Baked Cauliflower Mac and Cheese (from Spend with Pennies)

After being away last week and eating a lot of delicious but indulgent food, I tried to focus on healthier eating and more vegetables this week. I’m not sure that Baked Cauliflower Mac and Cheese necessarily qualifies as healthy, but it is at least vegetarian, right?. 😉 We had a lot of (much needed) rain in Florida this weekend, so it was the perfect dinner for wet Saturday and Sunday nights.

I searched the internet because I wanted a recipe that would use up milk, cream, sharp cheddar and cauliflower that I had in the fridge. This recipe from Spend with Pennies had all those items, and also pasta, which was attractive to me. (I’m all for making things a bit healthier, but mac and cheese with no mac at all is a dealbreaker! 😂)

I made a few changes to this based on our own preferences, but I love that it is a great base recipe that I can make often! I think it would be good with broccoli or spinach as well.

Here are my changes:

1. Baked at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes.
2. Used rotini (spiral) pasta instead of macaroni. They take a bit longer so I added the cauliflower to the water and pasta when it had 7 minutes left to cook.
3. I had heavy cream so that is what I used. I also added an extra half cup of milk so there were 3 cups of liquid in total. Next time I’ll probably try it with 3 cups of whole milk and no cream, which is what I usually use for mac and cheese.
4. I added about 1/2 teaspoon of fresh grated nutmeg because we like the taste with a cream sauce. (Not included in the ingredients photo. It was a last minute decision.)
5. I used less cheese overall. I had an 8 oz block of sharp cheddar and a 5 oz block of fontina, plus about 1/3 cup of Pecorino Romano. (I saved 1 cup of the cheddar for the topping.)
6. I added breadcrumbs because we love them on Mac and Cheese! The ones I used were whole wheat Panko from Aldi. I mixed about 1 cup with 1 tablespoon of melted butter and then sprinkled them on top right before baking.

I almost always prepare my macaroni and cheese in advance for convenience. After dumping the mixture into the casserole dish and adding the extra cheese on top, I cool it for about an hour on the counter on a baking rack and then cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate it. (This can be done a day or two in advance of serving.) I remove the casserole from the fridge about an hour before I plan to serve it, adding the breadcrumb and butter mixture then. It may take a bit longer to bake this way, but it turns out the same. (And I actually think that leftover mac and cheese (if there is any) is even better!) You should get 6 very generous portions from this recipe. I highly recommend drizzling over a little Calabrian chili oil if you like a little spice, too.

I hope that you’ll try this Baked Cauliflower Mac and Cheese soon!