Macaroni Cheese is such a childhood comfort food and it tastes pretty good too!
I came up with this version which is a little more healthy and choc full of hidden vegetables. It tastes really good.
Healthy Macaroni Cheese with Veggies!
Vital Stats: gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, egg-free, nut-free
Okay so this is what you need:
1 litre organic milk
100g cornflour
100g organic butter
1 cup organic cheese, grated
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
500g gluten-free pasta shapes
3 handfuls of organic baby spinach
2 cups of lightly steamed organic vegetables, diced (I used carrot, broccoli, corn and zucchini)
Herbamare or salt and pepper to taste
Okay, so this is how you do it:
Preaht your oven to medium, about 180° celsius.
Put the pasta on to cook in a pot of boiling water and follow directions on the packet.
While that’s cooking, make your white sauce (if you have a thermomix, use the bechamel sauce instructions on page 58 of the EDC cookbook).
If you are making it the old-fashioned way, melt the butter, add the flour and stir until it’s well combined and coming away from the side of the saucepan. This ‘roux’ takes about one minute. Remove from the heat and add milk gradually. I like to use a whisk to get out any lumps. Return the pan to the heat and bring to the boil, stirring or whisking all the time until it thickens. Add the grated cheese and whisk in. Cool down.
Puree the spinach in a blender or thermomix and add to your white sauce.
Drain the pasta well. Add the white sauce and the vegetables and combine thoroughly. Add seasonings to taste.
Put into a greased lasagne dish (or two) and sprinkle with the parmesan cheese.
Bake for 20 – 30 minutes or until the macaroni cheese is warmed through and the cheese on top is brown and melted.
Serve with salad on the side.
Notes:
This recipe makes a lot so feel free to halve it or to make it and use over two nights.
The photo doesn’t show it well, but it is a really nice light green colour.
If you would like to make this recipe dairy free, use this delicious dairy-free white sauce from Quirky Cooking.
Using nutritional yeast in place of the cheese gives it a lovely cheesey flavour and is dairy-free.
To save time, I used leftover steamed vegetables in this recipe. Make extra the night before.
Okay, so that’s my natural new age mum version of macaroni cheese! I hope you (and the kids) enjoy it.
How do you make macaroni cheese?
yum!
it was rather! mac cheese with greens = no guilt!
How funny, my 12 year old boy cooked macaroni (minus the veggies :-O) last night, I didn’t think to mention to him to put the ‘superfoods vegie powder’ in 🙂 Thanks for all the tips & Herbamare sounds interesting, will look into it 🙂 Is it made in Switzerland?
It is so yummy! I use it on everything – organic sea salt infused with organic veggies and herbs – great flavour. It is made in France. Wish there was an Aussie alternative 🙂
Ohhh, love it! Such a good way to squish vegies in (which I do like hiding from the boyfriend as well!)
sometimes I like hidden veges too 🙂
I love greens in mac cheese I find it really breaks up the flavour of the heavy cheese taste with freshness for me and dont like it without them 🙂
I need to try these vital veg powders! Seeing them everywhere on the net at the moment, sound interesting. Do they have a flavour? X
yes as it is just fruit and veges – hard to describe it!!
Sounds so intriguing!
Great post Sonia! X
Looks delicious sonia! Luckily i’ve still got some vital veggie in the cupboard!
good veggie smuggling?? 😉
Yum!
I sneak veg into mac and cheese by I pureeing the veggies and using them as the sauce and just add a touch of milk or cream for creaminess. And I like to add a touch of dijon mustard and a good dash of paprika.
great tip Melissa 🙂