"Cheezy" Pumpkin Mac and Cheez

Michael and I had a pumpkin for about two weeks and decided that we should probably make it. I haven't had mac and cheese in a really long time and I was dying to try this recipe that I discovered on Oh She Glows. Okay, it's NOT really mac and cheese because it's completely vegan. No dairy or cheese!

Roasted Pumpkin Puree
I used fresh pumpkin in this recipe. If you don't have a fresh pumpkin, you can also use one cup of canned pumpkin puree (or something like that).

1. Preheat oven to 370 degrees.
2. Cut pumpkin into fourths. Take the seeds and stringys out.
3. Place pumpkin on cookie sheet (or whatever you want to use) skin faced up.
4. Bake for 1 hour or until pumpkin insides are tender.
5. Let cool and scrape off pumpkin skin.
6. Let pumpkin cool completely before pureeing. We used a food processor. It took a long time.

Pasta
I used elbow quinoa pasta. You can use whatever you want. I made had the water boil while making the sauce.



Mac and Cheez Sauce

• 1 tbsp & 1 tsp Earth Balance (or any butter replacer, or butter)
• 3/4 cup unsweetended Almond Milk (or coconut milk)
• 1 tbsp arrowroot powder
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder (we did a little more, we really like garlic)
• 7 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 2 tsp Dijon mustard (I thought Michael said tablespoon and I just kept squeezing the bottle. oops). 
• 1 1/3 cup pumpkin puree (or canned pumpkin)
• salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. In a bowl, whisk together milk, arrowroot powder, and garlic powder until it is not clumpy. Set aside.
2. Put the Earth Balance into a pot over low-medium heat. Let it melt.
3. Add bowl of milk mix into pot and mix.
4. Stir in nutritional yeast, Dijon mustard, Salt and pepper. Mix until thickened. 
5. Add pumpkin puree and stir.
6. Add cheezy sauce to noodles and enjoy!

We really enjoyed this fall recipe. I have never cooked with pumpkin so it was a really cool experience! It did take a long time to make if you use fresh pumpkin. What are your favorite pumpkin recipes?

This post is written by Karel.
Adapted from: 
Oh She Glows Recipe 
my original pictures