Want a healthier side for your next barbeque? Or maybe a family friendly dinner that also gets your kids to eat some veggies? Look no further than this Garden Vegetable Mac And Cheese! 

THE INGREDIENTS: 

Green Bell Pepper: This is the first of four (!) vegetables in this garden vegetable mac and cheese. Green bell pepper provides a nice bite and savory flavor that pairs well with the cheese. Bell pepper is a common topping for cheesy pizzas, cheesy omelets…why wouldn’t it go well in mac and cheese, too? Compared to its red, orange, and yellow counterparts, green bell pepper is less sweet. We believe that that fact makes it work better in mac and cheese, but feel free to replace this with whatever color of bell pepper you have on hand. Don’t have bell pepper on hand? Feel free to make this a bit more southwestern with anaheim or poblano peppers. 

Zucchini: Next, up, another green vegetable! Mac and cheese may be an all-year kind of meal, but we believe cravings for a fresh, lighter mac and cheese will hit you hardest in the summer. Knowing that, we decided to add a summer squash…zucchini! Zucchini is a vegetable that goes well with about any flavor you put on it. In other words, it is incredibly versatile. From our zucchini quiche and the popularity of zucchini lasagna, another cheesy noodle dish, we also knew this vegetable would go great with some cheese! Don’t have zucchini on hand? Any sort of summer squash will work, such as yellow squash. If you’re not in a squash mood, feel free to replace this one with a little broccoli or cauliflower. 

Mushrooms: We said this was garden vegetable, after all! If that makes you think of garden vegetable pizza, then the first vegetable that probably came to your mind was mushrooms. We didn’t want to disappoint, so we’re glad to say mushrooms are also in this recipe. We really like mushrooms cooked with butter and garlic. With those ingredients already in this mac and cheese recipe, we knew we could cook some mushrooms in garlicky butter goodness and really make them flavorful. Perhaps your kids (or you) don’t like mushrooms? No worries. Good substitutes are eggplant, artichokes, or even cannellini beans for some increased protein! 

Tomato: Garden vegetable pizza has tomato sauce, does it not? To make our garden vegetable mac and cheese a worthy competitor against pizza, we decided to add a fresh diced tomato. They don’t need much cooking and are super juicy. Talk about refreshing! We need something to stand up to all that rich cheese flavor, after all. 

Butter: Not only does butter add richness to the dish, but melted butter is a key ingredient in a roux-which allows our mac and cheese to be thickened. 

Flour: The other key ingredient in a roux, flour is the ingredient to thank for the thickness of the cheese sauce. 

Milk: We use 2% milk in this recipe, but whatever you have on hand will work fine! For a general rule of thumb, if you use whole milk, your mac and cheese will have a thicker sauce. If you use 1% or skim milk, your mac and cheese will have a thinner sauce. You may have to add or take away some of the milk to get your personal desired consistency. You may know from our regular mac and cheese recipe that we add less milk here-that is because the juicy vegetables provide some liquid that keeps our mac and cheese from getting too thick! 

Cheddar Cheese: Sharp, mild-you name it! Any kind of cheddar belongs in this recipe. Shredded, cut into chunks, freshly grated-you name it again! Even when a block of cheddar is cut into chunks, we’ve found that it melts well in this recipe. This cheese is a classic for mac n cheese, so we don’t recommend switching it out with another kind. If you want to, though, just know that your mac and cheese will have a bit different of a flavor. 

Smoked Gouda Cheese: When we went from one-cheese mac and cheese to two-cheese mac n cheese, our world was blown. We had never liked mac and cheese that much, but then we learned that pairing cheddar with another cheese really elevates it. Without getting out any meat, smoked gouda cheese provides an excellent smokiness so you won’t miss the lack of meat in this dish. It also adds more cheese, which sounds like a great idea for mac n CHEESE. If you don’t have smoked gouda on hand, you can also use regular gouda, gruyere, goat cheese, havarti, provolone, or whatever sounds good to you. 

Elbow Pasta: This is the classic pasta for mac n cheese, and we did not want to deviate from it! 

Lawry Salt: Lawry Salt is not a brand, but it is a salt with other seasonings added. We find it goes well with potato or cheese-focused dishes. Don’t have Lawry salt? Make your own by combining salt, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, and turmeric. Turmeric is incredibly strong, so be light handed unless you enjoy the flavor! 

Freshly Cracked Black Pepper: Easily replaced with regular black pepper, freshly cracked black pepper is often stronger and can cut through the extreme richness of the cheese sauce well. Everyone has a different pepper tolerance, so go with what you like! If you don’t know how much pepper you can handle, ½ tsp is always a good starting place. 

Red Pepper Flakes: This mac and cheese is nowhere near spicy, but adding this small amount of red pepper flakes helps, just like the black pepper does, to have you taste more than just a mountain of cheese. It adds a zing to the dish that even those with no spice tolerance won’t be troubled by. 

Mustard Powder: This spice adds a richness to the cheese sauce, but be careful! Adding too much mustard powder gives an incredibly strong, tongue-coating bitter flavor. The key to only having ½ tsp in this recipe is that mustard is an incredible background flavor, we just do not want to bring it to the limelight. 

Dried Minced Onion: Without chopping an onion, this seasoning adds a strong onion flavor that pairs well with mac n cheese! Although we’re chopping other vegetables in this recipe, it is mac n cheese, after all. We wanted to take shortcuts where we could so that you could have an easier time making dinner. If you want, of course, feel free to chop 1 yellow or white onion for this recipe instead. You could also use 1 to 2 teaspoons of onion powder instead. 

Garlic Powder: Garlic pairs well with an oniony flavor, which we introduced through the dried minced onion. Although we’re chopping other vegetables in this recipe, it is mac n cheese, after all. We wanted to take shortcuts where we could so that you could have an easier time making dinner. You can use 3 cloves of freshly minced garlic if you want, though-we won’t stop you! 

Parsley: In this recipe, you can use either dried or fresh, minced parsley. It all depends if you are going for looks or just a little bit more fresh flavor. The flavor of parsley is a welcome addition, but not necessary. We like it both ways, so it’s truly all up to you. 

Dried parsley has little to no flavor, but it adds the visual finishing touch! Seeing the specs of herbs in your mac and cheese helps you to eat with your eyes first-and it looks delicious! If you don’t have either fresh or dried parsley, feel free to skip it and you will still have a successful mac and cheese recipe. 

Breadcrumbs: Mac and cheese tends to have the same texture throughout the entire dish. This may seem fine, but the more you eat it you may start to feel bored. Breadcrumbs fix that! You still get plenty of gooey bites, but the occasional crisp breadcrumb adds nice texture to the dish. Their small size also makes them very easy to eat. 

Italian Seasoning: If you don’t want to add seasoning, you can buy pre-seasoned breadcrumbs. Italian seasoning adds a nice flavor to your breadcrumbs so that they are useful for taste and texture! 

KEY INFORMATION: 

Roux and Sauce Thickness: A traditional roux is equal parts fat and flour. To get our mac and cheese thicker, we need to have it on the heat for more time to give the roux a chance to thicken the whole dish as much as we want. However, if we find our mac and cheese to be too thick, the way to go is adding a little extra milk. If you don’t have the time to wait to heat and thicken the mac n cheese, we recommend adding a bit more flour-1 or 2 more tablespoons-when making the roux. You may have to add in more milk at the end, but it will at least get thicker faster! 

Unsalted or Salted Butter? Any kind of butter works for this recipe. If you are nervous about the salt content and are using salted butter, you can reduce the Lawry salt by ¼ tsp. However, we feel as if the type of the butter does not really affect this mac and cheese dish since it is not delicate and there is a lot of fat to cancel out saltiness. 

Good Vegetable Substitutes For Garden Vegetable Mac N Cheese: Other good vegetables to put in this mac and cheese recipe are cauliflower, broccoli, eggplant, yellow squash, cherry tomatoes, spinach, leeks, asparagus, carrots, and green peas. Adjust this recipe to your family’s needs! 

What Goes with Garden Vegetable Mac N Cheese? We’d say this mac and cheese makes a wonderful main meal paired with a side salad and maybe even some garlic bread. However, you can also have it as a BBQ side next to some potato salad, grilled corn, and grilled meats! Other good pairings include fish sticks, chicken breasts, tuna patties for protein. For more veggie flavors, try out a ranch side salad, buttered corn carrots, corn, and  peas for the little ones, or even some roasted broccoli. 

What is Blanching and Why Is It Used in This Recipe? Blanching is essentially boiling vegetables for a short amount of time to cook them. Then, the vegetables are transferred to a bowl of ice water so that they stop cooking rapidly. This helps give a texture that breaks up the monotony of soft mac n cheese. Although it may sound fancy, it’s actually a super easy and quick cooking method.

We do not recommend blanching the mushrooms as they are already very watery, and the goal with mushrooms is to cook the water out of them for the best flavor and texture. We thought we didn’t like mushrooms until we knew this little secret. Blanching gives a more controlled cook than letting the bell pepper and zucchini boil in the water released from the mushrooms while they are cooking. If you just throw them in, they may overcook because they would not be pulled from the pan into ice water. In addition to that, mushrooms can cook for longer than the other vegetables need and are best not stirred. Bell peppers and zucchini, on the other hand, are vegetables you stir as they cook.