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.
Oh boy, I bet pumpkin gives it a great texture. I always just make single servings of the sauce, it might be handy to have some extra around.
You are a genius.
I’m so excited to try this one now. We loved the butternut squash version last week. It was so delicious.
I have been searching for a savory recipe fo pumpkin. I normally use it in sweet breakfast and dessert items. I can’t wait to try this. I think it would be cute to serve it in hollowed out little pumpkins.
I got nutritional yeast at the bulk barn
Can’t wait to try this tonight
I get nutritional yeast in the bulk bins at Whole Foods but my mom found it at Costco!! :-)
oh wow that’s cool costco has it! The US costco or Canadian>
Seriously – Costco has it?! Well, now I need to go check that out! That is amazing!!
How long would this ‘keep’ in the fridge? A week? I’ve never tried anything like this.. I am curious.
I would guess between 5-7 days in air tight container.
I just can’t wait to try this dish! It truly looks like a winnaaaaa. Hope you have a wonderful day Angela!
you honestly never feast to amaze me! just when i think you’ve outdone yourself, you go and make a pumpkin cheese sauce! yummy :)
I am in love!
It looks delicious! I’m always a little leery of using pumpkin in savory recipes because it seems too sweet to me. I can never eat squash or sweet potatoes because they are just too sweet. (Insanity coming from a girl who has an insane sweet-tooth). I just like my savory and sweet to stay away from one another! And yet still….ugh it looks sooo good!
finally a vegan cheeze sauce I have all the ingredients to on hand! woohoo, definitely trying this version out :)
I can’t wait to make this. I made the butternut squash version the other day which turned out amazing! I am going to my parents this weekend and really wanted to make this for them but I am not sure I will be able to find canned butternut squash as they do not have a blender. Canned pumpkin is much easier to find though so thanks for posting this!
I always buy my Nutritional Yeast in the vitamin section at Whole Foods – they have a Whole Foods Brand that is relatively inexpensive for a HUGE container.
Do you ever roasted your own pumpkin to use in recipes? Right now pie/sweet pumpkins are far less expensive (here in central North Carolina, that is!) than canned pumpkin, and yield more pumpkin. And the taste & texture? Ohmygoodness so delicious. It also freezes really well for use later on … plus crunchy pumpkin seeds to put in/on everything (which I roast @ the same time as the pumpkin), including pasta!
This looks delicious. Can’t wait to try!
I get nutritional yeast in the bulk bins @ Whole Foods (again, in NC)!
Hey Jesica, Yes I roasted a pumpkin last week and it was horrible! I think it was a bad pumpkin because it wasn’t sweet at all (even though it was a small pie pumpkin) I will have to try it again because I think I just got a dud!
I can never find nutritional yeast! The closest whole foods is an hour away. I guess I will have to buy online. I love pumpkin, this recipe is right up my alley, I think it would be good w a sprinkle of nutmeg. Do u think it freezes well?
I haven’t tried freezing it but let me know if you try it out!
For those of us who live too far away from any where that sells Nutritional Yeast, you can order it from Bob’s Red Mill or even Amazon. You usually have to buy it in a little bit of a bigger size but it’s so worth it!
Thank you for the amazing inspiration Angela, I’m a huge fan!
This looks so good! And I love how simple it is. I’m seriously tempted to make this for lunch instead of leftovers.
Mmm – I love that. I would’ve gone with the butternut squash version myself :)
Bob’s Red Mill! And they deliver internationally, for anyone else who’s an expat!