Creamy Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese

Creamy, healthy butternut squash mac and cheese is cozy, comforting and so much better than regular mac and cheese. You’ll need less than 30 minutes to make this healthy comfort food! Kids LOVE it!

Why You’ll Love This Healthy Mac And Cheese Recipe?

1. This is the better version of regular mac and cheese.
2. This is so much healthier than regular pasta, yet so delicious!
3. It requires minimal ingredients. Most of it is likely in your pantry already.
4. Need under 30 minutes to make this soul warming comfort dinner.
5. No compromise on taste what-so-ever. It’s rich, creamy, comforting and lip-smacking delicious!
6. It’s like best of the two worlds, soup and pasta. This dish reminds me of thick butternut squash soup and cheesy pasta all together in one dish!
7. The rich and creamy sauce is achieved without any flour or cream in it. Now that’s a winner! (this recipe does not call for making roux. It’s all squash, milk and some cheese)
8. Best COMFORT food for busy people during blustery cold winter!
9. The flavors of this pasta are very subtle. Kid approved!
10. Best way to sneak in veggies into your kid’s diet! Your kids won’t even know there is squash in their pasta.
11. You have total control to make this healthiest best by using protein pasta (chickpea pasta) and reduce the cheese quantity in the recipe.

Ingredients You’ll Need

Below picture shows all you need to make healthy mac and cheese pasta recipe-

Pasta – I used shell pasta for the recipe. It’s best to use pasta shapes that will help it hold the magical cheesy sauce.  Shell pasta, macaroni(elbow pasta), orecchiette, cavatappi, rotini, farfalle, rigatoni or radiatore are best noodle to use for any mac and cheese recipe.

Butternut Squash – we have an helpful guide on how to peel and dice butternut squash. Check it out.

Cheese – Use good quality sharp cheddar. The flavors of sharp cheddar and butternut squash goes perfectly together. I used a mix of 1 cup of cheddar cheese and ½ cup of mozzarella cheese. Stick to sharp cheddar if you don’t want to use mix of 2 cheeses.

Milk – best use 2% or better use 4% milk for extra rich and creaminess.

Vegetable stock – if not vegetarian, consider using chicken stock.

Butter – for healthier option substitute butter with olive oil.

Herbs – Fresh thyme and sage leaves. Optional but highly recommended. As flavors in this pasta are subtle, you want to enhance flavors with the help of herbs.

Season – always season! Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

Onion – use yellow(white) onion

Garlic – garlic lover? Use more than mentioned in the recipe. You’ll love it’s flavors in the pasta.

How To Make Butternut Squash Mac And Cheese?

Before you jump into knowing how to make healthy mac and cheese recipe, here’s a useful guide on how to easily peel and dice butternut squash. Check it you.

You can choose to raw diced butternut squash as I used in this recipe or use squash roasted in oven (cut into half and roasted with skin, then peel the flesh off the squash) or can use roasted and pureed butternut squash.  Canned butternut squash will work too.

Cook Butternut Squash –

• Bring a large pot of water to boiling.
• Melt butter in large pot. Add sage leaves and fry in for few seconds until it crisps up. Immediately remove crisped sage leaves from butter and keep aside until use.
• Saute onions and minced garlic in butter until onions turn soft and garlic releases it’s fragrance. Do NOT brown onion or garlic. Cook until just translucent.
• Add in thyme sprigs, salt and fresh ground pepper to taste to the pot. Give it a mix.
• Roast diced butternut squash along with onion-garlic and seasoning for few minutes. This will help squash caramelize slightly by roasting in butter.
• Pour vegetable stock and milk. Stir.
• Bring it to boil.
• Reduce heat, cover and cook until squash is tender. About 10 minutes.

Cook Pasta –

• While butternut squash is cooking in large pot cook pasta in salted boiling water according to packet instructions until al-dente. Don’t overcook pasta.
• Time it accordingly. Add pasta to boiling water and just when butternut squash sauce is ready.
• NOTE – reserve 1 to 2 cups of pasta cooked starchy water. You’ll need it.

Blend it –

• Once squash is cooked tender it’s time to blitz.
• Remember to remove sage stems from the pot before you blend.
• Using immersion blender, blitz until squash turns smooth.
• Stir It All Together –
• Reduce heat to simmer add in grated cheese.
• Stir until cheese is melted.
• Add in cooked pasta shells into the butternut squash sauce.
• Gently mix it until pasta is coated in sauce.
• Serve immediately warm topped with crispy sage leaves, sprinkle of ground pepper and little grated cheese.
• Note: as pasta cools, sauce will thicken. If you have to thin it down, add little pasta water at a time until sauce is at right consistency. Compared to normal water, pasta water will keep the sauce thick and creamy without diluting it much and losing the flavors (exactly what will happen when normal water is used)

Possible Add in’s For Butternut Squash Mac And Cheese Recipe

Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese doesn’t really need anything else. It’s perfect as it is. But you can customize the recipe according to your preference.

• Feel free to add proteins like cooked chicken, sausages or crispy bacon.
• Vegetables like steamed broccoli, steamed cauliflower, peas or mushrooms are great too.
• You can add more herbs as well. Sage, thyme, bay leaves.
• For sharp flavor kick, add Dijon mustard.
• To add kick to the pasta, add red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper.

MORE PASTA RECIPES:

Super-Simple One Pot Pasta

Roasted Red Pepper Pasta

Greek Pasta Salad

Garlic Shrimp Pasta In Cream Sauce

Chicken Pesto Pasta

Bruschetta Chicken Pasta

MORE BUTTERNUT SQUASH RECIPE YOU SHOULD TRY THIS FALL/WINTER:

Instant Pot Butternut Squash Soup

Thai Butternut Squash Curry

Honey Glazed Hasselback Butternut Squash

Roasted Butternut Squash

Quinoa Stuffed Butternut Squash

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