Yesterday’s joke has actually turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy; I’ve been eating pumpkin non-stop all week. And I can’t seem to stop. Maybe there is some truth to my Long Weekend Hangover theory after all. Pumpkin does make everything better.
Oh, and I have a great Pumpkin chia pudding recipe coming up. It might be one of my all-time favourite quick & easy pumpkin recipes. It’s that exciting.
But so is this cheeze sauce…
I was thrilled to find out that many of you went crazy for my Butternut Mac ‘n Cheeze recipe. This recipe might go down as one of the most popular in 2011. I received all kinds of comments, tweets, Facebook comments, and emails about this recipe last week. It’s always good to know that you guys enjoy the same crazy things that I do!
I knew a pumpkin version of this cheeze sauce was not far away. Many of you commented and told me that you made a pumpkin version and it turned out great. I was pretty excited about how quickly it would come together. All I had to do was stir in a cup of canned pumpkin at the end of making the sauce. Quick and easy!
There’s no blender required. No food processor. Just a stove top (but I’m sure you could also make this in the microwave too).
This Pumpkin Cheeze sauce exceeded my expectations. I couldn’t keep my spoon out of it.
Ok, Ok, it was my finger. Sue me.
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Pumpkin Mac 'n Cheeze Sauce
Yield
~1.25-1.5 cups or approx. 4 servings
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Dear KD & Velveeta, deepest sympathies. xo. Adapted from Butternut Mac n Cheeze.
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp Earth Balance (or other non-dairy butter replacer)
- 3/4 cup unsweetened and unflavoured Almond milk
- 1 tbsp arrowroot powder (or cornstarch or flour)
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 6 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 cup canned pumpkin
- Kosher salt & black pepper, to taste (I used 1/2 tsp salt)
- herbs/seasonings, to taste (sage or cinnamon would be nice!)
Directions
- Add Earth balance in a pot over low-medium heat.
- In a small bowl, whisk together milk and arrowroot powder (or cornstarch or flour) and garlic powder until clumps are gone. Add into pot and whisk.
- Stir in nutritional yeast, Dijon, S & P and whisk over low heat until thickened (about 5-7 minutes or so). Lastly, add in 1 cup of canned pumpkin and stir until combined and heated through.
- Store in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to 7 days.
Nutrition Information
(click to expand)
This was so easy I wanted to shed tears of happiness. I’ve been having my share of frustrations with recipes over the past couple weeks and to have something come together perfectly on the first try was welcomed.
I love how orange the sauce is too. I never thought I would see the day when I would eat a cheeze sauce and feel healthy! The nutritional info was also a pleasant surprise (see end of recipe). I forgot how much protein and fibre nutritional yeast has in it!
I also wanted to point out that I made a couple adjustments to the original recipe. I cut the milk down to 3/4 cup instead of using 1 cup to make the sauce a bit thicker. I also cut down the salt to 1/2 tsp instead of 3/4 tsp. Lastly, I increased the nutritional yeast to 6 tbsp instead of 5 tbsp. I’ve updated these changes in the Butternut sauce recipe too.
I made two servings of pasta and added enough sauce until I felt like it was enough.
…which is a lot. :)
Bring it on!
As for which version I like better?
It’s close. I would have to say the butternut version wins by an inch. You really cant beat fresh, roasted butternut! With that being said, I know I will end up making this version more often just because it’s so easy.
Now, you can spice up this sauce any way you’d like.
I think a little cinnamon stirred in would be lovely to bring out the pumpkin flavour. I actually added some dried sage (after the photoshoot) and that was nice too.
I served it with red kidney beans and sautéed kale and a sprinkle of Herbamare. I also used some leftover cornbread topping and mixed it into my mac ‘n cheeze. Great idea.
Wondering where to purchase nutritional yeast? You can find it in the natural foods section of many grocery stores (Loblaws/Superstore carries it) as well as bulk food stores and health stores. I’m sure you can find it online too. For those of you who purchase nutritional yeast, please leave a comment and let me (and others) know where you buy it!
What other ways do you think this sauce could be adapted? Any other mix-in ideas? Any other vegetables?
I vow to try them all.
Wow made this with added pimp kin spice mix and an extra tablespoon of spicy mustard and OMG my meat eater friends couldn’t get enough!!!
Yum just made this and it was awesome!!! I made a few pumpkin sauce recipes in the past and my preschooler rejected them but he liked this one. Even my husband who hates squash ate it. I love squash and will definitely be making this again!! It was so easy yet so delicious. My new favorite recipe. Thanks!!
IT IS MIND BLOWING BUT FOR ME IT WAS MORE LIKE 1 PORTION THAN 4..
I have to say, this is one of my ALL TIME favorite recipes. It’s so easy too!
How do I make the “cheese” sauce less bitter? I used flakes as opposed to nutritional yeast powder if that is my problem?
As I’m eliminating as much fat as possible from my diet I didn’t use the earth balance. Still tastes great! I imagine it would just add a creamier texture?
I made a version of this tonight. As I had more than a cup of pumpkin, I used about 250ml of milk and (sneakily) added in a can of puréed cannellini beans and fresh garden garlic.
I dry fried some finely chopped mushies, which I stirred through the sauce.
I topped the plated up meal with toasted sunflower seeds.
The children declared it was the best Mac and Cheese, to date. So this is my new ‘go to’ recipe.
Thank you. :)
Do you think the cheeze sauce will bake well? I really want to make a vegan version of this cauliflower mac n cheese: http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipe/mac-and-cheese-style-cauliflower/
Wow. Just WOW. It’s so good, I don’t even know where to start: it’s creamy, flavourful, smooth. I used coconut oil in place of butter, fresh garlic (sautéed it first), dried basil (love it) and only about two tablespoons of nutritional yeast (still getting used to it) and the sauce turned out a success! Thank you for sharing, you’re such an inspiration for me!
i know this is a super old recipe but i wanted mac and cheeze and i had all the ingredients so i tried it. just for readers who aren’t a huge fan of dijon, i would greatly reduce or leave it out–the dijon flavor was too much for me but i just ended up doubling all the other ingredients (maybe tripling the nooch because i’ve never had a sauce with too much nooch ;) ) and it was very good! next time may put in 1/3-1/2 of the dijon
and i just realized my mistake (and feel very stupid)–i put in 2T dijon rather than 2t. oooooops! i imagine with the 2t it will turn out much better on first pass :) i’m still enjoying my bowl of mac and cheeze greatly! thanks for all the great recipes! just ordered the OSG cookbook today
Just want to say that I wanted to make this when I couldn’t lay my hands on squash, so I used the contents of a drained can of carrots. I’ve never bought canned carrots before, but they worked brilliantly for this.
I tried this today and it is just awesome. Loved it! Thank you!
Hi… Can I add guar gum to this recipe to make it sliceable?
I just made this sauce. I did not have any good mustard so I left that out. I mixed some of the sauce with gluten free rice pasta, peas and sauted mushrooms and baked it. I am not vegan (just focused on eating more nutrients and plant foods) so I added a sprinkle of real cheese to the top. Sooooo good!
Hi Amanda, I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Just discovered this last week – my first mac&cheese since going dairy free two years ago, and it was truly amazing. I added in sage and tons of bacon crumbles (not quite vegan!) and it was spectacular. Disappeared way too fast. Do you have any experience in freezing individual portion sizes of this sauce? Or freezing it pre-mixed with the pasta? Thanks so much!
My daughter is vegan, she loves that daya mozz. cheese, would the flavors go together if i layer some in there?
I’ve been trying more vegetarian and vegan recipes to try and lose weight and improve my overall health. Although, I can’t seem to take the full leap into veganism due to not being able to easily find vegan substitutes in my area, this cheese is still my go to! Not only is it packed with vitamins, it’s low fat! My boyfriend and I love nachos and I’ve recently been using refried beans instead of meat and this cheese made into a queso is wonderful! Sadly, since I am on a budget and have to shop at Aldis, I had to use a tsp of real butter but – my thought process is I’m still eating better than I was before, no processed bag cheese today!
Thank you for this recipe! I plan on making it tonight for dinner… I was looking for something savory to do with a can of pumpkin I’ve had kicking around the cupboard. I’m sure it will be delicious because every other recipe I’ve tried from your 2 books has turned out wonderfully. Thanks for being so inventive and sharing with us :-)
Warmly,
Nicole
So I tried this recipe last night and I was skeptical that it would be as good as ‘real’ mac and cheese, but knowing that it would still be yummy I went for it and I have to say I really liked this receipe. It was super easy to make and follow the instructions. It made a lot of food (which reheated well.) My only thing is I’d say think of this as ‘pumpkin cheeseish pasta” instead of mac and cheese and it’s a winner! I added bread crumbs on top which really helped it for me, and also served it with braised garlic kale in the same bowl which I thought was awesome!!