Better Cheddar Mac N Cheese Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 pack of brown rice macaroni
- 1 ½ cups REAL cheddar cheese divided, shredded
- 1 tablespoon goat cheese
- ¼ cup organic white northern beans drained and rinsed
- 1 cup organic antibiotic-free milk or rice milk, divided
- 3 stems rosemary
- 2 slices multi-grain bread toasted until very crispy
- 1 T olive oil
- Salt & pepper
Instructions
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Cook your brown rice pasta according to package instructions. It’s a little different from regular pasta, so make sure you pay attention. This should take you about 20 minutes, then pour into a colander to drain and set aside.
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Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Sauce
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Combine white beans and ½ cup of milk in a blender and blend until very smooth. This is going to be the unlikely base of your Mac N Cheese. Add your goat cheese and blend again.
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In a sauce pan, melt 1 cup of cheddar cheese in your remaining ½ cup of milk. You’ll need to stir frequently. When the mixture is as combined as you can make it (and it may still have some separation but don’t worry about it), pour it into the blender with your other ingredients.
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Blend until smooth once again. Give it a taste and add salt and pepper as you see fit. Do you taste the beans? I didn’t think so.
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Pour brown rice noodles and sauce into a dutch oven or deep casserole dish together and mix to make sure every noodle is coated.
Topping
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Toast your bread to your desired consistency and break up into crumbs with your hands. You’ll want to do this into a separate bowl. Chop up your rosemary needles very finely. You won’t want large pieces of rosemary in this crumb topping. Add to breadcrumbs. Add your remaining cheddar cheese, shredded, into this mixture. Add olive oil and toss with a spoon to make sure all of the mixture gets coated with oil.
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Sprinkle topping over your cheese and noodle mixture and bake for roughly 20 minutes until topping is golden and cheese is melted.
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Serve directly in the pot.
Recipe Notes
The important of the brown rice pasta is its relevance on the glycemic index. The body processes the carbohydrates from brown rice much slower than processed white or even wheat flour, which means that you’ll get sustained energy and avoid blood sugar spikes that always seem to accompany a carb-heavy dish. You can find it at any grocery store on the pasta aisle. It's also gluten-free which is important for people who are allergic or intolerant to gluten.
The component of Mac N Cheese that contains the most saturated fat is the béchamel that eventually becomes cheese sauce. It normally contains at least one full stick of butter and at least a couple of tablespoons of white, processed flour. We are going to bypass both of those things entirely with this recipe in a very unusual way.