Riffing on some classics
Every so often, my kitchen turns into an episode of Chopped — the show where chefs get a box of random ingredients and are asked to quickly turn them into a delicious meal.
I don’t plan on this happening, but life gets busy; I don’t get a chance to shop and I hate wasting food I already have, so I take to the web in search of a solution. On one such day, I had some canned items and macaroni in the pantry as well as broccoli and cheese in the fridge. What I found out online was that recipes for baked mac and cheese get complicated and expensive with all the different cheeses listed.
Online recipes were a great starting point to create my own mac and cheese recipe; it’s everything I want in my one-bowl dinner: delicious, warm, spicy, and satisfying. Except I usually want two bowls of it.
Ingredients
- 1 cup of macaroni (or similar sized pasta)
- 1 teaspoon of salt (half for boiling water and half for cheese sauce)
- 2 broccoli stalks (the way they sell them), washed and cut into small florets
- 1 medium can of black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 small can of whole corn kernels, drained and rinsed
- 3 tablespoons of butter or margarine
- ¼ cup of all-purpose flour
- 3 cups of 2% milk
- 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, or to taste
- 1 teaspoon of paprika, or to taste
- 1 teaspoon of red chilli powder, or to taste
- ½ teaspoon of dry mustard powder
- ½ teaspoon black pepper (or a couple twists of the pepper mill)
- 4 cups of marble cheddar cheese, grated (other kinds of cheddar, gouda, and havarti also work)
- A handful of tortilla chips, crushed
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover the pot with a lid to speed this up.
- While water is boiling, place corn, black beans, and broccoli in a large casserole dish.
- Add half a teaspoon of salt to the boiling water.
- Cook pasta according to package instructions.
- When pasta is done, drain and place in the large casserole dish with the corn, black beans, and broccoli.
- Rinse and then return the pot used to cook pasta to the stove. Set at medium heat.
- Add butter to the empty pot.
- Once butter melts, add flour and stir constantly for five minutes (using a whisk if the pot is just metal or a wooden spoon if the pot has a non-stick coating).
- Add milk to the butter-and-flour mixture (also known as a roux) and stir well.
- Now add all of the spices listed and the remaining salt; if you have trouble with spicy food, then cut back on the spices, adjusting to your taste.
- Stir frequently until the sauce is bubbling; usually, it will thicken by the time it is boiling.
(Photo by Mirali Almaula/The Ontarion) - Add three cups of the grated cheese to the thickened sauce and stir until the cheese is melted and the mixture returns to bubbling.
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Pour the cheese sauce over the ingredients in the large casserole dish and give everything a good stir.
- Top with crushed tortilla chips, a couple pinches of paprika, and the remaining cup of cheese.
(Photo by Mirali Almaula/The Ontarion) - Place the casserole dish in your preheated oven for thirty minutes or until the sauce is bubbling, the cheese is melted, and the chips are golden.
- Let it cool for a few minutes.
Enjoy!
Photo by Mirali Almaula/The Ontarion