I have been dying to add butternut squash into my Mac ‘n Cheeze recipe ever since I featured Lou’s Macaroni Un-Cheese recipe in my Recipe Link Love last week. Butternut squash pureed into macaroni and cheese just sounds like a match made in heaven, doesn’t it? It is also a fun way to sneak in another veggie.
I also happen to love Butternut Squash, but I always forget to buy it at the grocery store, so this was a great reminder to buy one.
I ended up playing around with my original cheese sauce recipe and I made two versions, the second one I will be sharing with you today.
The first thing you do is peel and chop half of a Butternut Squash. Place it into a bowl and add a teaspoon of olive oil and some salt ‘n pepa!
Roast in the oven for 40 minutes at 425F, flipping once half way through baking. You can do this ahead of time if preferred.
Buttery squashy deliciousness!
While the squash is roasting, make your ‘cheeze sauce’ in the food processor. I adapted my original recipe quite a bit and I was really happy with the result. This cheeze sauce is also easier to make than the other version which is always nice.
Now, add the roasted squash into the cheeze sauce and process until smooth. It makes about 3.5 cups of sauce.
Cook your desired pasta. I used a full bag (~450 grams or 4.5 cups dry pasta) of Brown Rice Penne for the casserole option.
Drain the pasta and add in the cheese sauce. Depending on how much sauce you want, you might not use it all. I also added some peas and you can get creative with any kinds of mix-ins you want. Broccoli is also fantastic. You can also add a bit of non-dairy milk if the sauce thickens up too much.
At this point you can enjoy your pasta a couple ways:
1) Heat the mixture in the pot and serve immediately.
2) Pour the mixture into a casserole dish, top with breadcrumbs, and bake in the oven for about 20-25 minutes.
For my first trial, I baked it in the oven and for the second trial I enjoyed it heated up straight from the pot without baking. I think I like it straight from the pot because it isn’t as thick and heavy as the casserole.
If baking in the oven, add on your breadcrumbs.
After, 20-25 minutes you have a fun B’nut Squash Mac ‘n Cheeze that will serve 3-4 people for a main course.
If you serve it straight from the pot, the great thing is that you can make only as much as you want. If you only want 1 serving of pasta, you can add as much sauce as you need and then store the rest in the fridge. I’m not sure how long the sauce keeps in the fridge (3-4 days would be my guess), but I’m sure the sauce recipe can also be halved too!
Butternut Squash Mac ‘n Cheeze: Two Ways
Butternut Squash idea from Lou. Cheese sauce adapted from my Mac ‘n Cheeze II.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 butternut squash, peeled and chopped (yields: 3.5 cups raw)
- 3/4 cup raw cashews
- 1 cup non-dairy milk (I used unsweetened + unflavoured soy milk), or more to thin out
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 2 tsp kosher salt, or to taste
- 6-7 tbsp Nutritional yeast (provides the cheesy consistency)
- 1/2 tsp dijon mustard
- 1/2 tsp or a bit more of dried Italian seasoning
- 1/4-1/2 tsp Tumeric powder, optional (gives the orangey colour)
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1/4-1/2 tsp Paprika + more to season
- Your pasta of choice (I used ~450 grams/4.5 cups dry penne for the casserole) + mix-ins
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F and line a baking sheet. In a bowl, season chopped squash with some oil (~1 tsp) and kosher salt (couple pinches) and stir. Add to baking sheet and roast in oven for 40 minutes, flipping once half way through baking.
2. If making the baked casserole: Process 1 slice of bread + 1 tbsp Earth balance until crumbs form in a food processor. Set aside. If you plan on enjoying it straight from the pot you can skip this step.
3. Assemble your cheeze sauce ingredients (cashews, non-dairy milk, garlic, lemon, salt, nutritional yeast, pepper, mustard, seasonings) and add just the cashews to food processor. Process until a fine crumb forms similar to corn meal. Now add in the rest of the cheese sauce ingredients and process until smooth. Leave the sauce in the processor as you will be adding the squash.
4. Cook your pasta according to package directions. When squash is finished roasting, add it to the food processor and blend it with the cheese sauce until smooth. Adjust to taste. The sauce will thicken up with time. If at any point the sauce becomes too thick, you can add a bit of milk to thin it out.
5. Drain and rinse pasta with cold water. Now add the pasta back into the same pot and add your desired amount of cheeze sauce on top. Stir well. Add in any desired mix-ins like peas or broccoli. You can either heat this up in the pot, or pour it into a casserole dish (I used a 4 cup dish), sprinkle on breadcrumbs + paprika, and bake it at 350 for about 20-25 minutes. The casserole will serve about 4 people if you use 450 grams dry macaroni or penne. Store any leftover sauce in the fridge and use within a few days.
The first trial I made came out just OK (I think I used too much lemon juice and cashews), but Eric and I both enjoyed the second trial! You can’t really detect the butternut squash, but it does provide a nice flavour overall and I love getting in another vegetable. For the second trial, I reduced the lemon, cut the cashews in half, and adjusted the rest of my cheeze sauce ingredients.
I encourage you to adjust the sauce to your own taste buds because I find that vegan cheeze sauces are such a ‘personal preference’ kinda thing!
The casserole is fun, but I think for simplicity sake, I prefer heating it up in a pot and enjoying it immediately. I’m an instant gratification kinda gal when it comes to pasta.
Reno Talk
Thank you for your nice comments and suggestions on my home reno before and after post. :) A couple readers suggested that the living room would look great with Navy paint and I think that is a lovely idea! Navy and orange go together really nicely. I talked to Eric about it and he loved the idea too. I think we might use Navy walls with white trim for the living room. I have a feeling it might be tough to pick a shade of navy though. If anyone out there has a shade of navy paint they enjoy, I would love your suggestions!
Here are a few pictures I found for inspiration:
We are also considering leaving the crown molding intact and painting over it + shaving the popcorn. We’ll have to see how it goes!
Oh, and I fell in love this this colour for our bathroom…it is called Lavender Lace by Para Paint.
I love girly looking bathrooms. I haven’t mentioned this paint idea to Eric yet…It might have to be one of those ‘Surprise! Look what I did while you were at work today!’ kinda jobs. ;)
PS- I am going through cupcake withdrawal today.
Hey just wanted to let you know I made this sauce before and it was fabulous. I was halfway through making it yesterday in preparation for dinner when *gasp* I realized I was almost out of pasta….so I whipped up some pizza dough and used the cheeze sauce in place of tomato sauce. It was delicious :)
love that idea!
I made this for dinner tonight and my husband loved it! We both were big mac and cheese lovers before we went vegan. It had a definite comfort food vibe to it. We love the bread crumbs on it as well. Great recipe and I plan to make this for my carnivore loving parents to get them to see vegan food tastes amazing as well. Thank you!
I have yet to purchase nutritional yeast. I’ve tried the grocers around here but none have it! So I will definitely be ordering online in the near future. However, in the meantime, I did google substitutes for nutritional yeast and found a couple postings on pine nuts. I toasted them first then pureed them in the blender with the cashews and other ingredients and it was very good! I used a little extra squash so it wouldn’t be too “nutty” and the family loved it. I can’t wait to try it with some nutritional yeast though! Thank you for sharing all of this with us. It is a big help to all of us vegans who are still “foodies” ;) keep up the good work!!
Hey! Last night I made this recipe but added steamed broccoli. It was wonderful! My husband rated it a 10 for the best macaroni and cheese recipe he’s had. I really loved it too. I’m excited that it can be made low-fat. Thank you for sharing!
Made the Mac’n Cheese two nights ago for dinner and must say, it’s almost a little ridiculous how good that sauce is! Today marks my first month of being vegan, and thanks to recipes like this one (and many others from your blog) it’s been incredibly easy. Can’t wait for your cookbook!
This dish was a amazing! Thanks for sharing! For the bread crumbs I used sourdough (which gave the dish a whole lot of flavor), added sliced zucchini and a little sprinkle of vegan cheese on the top( gave it a lite creamy sensation). Yum yum!
this has become our favorite meal! i am making a bunch of sauce now so my SO can just make up some noodles whenever he gets hungry :)
Do you happen to know the nutrition facts for this? Loved it BTW!
My husband loved this. We added broccoli, corn, and a small amount of pumpkin seeds. We will be having this again. Thanks!
Hi! What do you guys think of replacing some of the pasta with chopped up baked white potatoes? i know that sounds sorta weird, but I have a lot of digestive issues with gf pasta (GF for medical reasons) but REALLLLY miss mac & chz! Also, how important is the nooch? (issues with that too). i know… trying to change this recipe a lot, but it looks SO DELICIOUS!
I absolutely love that this recipe does not use oil. It is delicious, healthy and decadent. I have tried it twice: once with Butternut Squash and once with Patty Pan Squash- both times were outstanding!
just made this tonight, excellent. thank you
I’ve been drooling over your mac and cheese pictures for over a year and am soooo glad I have finally tried this recipe! My husband was very skeptical, but horray! he loved it too.
I always try to follow the recipe exactly the first time but ended up using almost the whole squash as it shrunk so much when roasted. However it turned out a bit thick so next time I’d just add more almond milk. Or less squash… but the squash is so so good. Thank you for the great recipe!
Made this last night, and it was so delicious! Used quinoa/corn pasta. Added peas and several dashes of cayenne pepper. It is definitely one of my favorite mac ‘n cheese recipes! :) Can’t wait until your cookbook is released!
Just made this for me and my dairy-loving family. They really loved it, even though the sauce went a bit dry as I put it in the oven. I’ll just add some more milk next time. I also put in some brussels sprouts chopped in halves and it was AMAZING.
I really love cheese and at first I was very skeptical whether this would really please my taste buds but it DEFINITELY did!
Thanks a lot for sharing this recipe! :)
Could you make this for Thanksgiving a head of time and warm in the slow cooker?
Do you think it would work to make this up the night before then sprinkle with breadcrumbs and bake the next day??
LOVE butternut squash – can’t wait to try this recipe out over the weekend!
Just here to leave another glowing review! This is fantastic…. Though it might not have been the best thing that I ate it for four meals straight…. =P
I’m eating this recipe as I write this review because it’s that good. I did the version where you don’t bake it like a casserole. I used the refrigerated/pre-packaged butternut squash from Trader Joe’s. Although I didn’t measure out how much it was, it tastes like the right amount. Using this made the process much quicker because I was able to microwave it. You could probably steam fresh butternut squash too. The sauce tastes like it could be on the inside of ravioli! I put it on brown rice fusilli though. I also added sweet peas and steamed cauliflower. Delicious :)