Paleo Mac and Cheese Recipe {Video}

Name: Paleo Mac and Cheese Recipe
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Paleo
Ingredients: 1 1/2 heads Cauliflower; 2 T Ghee *; 1/2 t Real Salt *; 1/2 C Water; 2 T Ghee *; 1 small Yellow Squash (summer squash) or butternut squash (cut into small cubes) - about 1 cup; 1 small Carrot (peeled and diced); 1/2 small Sweet Onion (diced); 1/2 t Garlic Powder; 3/4 t Ground Mustard; 1 t Real Salt *; 1 can Coconut Milk *; 1 Egg Yolk; Pepper (to taste)

January 12, 2019 Rebecca Baron 147 Comments

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Ok, I have to tell you that for a Paleo mac and cheese, I’m pretty excited about how this ‘cheese’ sauce turned out. It tastes like the real thing! Here is a summary of the steps of this Recipe:

Step #1

Steam cauliflower using your favorite method. I love to use my Instant Pot * to cook mine. If you don't want to make mac and cheese, get your base ready, whether it be noodles or something else.

Step #2

Cook the veggies and coconut milk in a saucepan

Step #3

Blend the sauce and pour it over the steamed cauliflower

Coconut milk mac and cheese in a turquoise bowl — Paleo mac and cheese with cauliflower

Notes About This Recipe

Today have for you a kid-friendly childhood classic recipe. You won't even believe it is Paleo! Ok, I have to tell you that for a Paleo recipe, I’m pretty excited about how this ‘cheese’ sauce turned out. I researched before I made this and found that most dairy-free mac and cheese recipes called for things like nutritional yeast * flakes or cashews. What I came up with instead only used simple, easy to find ingredients…mostly veggies and coconut milk.

To make this you basically just sauté vegetables (including a little carrot to give it a cheesy color) and then cook them in coconut milk. After they are soft you puree them until smooth and then added an egg yolk to the hot puree. This turns it into a rich, velvety sauce that is probably as close to a cheese sauce as you can get without using any cheese.

But here's the best part - it tastes so incredibly good - and I'm not just saying that. My 11-year-old son is really picky about eating vegetables. But he loves this sauce. Heck, I love it and joke that I would drink it, but really I would.

You can put it on other vegetables, like broccoli, or if you eat clean, on a Clean pasta, like spelt macaroni. My 7-year-old daughter actually thinks it's cheese sauce. She was eating some the other day and I missed blending a piece of carrot and she was all mad that there was a piece of carrot in her cheese. She couldn't figure out how a carrot got in her cheese sauce.

We have this regularly for dinner with some simple homemade chicken fingers. All we do is put some chicken tenders in a cold pan with some oil, then sprinkle Real Salt, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, paprika and flour of your choice, such as einkorn flour * for Clean Eating or arrowroot starch * for Paleo. Then we turn on the pan and cook it until each side is golden brown. It's a good compliment to this recipe.

I am excited I can now enjoy mac and cheese that has the classical taste with it. It is also a lot healthier too - you don't have to feel guilty for eating this one! How do you like to eat this recipe? Do you think it tastes cheesy?