Another Vegan Butternut Squash Mac n' "Cheese"

Back in January, I raved about a new and quick mac n' "cheese". It was vegan, gluten-free, and basically pleasing to every possible diet except paleo (but - hey, make it with spaghetti squash in lieu of pasta and you're golden!). Before that, I raved about a different kind of mac n' "cheese" using roasted butternut squash.Whoever came up with this whole squash-sauce idea should be given an award.

Honestly.

For those of you who have to be - or choose to be - free of dairy, it is so welcome and thanked to have a creamy pasta replacement for that wonderful comfort food that is mac n' cheese.

For some reason, I have a tendency to want to try new recipes, rather than sticking to the sure-fire go-to's, so I tackled yet another approach to the squash mac n' cheese. Again, the nut-free (substituting almond with coconut milk), gluten-free, vegan, soy-free person can put their hands up in the air to say their praises to these recipe-creators. Amazing.

I will say - though - that my personal taste prefers more salty/tangy flavours, so if I had to create my perfect squash mac n' cheese, I'd likely combine the roasted squash and bread crumbs from the second recipe listed above, with the tahini/apple cider vinegar flavouring of the first mentioned recipe to get that tang.

The one great thing about this recipe, though, was how absolutely creamy the almond milk made this!

I got the recipe from Running with Tongs and copied it almost to a tee, with a few changes:

- Cook Brown rice fusilli

Blend together:
- 15 oz can of organic pureed butternut squash
- 2/3 cup of vegetable broth
- 1 cup of Silk Almond unsweetened milk
- 1 tbsp of curry powder
- 1/2 tsp of salt (I ended up adding lots more after this was done)
- 1/2 cup of nutritional yeast
- 1 tbsp of olive oil

- Add sauce and handfuls of baby kale (I love that they sell this at the Super Store now!!) to the pasta.

If you're in a rush, throw it in the microwave and be done with it. I put mine in a casserole dish and topped it with nutritional yeast in lieu of panko and baked for about 15 minutes at 350 to let the flavours come together.

I topped mine with a TON of hot sauce and more salt. You might not need it, but I personally needed that little bit of bite!

The next time I do this, I'm totally taking what I liked from each of these recipes and making my own super-duper-uber-squash-mac-n-cheese. One of my favourite things about the first recipe and this one is the ability to use organic pureed canned squash, because really - - how often do you have enough time to roast a squash in the oven?

Enjoy!