Pumpkin Macaroni and Cheese
This pumpkin and cheese is creamy, cheesy and has pumpkin the sauce for added nutrition and flavor. It’s easy to make in under 30 minutes – you can even save time and energy by using frozen butternut squash (instead of peeling and cutting fresh squash).
Servings: 12 Servings
Cost: $7
Ingredients
- 16 ounces shell pasta (uncooked)*
- 4 Tablespoons salted butter
- ½ cup onion (finely diced)
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon sea salt (or more to taste)
- 15 ounces pumpkin puree
- 2 cups whole milk
- 12 ounces cheddar cheese (3 cups, or gouda)
Instructions
- Cook pasta in salted water in a large pot. Drain but do not rinse. Transfer the pasta back to the warm pot.
- While the pasta is cooking, in a 5 quart saucepan or Dutch oven, cook butter, onion and garlic over medium high heat until the onion is soft (about 3-5 minutes).
- Then, add the flour and salt and whisk to combine. Cook for 2 minutes.
- After 2 minutes, whisk in the pumpkin and milk and cook until the sauce begins to thicken.
- Once it has slightly thickened, whisk in the cheese until melted.
- Pour the sauce over the cooked & drained pasta in the large pot. Stir until combined.
- Let sit for 5 minutes uncovered on the warm burner so the pasta can absorb some of the sauce.
- Stir and serve warm.
Video
Notes
*This pumpkin mac and cheese is pretty saucy (just the way we like it) if you prefer yours a little "dryer" but not too dry, add an additional 8 ounces of pasta.
Ingredient Substitution Notes
- Pasta. Any pasta variety works well in this recipe. Some suggestions include shells, wagon wheel pasta, elbow macaroni, bowties, rotini, etc. You can also use gluten-free pasta, whole wheat pasta, chickpea pasta, etc. etc.
- Pumpkin Puree. use canned puree or make your own homemade pumpkin puree.
- Salted Butter. There really isn’t a substitute for butter in this recipe. However unsalted butter works well.
- All-Purpose Flour. There are a few substitutions that work well for the flour including corn starch, tapioca starch/flour, and all-purpose gluten-free flour.
- Whole Milk. I suggest dairy with fat in it like whole milk, heavy cream and half and half for the best results.
- Cheese. use your favorite - my top suggestions are cheddar and gouda.
- Minced garlic. you can substitute ½ teaspoon garlic powder for the minced garlic, or omit if you'd prefer.
- Onion. ½ teaspoon onion powder is a good substitute for real onion.
Nutrition
Serving: 0.5cup | Calories: 334kcal | Carbohydrates: 35g | Protein: 14g | Fat: 15g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 43mg | Sodium: 332mg | Potassium: 254mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 5982IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 271mg | Iron: 1mg