This creamy pumpkin mac and cheese recipe comes collectively in one pot. It’s actually fairly straightforward to make. You don’t even drain the pasta cooking water.
Due to the pumpkin, this dish is further creamy, golden and flavorful. Naturally, it’s lighter than your typical selfmade mac and cheese. On cool fall evenings, this mac and cheese will heat you up with out placing you to sleep.
This straightforward autumnal pasta recipe will delight the entire household. Leftovers reheat nicely for the following few days, and even freeze nicely 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 prepare dinner a can of pumpkin purée within the flavored butter for a minute earlier than including pasta and water. Afterward, we’ll stir in some cream cheese, sharp cheddar cheese and Parmesan. The top result’s magical.
Pumpkin Mac and Cheese Substances
You’ll discover the total recipe under. Right here’s what you must learn about the important thing substances earlier than you head to the shop.
Canned Pumpkin Puree
This recipe conveniently makes use of up one whole can of pumpkin purée. Make sure you purchase plain pumpkin purée, not pumpkin pie filling, which comprises sugar and spices.
Not all canned pumpkin purée is created equal. I’ve loved this recipe with Complete Meals 365 model, and Libby’s is reliably good as nicely.
Brief-Lower Pasta
You’ve got fairly a couple of choices right here. For finest outcomes, select a noodle that cooks in about 8 minutes or much less, based on the package deal instructions. We used casarecce for these images, or you could possibly use macaroni noodles for a extra conventional mac and cheese look. Different choices embody cavatelli, fusilli, pipe rigate, and so forth. To make this recipe gluten free, we efficiently used Jovial model’s brown rice-based fusilli.
Tip: “Brief-cut” pasta refers to compact noodle shapes, versus lengthy strands like spaghetti or fettuccine.
Cream Cheese
We’ll stir cream cheese straight into the pot. The cream cheese makes this pasta extremely creamy, flippantly tangy, and splendid. You’ll use half of a regular 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 in the long run end result. Parmesan cheese additional amps up the flavour. Mud your particular person servings with just a little extra Parmesan, when you’d like.
Tip: Grate your individual cheese quite 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 costlier, 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 notice under the recipe to make your individual pumpkin spice mix from floor cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and clove or allspice. You can also make precisely as a lot as you want for this recipe by following the notice, or observe my pumpkin spice mix recipe to make further spice mix to your pumpkin bread and pumpkin muffins.
Watch The right way to Make Pumpkin Mac and Cheese
Serving Recommendations
Serve a inexperienced salad on the facet. Attempt 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 a number of pasta (eight servings). It reheats nicely for packed lunches and leftover dinners. I’ve even frozen the leftovers in this huge 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 take pleasure in.
Love this pumpkin mac and cheese?
Listed here are extra savory squash recipes to attempt. 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
- Creator:
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook dinner Time: 20 minutes
- Complete Time: half-hour
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
- Class: Pasta
- Methodology: Stovetop
- Delicacies: American
- Food plan: Vegetarian
Creamy pumpkin mac and cheese will heat you up on cool fall evenings. This straightforward autumnal pasta recipe comes collectively in a single pot and tastes unbelievable. Recipe yields 8 servings (rather a lot!) and leftovers are nice.
Scale
Substances
- 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 tremendous 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 prepare 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 prepare 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.
- Cook 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. Cook dinner till the cream cheese has melted and the pasta is al dente (cautious whenever you style, it’s fairly sizzling), about 4 to five extra minutes. Flip down the warmth as essential to keep away from scorching however preserve a gradual simmer.
- Cut 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 prime, if desired. Leftovers maintain nicely, lined and refrigerated, for as much as 5 days (or freezes comparatively nicely 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 just a little pinch of allspice or cloves.
Make it gluten free: Gluten-free pastas fluctuate extensively. Select a spiral-shaped gluten-free brown rice pasta, corresponding to fusilli, over different pasta sorts (my tester was happy with Jovial model). Stir gently and don’t prepare dinner the pasta any longer than obligatory or it could begin to lose its form.
▸ Diet Data
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