Pumpkin mac & cheese in Cook with Formula 1

And with Daria and her Cook with Formula we are almost at the finish line. Austin, Texas, is our stop today.

And you know what? It was terribly, horribly hard to choose something specific to American cuisine. Not because of the lack of meals, but… this time my head hurts with “too much”. I had several ideas, some turned out to be a terrible kitchen disatser, few weren’t suitable to be “veganized” and some of them were just instant “nope”.

In the end, my choice was the traditional “comfort food”, the notorious mac&cheese .

What is this?

This pasta with a creamy cheese sauce. Often baked to obtain a crisp outer shell.

And, if the idea is actually comforting, yet my stomach rebels at the thought of cosmic amounts of fats and carbohydrates. Heavy, chewy cheese, melted with cream… the nightmare of every self-respecting artery.

But Daria was so terribly sad, when many of us omitted Grand Prix in Sochi. Not wanting to disappoint our hostess again, I chose the dish and decided to do something with it. 🙂

And I did. I replaced the cream and cheese with pumpkin and beans. And it became very pumpkin, very creamy, softly and vegan “cheese sauce”.

And, before anyone reminds me that the pasta is made with the egg – you can use any pasta. Rice, gluten-free, vegan, with linseed or soy concentrate instead of eggs.

In the meantime, let us enjoy the pumpkin mac&cheese .

Ingredients:

30 ounces pumpkin

3 cloves of garlic

salt

green pepper

1 tablespoon canola oil

30 ounces white beans

1 cup oat milk

2 tablespoons lime juice

1 tablespoon mustard

0.5 tsp turmeric

pasta

Preparation:

• Soak beans overnight. The next day, rinse and cook until soft. (If you haven’t prepare beans the day before – you can replace it with a canned ones).
• Preheat the oven to 200C (392F)
• Peel the pumpkin and cut into cubes.
• To the bowl add the peeled and crushed garlic, a teaspoon of salt and green pepper. Mix with oil.
• Add the pumpkin to the marinade, mix thoroughly and translate into the pan lined with baking paper.
• Bake pumpkin approx. 40 minutes.
• Approx. 20 minutes before end of baking pumpkin, start cooking pasta.
• Pumpkin, beans, milk, lime juice, mustard and turmeric translate into a blender and blend till real smooth. Taste and, if necessary, season with salt and pepper.
• Rinse the pasta and translate back into the pot.
• Add the pumpkin sauce and mix.

Serve immediately, hot and steaming, sprinkled with parsley. Enjoy 🙂