Sweet Potato Mac & Cheese with Roasted Garlic (2018 version)
A dreamy one pot stovetop mac and cheese with a delicious roasted garlic and sweet potato sauce. This healthier sweet potato mac and cheese has a luxurious texture thanks to the creamy roasted garlic and pureed baked sweet potato. It's easy to make in just one pot, with no roux, for the perfect weeknight family dinner.
Ingredients
- 1 large sweet potato
- 3 small heads of garlic, if your heads are large, just use 2
- 4 cups (375 g) pasta shells
- 4 cups (950 ml) whole milk
- 2 cups (150 g) grated cheddar cheese
Instructions
- First, bake your sweet potato and roasted garlic in the oven. For the sweet potato: stab it a few times with a knife and then wrap in foil. Place directly onto the oven shelf. For the roasted garlic: Slice the top off the head to expose each clove at the end. Lightly brush those exposed tips with oil, wrap with foil and place directly on the oven shelf. They will need about 45-60 minutes at 180C / 360F. You want the potato soft all the way through, and the roasted garlic browned and caramelized so that it just kinda oozes out of the skin.
- Once cooled, mash or puree the cooked sweet potato and squeeze your roasted garlic out of the skins and into the sweet potato mixture.
- Warm the milk in a saucepan until just bubbling. Add the pasta and simmer for 10-12 minutes, until it's cooked. Stir regularly throughout. If the milk is almost gone before the pasta is cooked, add a little bit more.
- Do not drain the pasta when cooked! Just add the cheese in to the pan and stir. It will mix with the starchy thickened milk to form a cheese sauce.
- Finally, add the mashed or pureed sweet potato / roasted garlic mix.
- Season as desired before serving.
Notes
If you use a different and more compact pasta shape such as elbow macaroni, you will likely need another cup of milk.
Serving: 1g, Calories: 400kcal, Carbohydrates: 39g, Protein: 19g, Fat: 19g, Saturated Fat: 10g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 6g, Cholesterol: 54mg, Sodium: 324mg, Fiber: 2g, Sugar: 10g