Restaurant Style Mac & Cheese

The first time I made this my daughter exclaimed “This must be how they make it in restaurants!” This is my girl who is NOT gluten free, so I was pretty happy when she was so happy about this one!! Thus, I have dubbed this Restaurant Style Mac & Cheese 🙂

The original recipe was for Vegan Mac & Cheese that I found in the Fred Meyer Magazine. It looked pretty good, and I have some vegan friends, so I thought I’d give it a try. Obviously I used gluten-free noodles to make it gluten-free as well as vegan. Nutritional yeast is used as the main substitute for cheese. Since we don’t always need it to be vegan I altered the amount of nutritional yeast and sprinkled a little freshly grated cheese on top. I still use WAY less cheese than a normal mac-n-cheese recipe, so I like to call this our “healthy” restaurant style mac and cheese.

Ingredients:

• 12 oz gluten free pasta
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 Tbsp minced garlic
• 2 packs (8.46 oz each) riced cauliflower (or 1 1/2 cups chopped cauliflower florets)
• 3 Tbsp gluten-free flour
• 1 can (13.6 oz) coconut milk
• 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast (5 if you are making it vegan)
• 2 Tbsp diced pimentos
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese (can be vegan or not), plus more for garnish
• 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese (if not making it vegan)
• salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Cook pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Sauté garlic and cauliflower, tossing occasionally to cook evenly until soft, about 2 minutes. (If using fresh chopped cauliflower, about 10 minutes)
2. Whisk in gluten-free flour to make a roux. Add coconut milk, nutritional yeast, pimentos, 1/4 cup parmesan, and salt & pepper to taste. Whisk to combine.
3. Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Transfer cheese sauce to blender (Vitamix works awesome!!); blend until smooth. Add sauce back to skillet.
4. Drain and rinse pasta, add to skillet and toss with cheese sauce. Sprinkle 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese and mix in or leave to melt on top before serving. Garnish with more parmesan, if desired.

Left over Pimento Tips: Unless you are making a LOT of mac & cheese or if you’re going to make it multiple times a week you are goin to need to freeze the rest of the jar or they will start to mold in the fridge after several days. I measure diced pimentos out into single tablespoon servings using an ice cube tray then freeze them. Once frozen, I transfer the frozen Tbsp cubes into a freezer Ziplock bag and can use them any time I want without them going bad 🙂

Even HEALTHIER Mac & Cheese Tips: My son was on a health kick and asked me to put even more veggies into our restaurant style mac and cheese 🙂 I chopped up some spinach, carrots, & bell peppers and blended them in with the sauce…although it did turn out a little on the green side due to the spinach, but since he asked for it, it was ok. Then I added some chopped up rotisserie chicken for some added protein… it was quite tasty!! I bet you could toss in some broccoli and/or zucchini too. If you peel the zucchini it wouldn’t change the color of the sauce. Get creative!