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.
[
Featuring all new, protein-packed salads, hearty toppers, flavour boosters, and dressings you'll want to drink, my new cookbook will transform the way you think about salads. Oh, and be sure to flip to the back for a surprise dessert chapter!
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.
WONDERFUL recipe!! I made it for dinner, and thoroughly enjoyed every bite! Can’t wait for leftovers tomorrow :)
I made this last night and it was delicious! The only thing is, I used cornstarch because I didn’t have arrowroot and it made it quite thick- I ended up using a full cup of (nondairy)milk instead of 3/4 to thin it out.
I made this with corn starch like Nikita and it was too thick. But very delicious!
Just made this and it was a HUGE hit!
Great recipe, thanks! It was delicious over raw spiralized zucchini as the pasta.
I used coconut oil instead of Earth Balance since I don’t eat soy, and I used some water down coconut milk in place of other milk. I also upped my seasoning to include more garlic, some onion powder, and more mustard.
For my non-vegan hubby, I sprinkled some real cheddar cheese over the top so that he wouldn’t realize that the rest wasn’t actually cheese and he was totally fooled. I think that when I make it next time, I’ll sprinkle a little raw vegan nut cheese on the top for myself too.
Regarding the nutritional yeast, I purchase it at Whole Foods in the bulk bins. I was pleased to find it my local Vitamin Shoppe. Can’t wait to try this recipe!
Just tried this and I am pleasantly surprised! I didn’t add a full can of pumpkin (it was too overpowering for my taste, maybe I would like the butternut better) and I added a little Valenica hot sauce and a ton of fresh cracked pepper. Yummy! Thanks for the recipe.
Wow! Nothing short of amazing and has me thinking about all the other pureed veggies I can turn into ‘cream’ sauce! I served mine casserole like with blanched spinach layered on top sprinkled with bread crumbs. And unlike real mac n chz it actually tasted good as leftovers, maybe even better as leftovers!
I loved this pumpkin recipe – very creamy and cheezy. Next time, I will try it with soy milk instead, I’m not a huge fan of almond milk myself but I did enjoy it regardless.
I just made this and i just want to say thank you.
My tummy thanks you.
My mind thanks you.
Holy delicious-ness, Angela!
((Wegmans has nutrtional yeast))
Just made this now. It’s really good! Must say I added 2 extra tablespoons of nutritional yeast, 2 extra tablespoons of of earth balance, and a 1/4 cup more almond milk. I prefer a little thinner texture with more of a butter flavor. Haven’t quite gotten the whole brown rice noodle cooking thing down yet though – man they are difficult!!
A tbs of tahini does wonders for this amazing sauce!
good to know, thanks!
Does it taste okay without the the yeast? I have a food sensitivity to yeast and am trying to stay away from it. I also can’t have cashews or soy among other things. I am trying to go vegan because I feel like It would be healthier, but I absolutely love cheese. I came across this recipe and it looked great, except for the yeast…will it still be good without it?
I don’t think it tastes good without the yeast, as the nutritional yeast is what gives it the cheezy flavour. Sorry about that!
I’ve had my eye on this for a while, but nutritional yeast isn’t something I’ve ever seen in the shops here (even health food shops) so it’s had to wait until I could order some online. Definitely worth it though! I did change it a little – I didn’t use any form of fat at the beginning and based on the end product, I don’t think it was necessary at all! I did use sweetened almond milk (I’ve only seen one brand here) so that might have made up for the lack of added fat. I needed to use quite a bit more than in the recipe – probably because I used cornflour (starch) rather than arrowroot. I also used chilli powder rather than garlic powder (which I didn’t have). However, the biggest change I made was to use sweet potato instead of pumpkin. I baked my sweet potato in the microwave then scooped the flesh out into the sauce. I then blended it using a hand blender, which also blended the yeast flakes in beautifully. I had 100g of the sauce with 50g (dry weight) pasta, 100g petit pois peas and a handful of chopped watercress – came to 318 calories! So, delicious and extremely healthy. I’ll certainly be making it again, and I’m planning what to do with the remaining sauce already.
Just to add – I gave my distinctly carnivorous brother a spoonful of the sauce when I pulled it out of the fridge for lunch today. He said it was “pretty good”. Then I told him that it didn’t have any cheese in it. I believe his exact words were: “What sort of witchcraft is this?”
hah!
Claire, I’m glad you mentioned the no fat. I was hoping I can make this fat free. Sounds like it works out just fine. #wfpb #oilfree
Just made some of this for tonight’s stormy dinner! I figured it would be nice and hearty to carry us through the hurricane. I might have gone a bit nuts with seasonings (I don’t know how but some liquid smoke got in there…and cayenne, sage, and paprika. WHAT?!) but it tastes soo yummy with the last of my frozen-so-it-might-not-survive-the-storm spinach that I needed to use up!
This is amazing!! Over colorful pasta shaped like pumpkins and leaves, this made the perfect Halloween dinner. My pumpkin was a bit lumpy so I whipped out the immersion blender to get it silky smooth. Perfecto!
OMG! this was so good and so easy to make! I sauteed some kale, mushrooms, onions and veggie sausage to add to the pasta cheeze mix, will definitely make this again!
I’ve recently grown fond of using my mac and cheese to stuff a squash. This sauce sounds like a fabulous way to incorporate the squash into the sauce itself. Om nom nom!
I just made this for supper and it was DELICIOUS!
Would this be good If I added broccoli to it??