Miso Brown Butter Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese
Basically the same as my other butternut squash mac n cheese recipe, but taken up a notch with the nuttiness of brown butter in the velvety, cheesy butternut squash sauce. Enough said!!
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Makes 3-4 servings
Prep time: 1 hr
Cook time: 35 min
What you’ll need
10 oz pasta, shaped with big holes are good :)) (rigatoni used here)
3 tbsp butter (if doing vegan, Miyoko’s is the only vegan butter I’ve found that browns)
3 tbsp flour
1 small butternut squash, diced or 1 can of pureed butternut squash
2 tsp miso paste
1 cup veggie broth (or sub for water and add extra tsp of miso if you want more miso flavor)
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 cup cheddar cheese (vegan cheese used here)
1/2 cup parmesan cheese (vegan cheese used here)
Garlic sage breadcrumbs
1/2 tsp ground sage
2 cloves minced garlic
2/3 cup panko
2 tbsp butter
Pinch of salt
Prep
In a large pot, cover the diced butternut squash in veggie broth and let simmer on medium heat until tender and able to be poked through with a fork, about 15 minutes.
Cook
In a blender or food processor, blend the butternut squash until completely smooth. Set aside.
In a large pot, brown your butter until it smells nutty, keeping an eye to make sure it does not burn, about 5 minutes. As soon as it starts to turn golden, add in your flour and stir to make a roux. Let cook for a minute or two on low heat. Add in your spices and your pureed butternut squash and miso paste, and then gradually add in shredded cheese until melted. If sauce thickens too much, add a splash of water. The miso paste can be tricky to incorporate into the sauce—you can thin it out with some water in a small bowl before adding to sauce. If you’d like to preserve the probiotic quality of the miso, you can add it to the pasta last, right before serving (heat kills off the probiotics). Add the miso to taste as you would with salt.
Add your cooked pasta to the pot of sauce, and stir until sauce coats all of the noodles.
To make the garlic sage breadcrumbs: In a pan, melt butter and add minced garlic, sage, salt, and panko. Stir and let toast in pan for about 5 minutes, until crispy and golden. Top mac and cheese with breadcrumbs when serving. (IMO the breadcrumbs are NOT optional and the best part of this pasta :))
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