This creamy pumpkin mac and cheese recipe comes collectively in one pot. It’s actually fairly simple to make. You don’t even drain the pasta cooking water.
Because of the pumpkin, this dish is further creamy, golden and flavorful. Naturally, it’s lighter than your typical home made mac and cheese. On cool fall evenings, this mac and cheese will heat you up with out placing you to sleep.
This simple autumnal pasta recipe will delight the entire household. Leftovers reheat properly for the subsequent few days, and even freeze properly sufficient for our toddler’s future meals.
This recipe is a spinoff of my Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese recipe, which has been a giant hit. Whereas that recipe depends on roasted butternut squash for depth of taste, this recipe requires canned pumpkin purée.
To make up for the roasted taste, this recipe advantages from deeply toasting spices in butter—pumpkin spice mix, garlic powder and onion powder. Then, we cook dinner a can of pumpkin purée within the flavored butter for a minute earlier than including pasta and water. In a while, we’ll stir in some cream cheese, sharp cheddar cheese and Parmesan. The top result’s magical.
Pumpkin Mac and Cheese Components
You’ll discover the complete recipe under. Right here’s what you need to find out about the important thing components earlier than you head to the shop.
Canned Pumpkin Puree
This recipe conveniently makes use of up one complete can of pumpkin purée. Be sure you purchase plain pumpkin purée, not pumpkin pie filling, which incorporates sugar and spices.
Not all canned pumpkin purée is created equal. I’ve loved this recipe with Entire Meals 365 model, and Libby’s is reliably good as properly.
Quick-Minimize Pasta
You’ve gotten fairly a couple of choices right here. For finest outcomes, select a noodle that cooks in about 8 minutes or much less, in response to the package deal instructions. We used casarecce for these pictures, or you can use macaroni noodles for a extra conventional mac and cheese look. Different choices embrace cavatelli, fusilli, pipe rigate, and so forth. To make this recipe gluten free, we efficiently used Jovial model’s brown rice-based fusilli.
Tip: “Quick-cut” pasta refers to compact noodle shapes, versus lengthy strands like spaghetti or fettuccine.
Cream Cheese
We’ll stir cream cheese immediately into the pot. The cream cheese makes this pasta extremely creamy, evenly tangy, and opulent. You’ll use half of a typical block of cream cheese for this recipe. Unfold the additional on tomorrow morning’s toast!
Cheddar Cheese and Parmesan
Use a top quality, sharp cheddar cheese so you possibly can actually style the cheddar ultimately outcome. Parmesan cheese additional amps up the flavour. Mud your particular person servings with a bit extra Parmesan, should you’d like.
Tip: Grate your individual cheese fairly than shopping for pre-shredded cheese. Pre-shredded cheese is coated in powder that may trigger the cheese to clump when it melts (plus it’s dearer, per ounce).
Butter and Spices
You’ll additionally want butter, pumpkin spice mix, garlic and onion powder, water and salt. Pumpkin spice mix is completely key on this recipe as a result of pumpkin alone doesn’t supply a lot taste.
Tip: See the observe under the recipe to make your individual pumpkin spice mix from floor cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and clove or allspice. You may make precisely as a lot as you want for this recipe by following the observe, or comply with my pumpkin spice mix recipe to make further spice mix to your pumpkin bread and pumpkin muffins.
Watch How one can Make Pumpkin Mac and Cheese
Serving Strategies
Serve a inexperienced salad on the aspect. Strive my Tremendous Easy Arugula Salad, Favourite Inexperienced Salad with Apples, Cranberries and Pepitas, or any improvised salad with a basic French dressing.
This recipe yields lots of pasta (eight servings). It reheats properly for packed lunches and leftover dinners. I’ve even frozen the leftovers in this massive silicone ice dice tray—as soon as reheated within the microwave, the feel isn’t fairly the identical, nevertheless it’s nonetheless good sufficient for our toddler to get pleasure from.
Love this pumpkin mac and cheese?
Listed below are extra savory squash recipes to strive. For pumpkin treats, take a look at my pumpkin recipe roundup.
Please let me understand how your pumpkin mac and cheese seems within the feedback! I really like listening to from you.
Pumpkin Mac and Cheese
- Writer:
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Prepare dinner Time: 20 minutes
- Whole Time: half-hour
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
- Class: Pasta
- Methodology: Stovetop
- Delicacies: American
- Weight loss program: Vegetarian
Creamy pumpkin mac and cheese will heat you up on cool fall evenings. This simple autumnal pasta recipe comes collectively in a single pot and tastes unbelievable. Recipe yields 8 servings (quite a bit!) and leftovers are nice.
Scale
Components
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 ½ teaspoons pumpkin spice mix*
- 1 ½ teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons onion powder
- 1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin purée (not pumpkin pie filling)
- 1 pound short-cut pasta (pipe regate, macaroni noodles, casarecce, cavatelli, fusilli)
- 5 cups water
- 1 teaspoon superb salt, to style
- 4 ounces cream cheese, cubed
- 8 ounces shredded sharp cheddar cheese
- ½ cup (2 ounces) finely grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving
Directions
- Soften the butter in a big pot or Dutch oven over medium warmth. Add the pumpkin spice, garlic and onion powders and cook dinner for two to 4 minutes, stirring typically, till the butter could be very aromatic and also you see many little brown flecks within the pan. Stir within the pumpkin and let it cook dinner for a minute, whereas stirring.
- Pour within the pasta, water and salt. Cowl the pot and produce it to a boil over excessive warmth. As soon as boiling, take away the lid and set the timer for 8 minutes.
- Prepare dinner, stirring typically (extra typically because the time goes on), till the timer goes off. Don’t drain the water. Stir within the cream cheese. Prepare dinner till the cream cheese has melted and the pasta is al dente (cautious if you style, it’s fairly scorching), about 4 to five extra minutes. Flip down the warmth as essential to keep away from scorching however keep a gradual simmer.
- Scale back the warmth to low. Add the cheddar and Parmesan, and stir till the combination is melted and creamy. Take away the pot from the warmth.
- Season with salt, to style (I often add ¼ teaspoon or extra). Serve the pasta in bowls with further Parmesan grated on high, if desired. Leftovers preserve properly, coated and refrigerated, for as much as 5 days (or freezes comparatively properly for as much as 3 months).
Notes
Recipe tailored from my Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese.
*Pumpkin spice quantities: To make simply sufficient pumpkin spice for this recipe, use ¾ teaspoon floor cinnamon, ½ teaspoon floor ginger, ¼ teaspoon floor nutmeg, and a bit pinch of allspice or cloves.
Make it gluten free: Gluten-free pastas fluctuate extensively. Select a spiral-shaped gluten-free brown rice pasta, resembling fusilli, over different pasta varieties (my tester was happy with Jovial model). Stir gently and don’t cook dinner the pasta any longer than mandatory or it could begin to lose its form.
▸ Diet Info
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