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?