How to make Gluten-free Cauliflower Mac and Cheese? Cauliflower mac and Cheese combine to produce a delicious flavor. You should try it. If your family is anything like mine, any time there is an approaching snowstorm or cold spell, you get the traditional winter urge for comfort food. For us, mac and cheese is the first ooey-gooey choice. You might need to go shovel after dinner, but you won’t need to start a detox diet—there’s just as much pasta as there is cauliflower in this delicious recipe for Cauliflower Mac and Cheese. The addition of crunchy bread crumbs and subtle seasonings makes this a perfect casserole for any night of the week.
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recipe to make it gluten-free
I made a few small changes to the recipe to make it gluten-free, including switching out the pasta for gluten-free shells and using brown rice flour and a little cornstarch in place of the all-purpose flour. I also used slightly less milk in the cheese mixture since I wasn’t sure how well the wheatless pasta would absorb the liquid. Otherwise, I followed the FitnessMagazine.com recipe exactly since this was my first time preparing a baked mac and cheese for my toddler. I thought it was wise for me to keep things basic until I knew whether she liked it!
In the future, I might add a cup of white beans, peas, or even broccoli to balance out the mixture even more. And a more mild cheese, such as mozzarella, would be a good substitute for the Gruyere if you think your family would prefer the flavor.
Gluten-Free Cheese sauce
The only tricky part of this recipe is making sure you have the two components ready at the same time, which means that you need to stir together the cheese sauce while the pasta is cooking. This is completely doable as long as your cheese is shredded ahead of time and you have the rest of your ingredients for the breadcrumb topping ready to go. Otherwise, there’s nothing complicated at all here and I was totally amazed at just how creamy this casserole was without using too much cheese or butter.
Cauliflower mac and cheese
We had our lightened-up cauliflower mac and cheese with a simple green salad and I’m already looking forward to making this again.
Gluten-Free Cauliflwer Mac and Cheese Recipe
Ingredients
- Nonstick cooking spray
- 8 ounces gluten-free shell pasta
- 4 cups small cauliflower florets
- 2 cups low-fat milk
- ¼ cup brown rice flour
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon coarsely chopped thyme
- ½ teaspoon salt plus a pinch
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon ground pepper
- 4 ounces shredded gruyere (about 1 cup)
- 1 ounce grated parmesan (about 1/4 cup)
- 2 tablespoons gluten-free bread crumbs,
- 1 teaspoon butter,chopped
- ½ teaspoon paprika
Instructions
- Coat a 2 1/2-quart baking dish with cooking spray. Preheat the oven to 400° F. In a large pot, cook pasta for 1 minute less than package instructions call for, adding cauliflower to pot 4 minutes before pasta is done. Drain thoroughly and return pasta and cauliflower to pot.
- Meanwhile, whisk together 1/2 cup milk, flour, cornstarch, mustard, thyme, 1/2 teaspoon salt, garlic powder, and pepper in a small bowl. Heat remaining milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat until steaming but not simmering. Whisk flour mixture into milk and continue cooking, stirring often, until thickened and bubbling, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in Gruyere and Parmesan until melted and smooth.
- Stir cheese sauce into pasta and cauliflower and transfer to prepared baking dish. Sprinkle bread crumbs, paprika and pinch of salt over top and dot with butter. Bake until bubbling and golden, 22-25 minutes. Let sit 10 minutes before serving.
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