The sauce is a version of a cauliflower cream sauce I found online, but I didn’t have enough cauliflower, so I mixed in some butternut squash. To the sauce (approximately 1 cup for two adults and a toddler), I added shredded cheese, cottage cheese, quark (can use cream cheese), some hummus, vegetables (which were pre-cooked in the casserole dish) and cracked two egg whites. Mixed in pasta and then baked for 35 minutes.

Ingredients (for two adults and a toddler):

• 4 oz of pasta (I used fusilli)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• A handful (or two) of mushrooms, any kind (I used shitakke)
• 1 cup of cauliflower cream
• 1/3 cups of shredded cheese (I used a blend of mozzarella, cheddar and “frugal”)
• 2-3 heaping tablespoons of cottage cheese
• 1 tablespoons of quark or cream cheese
• 2 tablespoons of hummus
• 2 egg whites
• a handful (or two) of frozen peas
• a small handful of breadcrumbs (optional)
• 3 tablespoons of cheese curds (optional)

Instructions:

1. Chop all vegetables and cook it in a casserole dish in the oven at 300 F for 20 minutes
2. While the vegetables are cooking, get the pasta started. Cook one minute less than al dente (so if it says seven to 10 minutes, cook it for six) and drain. Save some of the pasta water (approximately 2 oz)
3. Add the pasta to the cooked vegetables and mix
4. In the same pot you cooked the pasta (but without the pasta), warm the cauliflower cream, adding a little bit of the pasta water. Don’t add all of it. You’ll have more than you need. You just want to thin it out a little
5. Add about half to 3/4 of the shredded cheese, hummus, cottage cheese, cream cheese/quark and stir
6. Add half of the sauce into the pasta in the casserole dish and mix
7. Add two egg whites to the remaining sauce and add into the pasta. Mix
8. Top with remaining cheese and optional curds and bread crumbs
9. Bake with foil on at 350 for 25 minutes and off for another 10

Serve!

The post ‘Healthier’ Mac and Cheese Casserole appeared first on Cynthia C. Mintz.