Blue Cheese Mac and Cheese

Blue Cheese Mac and Cheese is on the menu!

Blue Cheese Mac and Cheese for a quick and easy comfort food meal.

Cooked macaroni pasta smothered in a cheddar cheese sauce topped with chives, cracked pepper and onion flakes.

This mac and cheese recipe is ridiculously easy. It is quick and it is so cheesy! 

Blue Cheese takes your regular mac and cheese to the next level of taste sensations.

I know you are going to have some questions about this recipe, so let's get to them.

What is Mac and Cheese?

Mac and Cheese is the ultimate comfort food. It involves cooking macaroni pasta until al dente, then making a sauce to pour over and stir through.

Many recipes call for a bechamel sauce with melted butter, flour and milk. They are great options with taste and flavour.

I am not a huge fan however, of adding flour to sauces in all cases. This is one of those times.

For me, if I can make a creamy, dreamy and ultra cheesy sauce without the cream, I am ALL ABOUT IT.

You will remember recently from the Fiesta Tuna Pasta Bake recipe, that we talked about a creamy pasta bake which actually used greek yoghurt instead of cream.

I said it then and I will say it again HOLD THE CREAM! Say what, how do we make creamy, dreamy blue cheese mac and cheese without the cream?

Well my friends, let me tell you.

Mac and Cheese Sauce

For this stove top mac and cheese recipe to get the ultimate cheesy outcome, time was a huge priority for me.

I didn't want to spend 30 minutes on a week night whipping this up, if I could refine it down to a 15 minute quick and easy dish.

The mac and cheese sauce needs to be creamy. It needs to be thick, cheesy and saucy. There are a few simple tricks we can do to achieve this. It is all in the technique.

As we are boiling the macaroni on the stove top, we are using water to boil the pasta.

We are then reusing this water in our mac and cheese sauce, well blue cheese mac and cheese sauce, to be exact.

Whilst our pasta is boiling away, we use this time to combine our sauce ingredients in a heat proof jug.

Our sauce ingredients are:

• blue cheese 
• cheddar cheese ( I used mozarella, cheddar cheese is popular in the USA)
• greek yoghurt
• onion flakes
• left over pasta water

Then when the pasta is cooked, we strain it over a heatproof dish to reserve the water. We pour that water into our heat proof jug and we stir to combine.

The heat from the water will melt the cheese and then we are ready to pour and stir. It is SO, EASY!!

If the traditional béchamel (flour, butter, milk) is ingrained in you and you want to try that with evaporated milk, that is ok. I just ask you to consider if you want to try the best ever blue cheese mac and cheese recipe and if so, trust me and give this recipe a go!!

What can I add to Mac and Cheese?

There are many varieties out there that put a spin on a traditional mac and cheese.

You can try:

• adding bacon
• adding chicken
• panko bread crumbs
• parmesan cheese
• onion flakes
• dried herbs (I used onion flakes)
• cracked pepper
• vegetables (although this doesn't tick everyone's comfort food box!!)

What is the best type of pasta to use?

There is no doubt that macaroni is the best type of pasta for mac and cheese. 

Macaroni is cheap to purchase, quick to cook and is the ultimate pasta to smoother with a thick cheesy sauce. 

How do you make Mac and Cheese creamy again?

You have to have a few tricks up your sleeve with a recipe like this.

The blue cheese sauce will be melted and stretchy when you make it and stir it into the dish.

If you don't manage to eat the whole batch of mac and cheese (it will be hard trust me) you will want to save some for later.

When you do go to heat and eat for round 2, you will notice that the sauce isn't as thick and creamy as it once was. To get your mac and cheese to resemble the creamy delicious dish you originally made, you can use a little milk, stock or water. Simply reheat your pot and add the liquid then stir to combine. If using water, use only a little as it will dilute the rich blue cheese flavour and we definitely don't want to do that!

What does Blue Cheese taste like?

Some people think that blue cheese tastes and looks like mould. It is a cheese after all so on a level, there is some truth in that. I remember years ago being skeptical as well, but if you have ever had buffalo blue cheese sauce with chicken wings, you will know how it feels to be converted.

If some of the blue cheese makes its way from your cutting board to your mouth whilst preparing it, that is ok, just make sure you save enough for the creamy sauce! 

How to cook Blue Cheese Mac and Cheese?

There are many recipes out there for mac and cheese that are oven baked. 

That is a great idea, when you have the time. For this recipe, I am picturing you coming home from work, to a busy house, you spy 30 mins on the clock before the crowd arrives and you want to fit in a sneaky glass of wine.

So, we boil our pasta, drain the cooked macaroni, spoon in our sauce, stir, reduce to a low heat, have a quick shower, pour yourself a wine and dinner is done.

Stove top mac and cheese for a busy night, save the oven baked mac and cheese for the weekend.

Can I stand in the kitchen with a spoon and eat this from the bowl?

Haha, of course, you can my friend!!

Not only will you be tempted to do this, it will nearly be IMPOSSIBLE to stop yourself from doing this. You can see that cheese dripping from the spoon in the above photo hey, YUP, that is what I am talking about!!

You and your ole mac n cheese will be best friends at the end of the cook time. Just don't sit on the couch with your crock pot on your lap as it will burn your legs!!

It is entirely possibly that you will never make a regular mac n cheese again after you have tried the ultimate Blue Cheese Mac n Cheese version! It seriously is the cheesiest best out of all recipes blue cheese mac and cheese!
 

Easy Family Friendly Recipes

Mac and Cheese is perfect for kids too! Don't be surprised if blue cheese is not loved by little ones, it is after all, an acquired taste. Should you wish you can do half and half.

This simply means, making the sauce without the blue cheese, mixing that through some of the pasta for the kids. Then stirring the blue cheese into the other half of the sauce (microwave for 1 min if it has set a bit), and stirring that through for the big kids.

The pasta will take less than 10 minutes to cook. The sauce is made during that time. We pour the sauce onto the macaroni, stir it through. Get some texture into the dish with the onion flakes, pepper and chives, then eat, eat, eat!

 Kids will like a simple mac and cheese, so use the same pasta and add the blue cheese to the adults bowls only!

A couple of other easy pasta recipes that you may want to include in your weekly meal plan are:

• Tuna Spaghetti (recipe is here)
• Fiesta Tuna Pasta Bake (recipe is here)
• Ground Beef Casserole  (family favourites recipe)

Family friendly meals need to be loved by all and EATEN by all

Recipes from friends

One of my fellow Aussie Food Bloggers Kylie, knows her Mac and Cheese Recipes. So much so that her recipe for Sweet Potato Mac and Cheese is loved by kids everywhere!! Recipe is here.

.About the recipe:

• The blue cheese mac and cheese is best served hot from the pot
• You can reheat this dish
• The macaroni will cook in less than 10 minutes
• This is a stove top mac and cheese
• The blue cheese sauce is creamy without using cream

Your quick questions answered:

1. You can add a variety of liquids to make the sauce creamy again
2. Macaroni is the best pasta for this dish
3. For kids, stick to a basic mac and cheese
4. You can add cooked bacon or chicken to the dish
5. This is a SUPER EASY simple mac and cheese recipe

What to serve with mac and cheese?

Let's face it. We are not enjoying this dish as we are working towards our bikini body.

This is a comfort food dish, that some people will run at the mere thought of.

We use:

• blue cheese
• cheddar cheese (or mozarella)
• greek yoghurt

To name a few ingredients for our sauce.

I would recommend keeping it simple and indulging in a small bowl of this, without any sides. A glass of wine, will likely help you enjoy it!

Serve smaller portions of this recipe as it is packed with carbs, flavour and texture!

Reduce calorie intake

Mac and cheese is not diet food. It is comfort food. I serve much smaller portions of this than I would other recipes as the rich creamy texture is deliciously filling.  The nutritional information is shown below for the recipe, but here are some tips to reduce calorie intake:

• Reduce the amount of pasta and add chicken
• Add broccoli
• Add peas
• Increase the Greek yoghurt and decrease the grated cheese
• When reheating use water instead of other liquids

📖 Recipe