Recipes
Recipes with my own touch
Servings
12 young children
Ingredients
500g elbow macaroni
15ml extra virgin olive oil
2 onions, roughly chopped
15ml extra virgin olive oil
200g cauliflower, roughly chopped
2 med babymarrows, peeled & roughly chopped
1 med carrot, peeled & finely chopped
60g butter
60g flour
600g milk
1/2t salt pinch of white pepper
250ml cheddar, grated
250ml gouda, grated
4 viennas, quartered lengthwise and chopped
Children's mac and cheese
I hope I’m not the only mom who struggles to get veggies into her little children’s bodies! Before I had kids, I thought that my kids would eat chicken, avo & quinoa salads by the age of 3 but alas, they discovered fruit and chocolate croissants before that! And they all like and dislike different things at different times of the day it seems! Argh. I compromise by sneaking veggies into their meals – mac and cheese is a perfect dish for this covert operation! I end up making a huge pot and freezing it in portions.
Method
- Cook the pasta as per the packet instructions. Place a steamer over the pasta while it is cooking and steam the veg at the same time. Remove the steamer and set the veg aside. Drain the pasta and stir though the olive oil.
- Heat the oven to 180°C.
- While the pasta and veg are cooking, caramelise the onion: heat the extra olive oil in a pan and fry the onions until golden brown. Remove from the heat.
- At the same time start with the roux for the white sauce: heat the butter in a saucepan and add the flour. Cook for around 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Heat the milk in the microwave and gradually add it to the roux. Bring the sauce to the boil and reduce the heat stirring constantly for about 8 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in half of the each of the cheeses.
- Puree the cauliflower, babymarrow, carrot and onion in a blender or food processor until smooth. Stir the veg puree into the cheese sauce. The great thing about this puree is that it is the same colour as the cheese sauce and doesn’t have a strong taste, so the kids should be none the wiser. Add the viennas. Don’t judgme for this addition! And then stir the sauce into the cooked pasta.
- Divide into 3-4 medium oven proof dishes and top with the remaining cheeses. I must leave one third of mine without cheese because my 5-year-old recently announced that she doesn’t like crispy cheese anymore!
- Bake for 20 minutes until the cheese on top is melted and golden. Serve and pray for the best; that’s what I do!
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