter to eat anything other than carrots so I’m definitely going to give this a try! I think it sounds fantastic so it will be made at my house this week for sure.
YAY Kate!!! I’m glad you found the recipe. We aren’t fans of mac n cheese but wow this is really tasty plus a super flexible recipe. Pop back and let me know how everyone likes it π