Macaroni cheese, ultimate dreary weather comfort food & finally a “cheese” sauce I love !
Yes, finally, I’ve made a cheese sauce recipe I love to eat.
There are many out there, most using nutritional yeast as the cheese flavour. Well. High carbs in that stuff, so we are left with spices and condiments. For a dish that is basically carbs slathered in dairy, it was a hard task to re-create. But I’m pretty darn happy with the result.
Please don’t be alarmed with the colour, it adds to the “cheesy” look, but is due to the carrot, which is used for thickening & also sweetness. It definitely tastes better than it looks !
So, yes, this tastes like Macaroni Cheese, as close as we Optifasters can get anyway. I reckon if we could stir it through some chunky carby pasta, I’d be a very very happy lady. But, zucchini noodles will do nicely, although it’s not 100% like the real deal in texture ! In this one you’ll see I tried three ways – the ribbon, the spaghetti and the core chopped up. I like the ribbon best, it held its shape and tasted “chunky” like macaroni. So I’d recommend making the ribbons !
Also ensure that you really taste the sauce before heating it back up for the noodles. It needs to taste good, add more seasoning, stock powder, spices, condiments until you get it tasting how you like it.
Anyway, hit the spot, I am feeling so full that I’m not even salivating at the last shake for today, laying on the couch like a stuffed cat. So for a cold winters day, I’m really am a happy lady !
Joni xx
- 6 cups cauliflower, chopped (approx 1 cauliflower)
- 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
- 4 cups of light low-salt stock
- 2 zucchini, washed and ends removed
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp vegetable salt
- 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tsp Paprika
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- Bring a large pot with stock to the boil. Set aside 1 cup of the raw cauliflower florets to make the crumb. Add the rest of the chopped cauliflower and carrots. Cook for 10-15 minutes, or until softened.
- While waiting do two things, make your crumb and your pasta.
- Pasta: If using a vegetable turner make a small cut length ways, this will give you the macaroni crescent shape. Using the large solid blade (as pictured) spiralise your two zucchinis.
- Cauli crumb: rice your cauliflower, mix with paprika and season well. Mix in 1 tsp olive oil.
- Now, drain the cauli/carrot mix, reserving 1/3 cup of stock water for the sauce and add to a food processor or high speed blender. Blitz and then add in the reserved stock, lemon juice, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, Dijon mustard, salt and pepper. Process/blend until smooth. Now add the oil in a thin stream until combined. Keep blitzing for another two minutes until creamy and smooth. Taste and adjust any of the flavourings, possibly add more salt, pepper or stock powder if needed to make it "tasty".
- Place sauce back onto the stove and heat on medium heat until simmering. Add your zucchini pasta and mix carefully. Cook for a couple of minutes, stirring, ensuring that it doesn't brown on the bottom.
- Tip into a baking dish. Top with the cauli crumb and bake for approx 25 mins until browned and bubbling on top.
- If you don't have a turning slicer you can simply chop the zucchini into thin slices or chunks.
- Add cauliflower and broccoli florets instead of the zucchini pasta to,create a vegetable bake.
- Can be used as a "cheese" sauce.
- Freezes well. Re-heats well.
- Nutritional Panel Notes
- Obviously the sodium is not correct.
Christine
August 24, 2015
Omg!!! This is the dish that is going to quite literally change my life. This is delicious!! Thank you so much
lulu
September 8, 2015
Hi! I love your recipes, My only wish would be that you include the caloric information per serving.It would be really helpful for us transitioning and counting dem numbers! 🙂
Joni Condos
September 8, 2015
Hi lulu ! I’m working with recipe card at the moment, as I did have them up there for each recipe, but they’ve disappeared ! Hoping in the next week the issue will be rectified 🙂 Joni
Joni Condos
September 13, 2015
Hello Lulu, Just following up to let you know that the nutritional panels are up and running again. Please note they aren’t entirely accurate – minus fibre from carb as its US based recipe software, also they don’t seem to recognise the low salt, low carb sauces, so these recipes look way over the 100 cal/under 10 carb limits, but they are not 🙂 Joni
Ally McPherson
August 15, 2016
Love, love this one.