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Gluten Free Mac and Cheese with a Carrot-y Secret

October 27, 2015 by Sabrina Modelle

Gluten Free Mac and Cheese with Carrot Puree

Gluten Free Mac and Cheese with Carrot Purée

This gluten free baked mac and cheese is a family-friendly recipe that both kids and adults will love. It’s gooey and cheesy and a little sweet from the addition of carrot puree. I’ve used good, sharp cheddar cheese and a garlicky parmesan breadcrumb topping to make this gluten free carrot mac and cheese an absolute favorite! Jump Straight to the Recipe

Gluten Free Mac and Cheese with Carrot Purée

Yesterday, I had a call to discuss an upcoming panel I’m speaking on at Blogher Food with some blogging friends including Elise Bauer of Simply Recipes, Irvin Lin of Eat the Love, Jaden Janice Hair of Steamy Kitchen, and Michael Procopio of Food For The Thoughtless. We’re speaking about long-term blogger happiness. Blogging involves deeply personal, solitary work, and burnout tends to strike nearly everyone in our profession. We chatted about overcoming hurdles in blogging and discussed the things that fill us with joy, the reasons we started blogging, and how we cultivate a sense of fulfillment.

The Tomato Tart Cooking Classes in Sacramento

Photo by Joshua Carlberg

I started my blog because I really wanted to help people learn to cook- to share the happiness and creativity that I find in the kitchen. I told my co-panelists about the work I’ve been doing with The Sacramento Public Library– teaching people, both children and adults, how to cook some of my favorite foods and talking about rebuilding our food system.

The Tomato Tart Cooking Classes in Sacramento

Photo by Joshua Carlberg

In our libraries, October means one thing: the One Book Program. This year, the book selected was The Third Plate by Dan Barber. The book centers on food and farming. It’s about changing the way we eat and think about food. It’s about good stewardship and delicious food and where those two things intersect both in theory and in practice. One of the stories in the book centers around carrots grown at Chef Barber’s farm, the carrot in question was a Mokum carrot with a brix (or sugar) level of 16- the industrial farmed carrots he tested were 0! That idea of a carrot tasting became the inspiration for a cooking class.

Beautiful Local Organic Carrots

Carrots are the perfect food- they’re versatile, easy to procure and prepare, and can be eaten raw, out of hand if you like. As much as I love eating raw carrots, I also find them incredibly inspiring in the kitchen. Steam them and eat them as is, and they’re lovely, puree those steamed carrots and add a bit of salt, and they’re silky and luxurious, add to that puree, a bit of milk or stock, and you have a beautiful carrot soup. Honestly, I could go on for days.

When I learned that one of my classes would have 50+ kids in it, I decided to focus on familiar comfort foods. The first thing that came to mind was carrot mac and cheese. My usual mac and cheese recipe calls for adding cream to the cheese sauce right before the mac and cheese goes into the oven. Why not replace the cream with some carrot puree? My first test was so CRAZY successful, I decided to double the amount of carrot puree. And holy cow it was a masterpiece of beautifully orange, slightly sweet, macaroni and cheesy goodness.

Gluten Free Mac and Cheese with Carrot Purée

When I went to see Amber Stott of Food Literacy Center interview Chef Barber at The Sacramento Library, Barber spoke a lot on food waste. It’s staggering the amount of waste in this country; fully 40% of the food we grow never makes it onto our plates. We have to be able to do better than 40%! I try to do my part by composting, saving scraps and bones for stock, and eating nose to tail, but I’m not perfect. There are times the eggshells go into the garbage or some yogurt goes bad a the back of my fridge. Barber is inspired by the unwanted bits, the rotation crops, the “waste”. It was in this spirit that I decided to use the carrot tops in place of parsley in the breadcrumb topping for my mac and cheese. And wow, was it fantastic.

I love teaching. I especially loved sharing the funky “ugly” carrots with the attendees of my class. I asked my students to taste those locally and thoughtfully grown gnarled, twisted, and two legged carrots then to follow those with the mass produced organic carrots from a big box store.I watched as a lady who said she didn’t really care for carrots made mmm mmm mmm sounds as she crunched on the little carrots from Patrick’s Garden. I love all of the questions I peppered with, and it’s comforting to know that people outside the food industry are actually starting to think about where their food comes from.
I teach my last class of the month on Wednesday at the Carmichael Library where I’ll be teaching a Winter Squash class. In November, I’ll take a break from teaching since I’m traveling to Chicago and also participating in National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo) where I will post on this blog every day in the month of November. Phew! Can’t wait to share with you some of the exciting things I’ve been working on for November. Until then, enjoy this scrumptious carrot-spiked gluten free mac and cheese with garlic and parmesan breadcrumb topping.

Gluten Free Mac and Cheese with Carrot Purée

Gluten Free Carrot Mac and Cheese

This gluten free mac and cheese replaces rich heavy cream with beautiful pureed carrots. I’ve used Lundberg brown rice elbow noodles and they truly hold up well. You can prepare the mac and cheese ahead of time–preparing the noodles, cheese sauce, and breadcrumb topping and then refrigerating for up to two days before baking. The recipe is easily doubled, tripled or more. Last week, I made six trays of this at one time and held overnight in the fridge before baking. If you’re looking for a mac and cheese recipe to feed a crowd, this one works like a charm.

It is important to use very flavorful cheese in this. I used Dubliner from Kerrygold as well as some sharp cheddar from Cabot Creamery.  You can switch up the cheeses to your taste, but keep in mind that mild cheeses like Jack or Mozzarella will get lost in the recipe. This recipe is adapted from Epicurious

Gluten Free Carrot Mac and Cheese

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Gluten Free Mac and Cheese with a Carrot-y Secret

Rating  5.0 from 5 reviews

Prep time:  30 mins

Cook time:  30 mins

Total time:  1 hour

Serves: 12 servings

his gluten free baked mac and cheese is a family-friendly recipe that both kids and adults will love. It’s gooey and cheesy and a little sweet from the addition of carrot puree. I’ve used good, sharp cheddar cheese and a garlicky parmesan breadcrumb topping to make this gluten free carrot mac and cheese an absolute favorite!
Ingredients
For carrot puree
  • 2 lbs carrots, peeled sliced and steamed until very soft
  • small pinch of salt
For the topping:
  • 2 cups fresh or dried gluten free breadcrumbs
  • 3 large garlic cloves, finely minced
  • 2 ounces finely grated Parmesan (about ½ cup)
  • The leafy parts of a carrot top, very finely chopped
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • ½ teaspoon pepper
  • 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
For the macaroni and sauce:
  • 1 pound gluten free elbow macaroni
  • 1 unsalted butter (½ cup)
  • ½ cup gluten free all purpose flour
  • 4 cups whole milk
  • 16 oz grated cheddar cheese. I used Kerrygold Dubliner
  • 1 ¼ cups carrot puree
  • 1 ½ teaspoons sea salt
  • ½ teaspoon black pepper
  • ½ tablespoon sweet paprika
  • 1 tablespoons mustard powder
Instructions
Make Topping
  1. Stir together breadcrumbs, garlic, parmesan, carrot tops, salt, pepper, and paprika. Add olive oil and toss to coat.
Make Mac and Cheese
  1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease a 9x13 baking dish and set a large, covered pot of salted water over high heat to boil.
  2. In a food processor or high speed blender, puree the carrots until silky smooth (about 3 minutes)
  3. Add elbow noodles to boiling salted water and cook until al dente. Drain and set aside. Heat milk in a saucepan over medium heat. Do not boil. In a separate pot, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Sprinkle flour over butter, whisking to incorporate. This is called a roux. Cook for about 6 minutes or until the roux is a light golden brown and starts to smell nutty.
  4. Gradually pour warm milk into the roux. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon to incorporate. This makes a béchamel sauce. Turn heat up to medium high and keep stirring until sauce becomes thick enough to coat the back of your spoon. Turn heat to low and continue stirring. If you have a thermometer, the ideal temperature would be between 140º and 150º. If your béchamel is above 160º you run the chance of a gritty cheese sauce.
  5. Stir in the salt, pepper, paprika, and mustard powder. Add the cheeses one handful at a time. Whisk after each addition until cheese is completely incorporated. Finally, stir in the carrot puree.
  6. Add the drained macaroni to the pot with the cheese sauce and stir until it is completed coated. Transfer to the greased baking dish and cover with an even coating of the breadcrumb topping. Bake until the topping is golden brown and the cheese is bubbling, 25-30 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.
3.3.3077

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Filed Under: Gluten Free, Main Course, Pasta, Sides, Vegetarian Tagged With: autumn, Baked, Butter, Cheese, Comfort Food, Cooking, Farmers Market, Flour, garlic, Gluten Free, homemade, mac and cheese, macaroni and cheese, seasonal, Vegetarian, winter

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Comments

  1. Hof ter Zielbeek says

    October 29, 2015 at 12:25 AM

    Hi Sabrina, this looks divine! Due to some health related problems I had to remove all dairy from my diet this year but my hubby and kids love cheese. Thanks a lot for posting these lovely pictures and the recipe. 🙂

    • Sabrina Modelle says

      October 29, 2015 at 1:41 PM

      Thank you Hof! I am sorry you’ve had to remove dairy from your diet. I am actually thinking of working on a dairy free/vegan version of this. I’ve made some amazing vegan cheeses and I’m curious whether they’d be good for this dish. The “cheese” in question is nut based. Here’s a similar recipe to the one I’ve tried. http://itdoesnttastelikechicken.com/2015/08/13/melty-stretchy-gooey-vegan-nacho-cheese/

  2. allie @ Through Her Looking Glass says

    October 29, 2015 at 8:09 AM

    Dear Sabrina, I loved this post, this inspired recipe and learning about what makes you tick! Have a beautiful day.

    • Sabrina Modelle says

      October 29, 2015 at 2:15 PM

      Hi Allie! Thanks so much for your kind words. I hope you also have an awesome day 🙂

  3. Stacey says

    October 30, 2015 at 10:07 AM

    Oh this is awesome! I love to sneak healthy ingredients into comfort food! It is only way to get my youngest to eat a veggie 🙂

  4. LydiaF says

    October 30, 2015 at 11:53 AM

    Great idea to replace the cream with carrot puree. Almost everyone has carrots in the fridge. I will check out the book you mentioned. We address the issues of packaging and food waste frequently on my blog. Thanks!

  5. Marvellina @ What To Cook Today says

    October 30, 2015 at 12:44 PM

    This looks soooo good! My daughter is into mac and cheese these days (She wasn’t before) 🙂

  6. Sandi (@sandigtweets) says

    October 30, 2015 at 8:34 PM

    Beautiful dish…we would devour it here. I also loved hearing about your teaching and how you give back. Thank you for sharing your story with us.

  7. Annie @ Annie's Noms says

    October 31, 2015 at 4:36 AM

    This looks absolutely divine!!! What a gorgeous mac and cheese recipe; this would definitely disappear in our house!

  8. Chris @ SimpleFood365 says

    October 31, 2015 at 8:42 AM

    A great homemade Mac and Cheese is the best and adding the carrot to this sounds really good. In our home, it might be a great way to get some veggies into the kids too!

  9. Cristie | Little Big H says

    November 1, 2015 at 8:18 PM

    I love the carroty secret… It sounds delicious.

  10. Fareeha says

    November 3, 2015 at 4:00 AM

    wow, this is just too good to be true… love this recipe. what not to love about it, it has all the goodness of all the good food..

  11. Anne Murphy says

    November 5, 2015 at 10:01 AM

    Carrots sound interesting here… People forget how sweet they can be!

    And I’ll try the Lundberg macaroni – I’ve been very disappointed with rice pasta (though I have friends who swear by it…) so your comment that it ‘holds up well” gives me some hope… LOL

    • Sabrina Modelle says

      November 14, 2015 at 11:45 AM

      It’s true, Anne. Carrots can be mind-blowingly sweet. I made the carrot puree for these and I could not stop eating it. It’s so pretty and it’s as sweet as can be. Doesn’t even need a pinch of salt. I like the Lundberg macaroni– so far it’s the best I’ve tried. For regular GF pasta, my favorite is from Jovial, an Italian brand. It’s really great!

  12. Rachel Cooks says

    November 17, 2015 at 11:58 AM

    Is this what we had in Chicago? It was SO amazing.

    • Sabrina Modelle says

      November 17, 2015 at 12:48 PM

      Hi Rachel, mostly… I subbed pumpkin for carrots and basically doubled the amount of pumpkin 😉

  13. Brianna @Flippin' Delicious says

    December 11, 2015 at 9:54 AM

    Such a fun (and super delicious) way to sneak in some veggies. That Kerrygold Dubliner cheese is my absolute favorite!

  14. Scarlet @ Family Focus Blog says

    December 10, 2016 at 6:25 AM

    This looks really good. I wouldn’t have thought of adding carrots. Your carrots were so pretty! I love Kerrigold too!

  15. Platter Talk says

    December 10, 2016 at 6:41 AM

    The carrot puree addition to the sauce, as well as the chopped carrot top for the topping is a very cool and I bet tasty addition. Love it & going to try it. You just taught an old dog an new trick!

  16. Kathi @ Laughing Spatula says

    December 10, 2016 at 7:42 AM

    Anything with mac and cheese makes me happy! Love how you are giving back by teaching the kiddos to cook with not so perfect looking veggies! They are so used to seeing everything so uniform in the store but if you visit farmers markets you know the ugliest veggies taste the best!

  17. Veena Azmanov says

    December 10, 2016 at 8:01 AM

    I love how delicious this is!1 The carrot puree twist is amazing. Love that you have so many veggies..

Trackbacks

  1. Butternut Squash Baked Mac and Cheese says:
    March 16, 2016 at 6:35 AM

    […] squash puree to the dish. The butternut squash puree move was inspired by my friend Sabrina and her baked mac with carrot. The idea of adding a bit of sweetness to a mac and cheese dish sounded so intriguing, I had to […]

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