Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese
I’M BACK! *Finally*, after lots of holiday traveling (and fun!), website rearrangement/launching, and the craziness of going back to work after a couple weeks off, I am back and ready to keep on cooking and sharing more delicious recipes! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season. We certainly did here!
Back to the serious business at hand…cooking! I made this butternut squash mac & cheese with a little caution. Yes, I was confident that I could make something edible, but I wasn’t looking for edible. I was looking for DELICIOUS! Luckily, with a little finagling this dish DID turn out delicious!
If you’ve ever worked with butternut squash, you know that it’s not necessarily scary or even hard to work with but that it takes a little bit of effort to peel and cut into pieces. You can always use pre-cut cubes that are often sold in the store, but where’s the fun in that?? Plus, you pay way more for the pre-cut stuff so I tend to take on the challenge of an extra few steps instead of forking out the money. Take a look at the notes in the recipe to learn how to cube a squash!
This mac and cheese ends up ooey and gooey just like any mac and cheese. The butternut squash just adds a fresh and unique flavor to an ordinary dish. Plus, for those of you with kids, the butternut squash is basically the same color as typical mac and cheese so it’s easy to slip it in there for some extra nutrition without anyone noticing. I wouldn’t call that sneaky, just…creative. Yeah, we’ll go with creative.
So if you’re ready for a different take on mac and cheese that will make you feel not-as-guilty about that New Year’s resolution that has been broken way too many times for the 2nd week of the year, this is the dish for you! I’m not saying that this dish is the most figure friendly dish out there, but it sure beats some other mac and cheese dishes!
- 5 cups cubed butternut squash (about 1 squash)
- 1 1/4 cups chicken stock
- 1 1/2 cups milk
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 cup Greek yogurt (about 1, 5.3 oz containter)
- 2.5 cups shredded Gouda
- 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 pound rotini, cooked
- salt & pepper, to taste
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 cup breadcrumbs
- salt & pepper, to taste
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, to garnish
- In a medium to large sauce pan, add cubed squash, chicken stock, milk, garlic and nutmeg. Heat over medium-high heat until it begins to simmer. Cover and simmer about 20 minutes, or until the squash is fork tender.
- Add Greek yogurt, salt and pepper to pan. Use immersion (hand) blender to bend until smooth. Alternatively, you can transfer the squash mixture to a blender, add the Greek yogurt, salt, and pepper and blend until smooth.
- Fold in Gouda cheese and Parmesan cheese. Add salt and pepper, to taste.
- Pour squash and cheese mixture into a large bowl or pot with the cooked pasta. Stir to blend.
- Melt butter in a small sauté pan.
- Add breadcrumbs and stir until breadcrumbs are crispy.
- Sprinkle breadcrumbs and parsley over mac and cheese to garnish.
- To cut the butternut squash into cubes, use a vegetable peeler to remove the skin. Cut a small piece off the side to help stabilize the squash when turned on its side. Place the squash on the flat surface you just cut and cut the squash in half lengthwise. Use a spoon to scoop out the stringy flesh and seeds. Finally, cut into strips then cubes.
- You can make the sauce beforehand then heat it up when you are ready to serve!
- You can use any kind of melting cheese in place of the Gouda. Simple cheddar would be delicious as well!