Three Veggie Mac-n-Cheese

Three Veggie Mac-n-Cheese

We’ve all heard it before, Americans are not getting nearly as many vegetables in their diet as they should be, we know. But what solution is there that will be, not only easy but delicious? Enter the Go2Kitchens three veggie mac-n-cheese! You may have seen recipes that hide a vegetable before, but we’ve got that beat with three vegetables! As a matter of fact, hiding vegetables in different foods and dishes is something you will probably be seeing a lot of in the future according to Natural Grocers. Natural Grocers, America’s Nutrition Education Expert, published a list of the top 10 nutrition and health trends in 2018, and sneaking in vegetables is on that list. You can (and should!) check out the list in its entirety on the Natural Grocers’ website here.

Vegetables are one of the biggest components of a healthy diet, and without them, you are missing out on a lot of vitamins and nutrients that your body needs. The vegetables in this recipe are chock full of sulfur, vitamin C, vitamin E, zinc, and selenium, which Natural Grocers suggests because they are very cleansing and detoxifying naturally. That’s another health trend for the New Year, consuming things that help facilitate the body’s natural cleansing systems. I wrote a blog post all about becoming a detoxing machine that you can check out right here.

Now back to the recipe! Do you have picky eaters at home or maybe YOU are the picky eater who needs to up your vegetable consumption? This recipe is for you! This mac-n-cheese is going to give you all the flavors and warm, cozy feelings of the traditional comfort food. The three veggies you will hardly even notice in this recipe are broccoli, cauliflower, and fennel. As usual, we recommend using organic ingredients when at all possible. Oh ORGANICS, that is on the list too!  Yay 2018! 

Print

Three Veggie Mac-n-Cheese

Prep Time

15 mins

Cook Time

15 mins

Total Time

30 mins

 

Psst! There’s also another little trick to this recipe! The color in this dish isn’t from fake yellow cheese, it’s from turmeric! The yellow color you see in cheese typically comes from fake coloring and here at Go2Kitchens, we are all about REAL food ingredients!

Course: Dinner

Cuisine: Vegan

Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 1 cups cauliflower chopped into florets
• 1 bulb of fennel quartered
• 1 cup broccoli minced into tiny florets
• 2 cups gluten free pasta
• 1/2 cup whole milk cottage cheese
• 1/4 cup raw probiotic rich plain yogurt
• 1 tbsp dijon mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 cup grated raw cheddar cheese saving some for later

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375.
2. Cook pasta according to box
3. Steam cauliflower and fennel until tender, about 7 minutes.
4. Steam broccoli florets until tender in a separate pot.
5. Place the cauliflower and fennel into a high speed blender and add cottage cheese, yogurt, dijon mustard, salt, pepper, and garlic salt. Blend until smooth.
6. Once your sauce is blended, add turmeric for color and blend.
7. Add cheddar cheese to the sauce in the blender, stir with a long wooden spoon or spatula and save a little for the top of the dish.
8. Spray a 10 inch baking dish with spray coconut oil and add your macaroni to the dish.
9. Add the steamed broccoli to the macaroni and combine together.
10. Pour the sauce from the high speed blender on top and spread evenly.
11. Sprinkle more raw cheddar on top of sauce.
12. Bake for 15 minutes.
13. Place under the broiler for 1-2 min to brown the cheese.