Gluten Free Mac and Cheese – Quick and Easy!

quick and easy gluten free mac and cheese
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Gluten Free Mac and Cheese; a quick and easy stovetop macaroni and cheese, with all the rich cheesy flavour and creamy texture but none of the wheat!

 

Do you say macaroni cheese, macaroni and cheese or mac and cheese? I’m never really quite sure of how to name this glorious dish.

Regardless of its name, no meal reminds me more of my childhood than a hot bowl of creamy, obnoxiously cheesy pasta.

quick and easy gluten free mac and cheese

It’s probably the only dish that I’ve eaten consistently for the last 20+ years. I only tend to have it maybe once a month or every two months nowadays. Every time I cook and eat it, it’s as good as it was when I was only *this* high, standing on my tiptoes to watch my dad make it with his maverick methods.

He refused to use a whisk to make the sauce, and never measured a thing, throwing the grated cheese into the pan in gloriously generous handfuls. He didn’t even really have a specific time to boil or bake the pasta for either, being infamous for always replying, “it’s ready when it’s ready!” It was often the only meal he ever cooked when I was small, leaving the rest up to my mum who never took much joy from cooking anything other than an oven pizza, which she somehow still manages to burn even now. She did teach me that trick where you throw the spaghetti against the wall though. Who says we shouldn’t play with our food?

It’s probably one of the most blasphemous pasta dishes around, combining Italian-made pasta with the king of all British cheeses. However, there is something so homely and familiar about this dish that I swear it must be Scottish somehow.

Aside from its status as a comforting dinner staple, everyone seems to eat their mac and cheese differently. Many love the crispy top of a baked mac and cheese, that gives way to the creamy mass of pasta below. Some like a variety of different cheeses, perhaps sharp parmesan or stringy mozzarella melted in along with the dominant cheese. Let’s not forget that many people also like to stir other ingredients into their macaroni, from my boyfriend’s love of ham to my mum’s fondness for crumbled black pudding. Uncharacteristically of me, I like my mac and cheese pretty unadulterated. I like it straight from the stovetop, with nothing more than pasta and strong cheesy sauce involved. By cheesy I mean cheesy. We’re talking cheesy cheesy. Like cheesy cheesy.

quick and easy gluten free mac and cheese

The above mentioned boyfriend I speak of is, unfortunately, a coeliac. This is not ideal when his girlfriend is a raging gluten lover, with multiple bread products, biscuits and a variety of pasta always taking pride of place in the cupboards…

Living with him has meant that I’ve had to learn the ways of gluten free pasta, tackle some gluten free baking recipes, and remember not to leave flour residue all over the worktop. On a positive note, it also means I’ve perfected a recipe for quick and easy gluten free mac and cheese!

This quick and easy gluten free mac and cheese is a must-have recipe if you have a gluten dodger in your life. A sauce so thick and creamy you’ll wonder how on Earth it can’t have been made with a flour-based roux. Pasta with actual texture, somewhere between soft and chewy, perfectly cradling the sharp cheddar sauce in all of its curves and edges. Basically it’s so good, you won’t miss the gluten.

quick and easy gluten free mac and cheese

Cornflour is the secret ingredient in the sauce of this quick and easy gluten free mac and cheese. It thickens the mixture beautifully, as it does with pastry creams and custards. Plus it is much more forgiving to an amateur cook, producing far less opportunity for lumps than regular flour.

Anyway, enough chat from me. Scroll down to find the full recipe for this quick and easy gluten free mac and cheese!

 

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4 Replies to “Gluten Free Mac and Cheese – Quick and Easy!”

  1. Shunned, if its not macaroni shaped. I also go for the full effect of extra cheese on top and grilled.

    It’s pretty much the only time I’m in Sainsbury’s. So I’ll stock up with a few packs.

    1. Controversial haha! I like your style though, I do like it grilled now and again. I’ll keep an eye out for it if I’m in Sainsbury’s any time soon, I sometimes pop in to buy some sauces/seasonings from a brand called Latin American Kitchen that they stock, so good! Would recommend, most of their stuff is GF!

  2. I won’t call it Mac and cheese unless it’s made with actually macaroni shaped pasta.
    The Sainsbury’s gluten free macaroni is a necessity in our house, just for this meal.

    1. That’s a fair rule, but what do you call it otherwise, just pasta and cheese or is it shunned altogether?? I’ll need to try out Sainsbury’s in that case, our local Asda doesn’t seem to have actual macaroni shapes!

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