Pumpkin Mac and Cheese
Y’all, let’s be real. If there’s anything culinary that is COMPLETELY overdone, it would be pumpkin. Or at least, pumpkin spice. It was funny a few years ago when people started getting obsessed with pumpkin spice lattes, but now it’s just a joke that’s gone way too far. Pumpkin spice poptarts? Protein bars? MILK? When will it end?
So far, I’ve only ever seen pumpkin in a sweet context. Whether it’s in your pie or your coffee, there’s usually a lot of nutmeg and brown sugar involved. So when I saw this recipe, I was immediately intrigued by the fact that it used pumpkin in a savory way. I just had to know what it tasted like!
The fact that it’s all made in one pot makes it even better. Usually these “one pot” meals have you transferring every ingredient to a plate after you cook it and then combining them at the end. I mean at that point if I’m dirtying so many plates, I’d almost just rather use a couple different pots, right? (Plus I’m a college kid with four plates to my name and no time to do dishes so really it’s a miracle that I have enough clean to eat on at any given point in time.) But this dish seriously comes together in one pot! You cook the pasta with all of the other ingredients and then stir the cheese in at the end, which truly cuts down on both dishes and headaches. It’s really a dream of a meal for anyone with no time on their hands (which I can relate to, as you can tell from the fact that I’m lucky to update this blog once a week).
The blogger that I got this recipe from, The Domestic Superhero, has a whole repertoire of these one pot meals on her blog. I’m so excited to try more of them! If you feel inspired by her blog, make sure to leave her a comment and let her know you learned about it here. (I’m tryna impress established bloggers so I can grow a following past my Facebook friends, y’hear?) Anyways, I hope you enjoy this savory take on a classic fall ingredient! This may indeed be the last fall post outside of Thanksgiving, because I had my first peppermint mocha of the season today and I’m really just anxious for everything to taste like candy canes all the time. Until next time!
Pumpkin Mac and Cheese
Ingredients
- 12 oz pasta (I like farfalle for this)
- 1/2 small onion, diced
- 3 minced garlic cloves
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 4 cups chicken broth (substitute vegetable to make it vegetarian)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/8 tsp black pepper
- 1/8 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- red pepper flakes (to taste)
- 2 Tbsp butter
- 4 oz cream cheese
Instructions
- In a large pot, combine the pasta through the red pepper flakes, using as much red pepper as you like (I love spice so I used a whole lot, but you can take it down if you don't care for all that). Stir and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat, and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Stir once more and simmer for 2 more minutes, until the pasta is cooked.
- Cut the butter and cream cheese into small chunks and stir in the hot pasta to melt. Serve hot with more red pepper flakes or some nutmeg on top, and enjoy!
Notes
- Recipe originally found here.
- The original recipe called for nutmeg, but I used pumpkin pie spice (which contains nutmeg among other things) and managed to live to tell the tale.
- Chicken would also go well in this pasta if you want a little protein! It would just be more than one pot because you'd have to pre-cook the chicken before adding it to the pasta, and that was just more effort than I was willing to make. If you're willing to take the plunge, just cook up some diced chicken in a skillet real quick and add it at the end with the cheese.