Roasted Curry Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese

The SEasOning

I feel like this is going to be a bit of a contentious post. Mac and Cheese is one of those sacred comfort dishes that crosses so many cultural boundaries. Food TikTok seems to have a lot of recipes for this and even more videos of people getting dragged for their recipes. I like to think my version preserves all the best elements of mac and cheese but adds a delicious twist. The roasted butternut squash replaces the roux so you can trick yourself into thinking this is “healthy” and the curry adds a lot of great complimentary flavours.

I think it’s good enough that I’d get invited to a cook-out with it.

Serves 8

The Ingredients

• 1 butternut squash peeled and cubed
• 1 medium yellow onion finely diced
• 3 cloves of garlic peeled and minced
• 1 tbsp curry powder
• 1 tsp Kashmiri chili powder
• 350g old cheddar cheese grated
• 350g pizza mozzarella cheese grated
• 1 cup milk
• 500g dry macaroni
• 1 tbsp + 1 tbsp canola oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

The Method

1. Pre-heat your oven to 350F
2. Toss the cubed squash in 1 tbsp of olive oil, curry powder and salt and pepper. Roast for 30-40 min till the squash is soft and starting to brown
3. Once baked, transfer to a blender, add the milk and blend till smooth
4. Meanwhile, cook the pasta per the instructions on the box, but cook about 2 min short of al dente. When cooked, drain and reserve the pasta
5. In a heavy bottomed pot over medium heat add 1 tbsp of canola oil and sweat your onions and garlic. Once translucent add in the blended butternut squash and chili powder.
6. Once the mixture heats about add about 3/4 of the cheeses little by little stirring constantly. Let the cheese melt in between each addition. Insert in a fold in the cheese reference.
7. After you’ve melted in the cheese, add in the reserved macaroni and stir to combine.
8. Pour half this cheesy goodness into a a greased 8″x8″ pan and top with the half reserved cheese. Add the remaining macaroni and top with the remaining cheese
9. Put this into a 350F oven for 30-40 min or until the cheese on top has melted and browned. If you’re using an 8″x8″ pan you may want to place this on a baking sheet. This really fills up the pan and you may get a little spill over.
10. Remove from the oven and let this sit for at least 10 minutes. If you try to slice this up right away you’ll end up with mac and cheese soup
11. Slice and serve!