The pumpkin not only adds its unique, comforting flavor to the traditional dish but also works overtime as the creamy base for a cheese substitute. The result is a mac and cheese that outperforms any boxed variety and will instantly become your kids’ (or your kindred spirit’s) favorite.

While you could use a store-bought pumpkin puree as the foundation of the “cheese” in this macaroni and cheese recipe, if you have a little extra time on your hands, prepare a homemade pumpkin purée in advance. This added step naturally brings more authenticity to the dish and will make you even prouder of the outcome.

Vegan Pumpkin Macaroni and Cheese Recipe

Serves 4

Ingredients

For the pumpkin cheese sauce

• 1 cup pumpkin purée
• 1/3 cup nutritional yeast
• ¾ cup almond milk
• ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• Salt and pepper to taste

For the macaroni

• 4 servings boiled noodles of choice
• 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a baking dish and set aside.

For the pumpkin cheese sauce, whisk all of the ingredients together in a large bowl until combined and smooth.

Boil the noodles until just tender. Drain, rinse, and transfer the noodles to the bowl with the cheese sauce.

Use a spatula to fold the cheese sauce and the noodles together. Transfer the macaroni and cheese mixture to the greased baking dish. Use the spatula to evenly spread the mac and cheese evenly in the dish. Take the tablespoon of nutritional yeast and sprinkle it evenly across the top of the dish.

Pop the dish into the oven and cook for 20-25 minutes, or until the top is golden brown. Let the macaroni and cheese sit for ten minutes to cool slightly before serving. Enjoy!

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This farro recipe is one of my favorite ways to use my favorite veggie! 

If you’re craving macaroni and cheese, but aren’t 100 percent ready to dive headfirst into a bucket of refined carbs, this casserole is a great substitute. Chewy, hearty, whole-grain farro is mixed with tender cauliflower florets and then smothered in a gooey cheese sauce made with skim milk.

Makes: 4 main dish servings

Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients

1 cup farro
2 cups vegetable broth
1 head cauliflower, cut into bite-size pieces
2 tablespoons butter
1 small onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons white whole wheat flour
2 cups skim milk
½ cup freshly shredded Fontina cheese
½ cup freshly shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
Salt and pepper
½ cup whole wheat panko bread crumbs

Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a medium-size saucepan, combine the farro and broth over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer until the liquid is absorbed and the farro is tender, about 10 minutes.

Set aside. Meanwhile, bring a large pot full  of water to a boil, add the cauliflower florets, and cook until fork tender, but not mushy, about 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.

While the farro and cauliflower are cooking, melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Whisk in the flour and continue to whisk constantly for 2 minutes. Slowly pour in the skim milk while whisking. Bring to a simmer and cook until thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 7 minutes. Remove from the heat and whisk in the cheeses, and salt and pepper to taste.

To assemble the casserole, stir together the farro, cauliflower, and cheese sauce until everything is well coated. Pour into a casserole dish and then sprinkle the top with the bread crumbs. Cover with aluminum foil. Bake for 30 minutes, removing the foil during the last 10 minutes to brown the bread crumbs.

Nutrition per serving: 499 calories, 15 g fat, 57 g carbs, 24 g protein

You can also serve this mac and cheese substitute as a side dish; it’ll serve six to eight as a side.

Reprinted with permission from “Chia, Quinoa, Kale, Oh My!” by Cassie Johnston, The Countryman Press 2015

Cassie Johnston is a freelance graphic designer, writer, and blogger. Her blog, backtoherroots.com, encourages readers to make healthier choices about food, activities, and life by living more simply. She and her husband farm nine acres in southern Indiana. Johnston is also the author of “Cooking with Greek Yogurt.” This recipe comes from her latest book “Chia, Quinoa, Kale, Oh My!”

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A childhood favorite revamped.

There’s something incredibly nostalgic about macaroni and cheese. Even if you rarely ate the meal as a kid, you most certainly recognized the commercials for the box brands and knew what it was. For me, mac & cheese was an after-school staple, a weekend lunch, a quick dinner that never fell short of filling the carb and cheese quota I necessitated as a youngster.

But it’s no nutritional powerhouse. Sure, advertisements can skirt the overall lack of nutrition with a “high in calcium!” banner, but last time I checked, just because something includes dairy ( e.g. ice cream, crème brûlée, pizza) doesn’t mean it’s a nourishing and balanced meal. Across the board – in both store-bought and homemade versions of it– macaroni and cheese has a lot of room for improvement in terms of nutritional benefit.

Using Kraft Macaroni & Cheese as an example, box brands include the likes of whey, milkfat, milk protein concentrate, salt, sodium tripolyphosphate, citric acid, sodium phosphate, lactic acid, milk, calcium phosphate, yellow 5, yellow 6, cheese culture, and enzymes. Artificial coloring and preservatives prevent the assimilation of nutrients and with often over 500 milligrams of sodium, box brands are blood pressure’s natural nemesis.

And while homemade macaroni and cheese both is better for you and can cut the sodium, enzymes and preservatives from the mix, the classic recipe made from scratch will include the following: white pasta, butter, plain white flour, milk, and grated cheese. White flour is essentially the result of having stripped everything useful from wheat, adding synthetic vitamins, and bleaching it. The vitamins in white flour are toxic, and because the flour is devoid of fiber, it passes slowly through the intestine, giving more time for the body to absorb the toxicities. The bleaching process also increases the flour’s gluten content. Additionally, the butter and cheese are by no means used scantily in homemade macaroni and cheese, so you can be sure the result is high in artery-clogging saturated fat, sodium, and the hard-to-digest animal milk protein, casein. To say the least, homemade macaroni and cheese is also no poster child for health.

Today, it’s hard to justify eating macaroni and cheese when little is to be gained (except for taste, of course). I’m all about eating what gives you pleasure, and if you are craving little white flour noodles flavored with powdered cheese every now and then, don’t hesitate to dig in! But there are times when the conscience outweighs the desire and when part of me wishes there were a healthier alternative. So, I created one.

This recipe is a vegan version of macaroni and cheese. The cheese has a sweet potato base. Skeptical? I was too until I tried it. The sweet potato is baked and mixed with mustard and nutritional yeast to give it the “cheesy” taste. Nutritional yeast is one of those ingredients that has changed my life. It’s the only plant-based source of vitamin B12, which is music to vegans’ ears. It is super versatile and one of the few ways to match the taste of cheese without using dairy. Combining the “cheese” with whole-grain or whole-wheat pasta, the result is a rich, satisfying macaroni and cheese experience, without the food baby to show for it.

Whole-Wheat Macaroni & Sweet Potato Cheese

Serves 1

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of cooked noodles (according to package instructions)
• 1/2 baked sweet potato
• 1/4 tsp mustard
• Juice of half a lemon
• 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• Dash of salt
• Dash of freshly ground pepper
• 1 tbsp of nutritional yeast and 1/2 tbsp of olive oil for crust

In a medium-sized bowl combine the sweet potato half, juice of half a lemon, mustard, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, olive oil and salt and pepper. Mix until thoroughly combined.

Fold 1 cup of cooked noodles into the sweet potato “cheese”.

Place the mixture into a serving-size baking dish.

Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of nutritional yeast over the dish and drizzle with 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil. This will allow the top to crisp while cooking.

Bake in the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes, or until the top begins to brown. Serve and enjoy!

The result is super soft and creamy. Its flavors satisfy the sweet, salty, sour and bitter taste buds, making it a decidedly complete dish without you craving anything else, except for maybe more of what you just ate!

Bon Appetit!

Aylin Erman currently resides in Istanbul and is creator of plant-based recipe website GlowKitchen.

Image: Pink Sherbert Photography

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