I love sauces made with butternut squash, especially on pasta. It’s a great way to get some vegetables into my fussy kids and it just tastes so creamy. The first time I used butternut squash as a pasta sauce was in my Spaghetti with Roasted Butternut Squash Sauce recipe and it was sooo good. Since then I have been meaning to make a creamy mac n cheese with a similar method, but it kind of got forgotten about it. Other recipes ideas came into my head and before you know it, quite a while haD past and I never got round to making it.
However, this week I had two butternut squash in the pantry and thought it would be good put to a new recipe. The sauce is amazing, I recommend using a good quality strong cheddar so you get that lovely cheesy taste and then combined with the butternut squash sauce it becomes velvety and creamy but without the added cream of course. My kids loved it, so it will make a great family meal.
I do recommend eating this straight away, so if you want it to serve less, just half up the ingredients.
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Creamy Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese
Ingredients
- 300g (10.5oz) of uncooked pasta of choice
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic, mince
- pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)
- 2 cups (480ml) of chicken or vegetable stock
- half a butternut squash, with seeds removed (weight of half should be approx 700g/24.5oz)
- 120g (4.3oz) of good quality strong cheddar (4xHEa’s)
- salt and black pepper
- Cooking Oil Spray
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200c, 180c fan, 400f (gas mark 4)
- Season the half a butternut squash with salt, spray with oil on the flesh and place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.
- Place in the oven and bake for approx 45, till softened and slightly caramelized.
- Remove and allow to cool.
- In the meantime, place a deep saucepan over a medium heat and spray with some oil, add the onion and fry golden and softened. Add the garlic and fry for a just to infused the flavour.
- Scoop out all the butternut squash flesh and add to the pan, with a pinch of cayenne (optional) and the stock.
- Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Add to a blender and blend till smooth. (always be careful not to overfill blender with hot liquid).
- Bring a large saucepan of water (seasoned with salt) to a boil, add in the pasta and cook till al dente. Reserve about 1/3 cup (80ml) of the pasta water, once the pasta is cooked.
- Add the blended squash mixture back to the saucepan over a medium heat and stir in the cheese, once melted, reduce heat to low and stir in the pasta and reserved pasta water until silky and creamy. Taste and season with salt and black pepper.
- Serve immediately and enjoy!!
Notes
This recipe is gluten free, vegetarian, Slimming World and Weight Watchers friendly
- Slimming World - 1 HEa per serving
- WW Green Smart Points
- WW Blue Smart Points
- WW Purple Smart Points
- Gluten Free - use gluten free pasta and stock
Optional: Cooked crumbled bacon is a great addition to the top if not vegetarian.
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Nutritional information is an estimate and is to be used for informational purposes only
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I made this today as my husband like macaroni cheese, me – I’m not keen. Well this recipe has changed my mind it was absolutely delicious. Thank you
I am so glad you loved it. thanks for posting 🙂
Made this for dinner tonight and it was delicious. I loved the flavour from the butternut squash. I will be making this regularly.
This is delicious and very comforting
Love this but please don’t state it’s vegetarian because unfortunately it isn’t due to using Parmesan-this is not a veggie cheese
Hi Kat – glad you enjoyed this. Thanks for the comment re: parmesan. I am aware that many parmesan cheeses are not suitable for vegetarian’s, because of animal rennet being used in the process of making it, but there are some parmesan options out there now, that use a vegetable rennet instead.
This was sooooo delicious. I added peas and bacon to it which worked so well. Will definitely be making again.
I made this a few times but couldn’t get the consistency right with the cheese.. It kept separating.. I found that if i blended the sauce then added a spoon full of 0% fat Creme Fraiche then added the cheese to the blender I got that super creamy consistency. Great recipe and a firm family favourite in my house now!
Hi Helen, are you using pre-grated cheese by any chance? if so you must use block cheese that you grate yourself, pre-grated cheese is coated to prevent it from sticking together in the bag, so it has a tendency to clump and not melt efficiently. Enjoy!!
I’m becoming addicted to Mac and Cheese and was desperate to find a recipe that was low in syns (or even better syn free!!). This did not disappoint, highly recommended even made it for taster night and it went down a storm. Thank you Siobhan for yet another fab recipe
I didn’t have a whole butternut just slices so skipped the oven & cooked pieces of butternut with onion & garlic. Added in carrot & courgette too. Once sauce was blended I added chopped red peppers and mushrooms. My 3 year old, 16 month old and husband couldn’t get enough of it!! Said it was the best and can we have it tomorrow!! Great way to get veggies into kids 🙂
This is soo lovely and so easy to make too !! Thanks slimming eats
I absolutely loved this dish! It will be a firm fave in this house! <3
Thank you for always creating lovely recipes 🙂