Slow Cooker Butternut Squash Macaroni

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Slow Cooker Butternut Squash Macaroni

Photos by Kate Lewis, Copyrighted by Fair Winds Press

Close your eyes for a moment and imagine macaroni covered with a silky butternut squash sauce. Now open your eyes, toss a few things in your slow cooker and get cooking! A dinner of Slow Cooker Butternut Squash Macaroni can be yours.

It’s a healthier version of traditional mac and cheese and it makes just enough for two or three servings. Please note that it’s made in a 1 1/2 or 2 quart small slow cooker.

In the morning, you add the butternut squash, tomatoes, water, garlic and spices so that it can cook down all day while you are at work. You will puree this in the evening for the base of your sauce.

Slow Cooker Butternut Squash Macaroni

Photos by Kate Lewis, Copyrighted by Fair Winds Press

3.7 from 65 votes
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Slow Cooker Cheezy Butternut Squash Macaroni

This is mac ‘n’ cheez that’s all grown up. It’s covered with a rich butternut squash and nutritional yeast sauce that’s as nutritious as it is delicious. It's from my book, Vegan Slow Cooking for Two.
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 8 hours
Total Time 8 hours 15 minutes
Servings 2 servings
Calories 447 kcal
Author Kathy Hester

Ingredients

FOR THE MORNING

  • 1 1/2 cups 210 g cubed butternut squash or other winter squash
  • 1/2 cup 90 g chopped tomatoes
  • 1 1/2 cups 355 ml water
  • 2 cloves garlic minced
  • Three 3-inch 7.5 cm sprigs fresh thyme or 1 1/2 teaspoons (1.5 g) dried thyme
  • One 2-inch 5 cm sprig fresh rosemary or 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary

FOR THE EVENING

  • 1/4 cup 24 g nutritional yeast flakes
  • 1/2 to 1 cup 120 to 235 ml unsweetened nondairy milk
  • 1 1/2 cups 158 g uncooked whole-wheat macaroni (*use gluten-free)
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. ** Please note - this recipes uses a 1½ to 2 quart slow cooker **
  2. In the morning: Add the morning ingredients to the slow cooker. Cook on low for 7 to 9 hours.
  3. Thirty to 45 minutes before serving: Purée the contents of the slow cooker in a blender with the nutritional yeast and ½ cup (120 ml) of the nondairy milk. Add the mixture back into the slow cooker and turn it up to high. Stir in the macaroni, cover, and cook for 20 minutes.
  4. Stir well and add more milk if the sauce is getting too thick. Cook for 15 to 25 minutes more or until the pasta is al dente. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  5. Make sure to check on the pasta every 10 minutes or so until you get good at gauging how fast it will cook in your slow cooker. It cooks faster in the smaller slow cooker.

Recipe Notes

RECIPE VARIATION
Make this dish even healthier by adding in some chopped greens or fresh broccoli. You can’t have too much of this good thing.

More Recipes to Try


Comments

  1. What a wonderful recipe, it sounds delish! So clever to use the slow cooker instead of the traditional way. This means you will be able to enjoy it all times of the year without suffering in a hot kitchen, quite a gift, thank you!

    As far as using a larger slow cooker vs. a smaller one, besides cooking quicker in the smaller one, is there any other things we need to watch out for? We have a 5 qt. slow cooker, any suggestions or changes necessary?

    Thanks again! I’m REALLY looking forward to making this (maybe tonight)!

    Reply

    • You can up the amount if you want to cook it in a larger slow cooker. One of the resons I like to do it in a smaller one is that it’s 3/4 full making it easier to time the pasta.

      With that said I would at least double the recipe if not triple it, and you may need to add a little more liquid in if you larger slow cooker runs hot (boils on low). Make sure to stir the pasta when you look in on it so it cooks evenly. I’m sure you can do it just make notes of the times and any changes you make so it will be even easier next time. 😉

      Reply

    • You can leave it out if you want to. It does help it taste “cheesey”, but the butternut squash will work fine on its on. If you do decide to try it make sure it’s nutritional yeast which is very different from brewers or bread yeast 🙂

      Reply

      • Yikes. I boughtdebittered brewers yeast. Should I return it and try find nutritional yeast? I’ve never seen that.

        Reply

        • Yes! Brewer’s yeast will not work in the recipes. They have nutritional yeast at whole foods and most co-ops. You can also find it at Trader Joe’s.

          Reply

  3. Hi, This looks great and I’m looking forward to making it – please could you tell me, are the chopped tomatoes fresh ones or tinned? Or would either be OK? Thanks 🙂 x

    Reply

  4. I love your recipes and I am really interested in your oats book as I follow Dr. Esseltyne. Have you shared at least one recipe that will be coming out in the new Easy Vegan Cookbook?

    Reply

      • Thanks for sharing… Creole Corn Okra Soup – My husband loves corn and I love okra so maybe this dish would work for both of us. Carrot Dogs – I have to admit I miss those horribly unhealthy hot dogs… but part of it is the mustard, onion and relish… the ingredients look great. Asian Corn Cabbage Soup – I love Asian and Cabbage. Can’t wait to try these recipes. I will definitely be purchasing your Oats cookbook and will keep your others in mind as well.

        Reply

  6. I made this yesterday as per the recipe ingredients and instructions. While the sauce was pretty good (though not much like actual macaroni & cheese), the macaroni itself came out very glue-y and of poor texture. I wound up baking it afterwards to try to fix it some. That helped, but not a lot.

    I’d advise reducing the water in this recipe by at least half, then making the macaroni in the standard manner (boiling until al dente). Then combine the macaroni and sauce as you might with tomato sauce.

    Thank you for the recipe, Kathy. I will use it in the future as a sauce.

    Reply

    • Pasta is the slow cooker can be very tricky, but some people like would rather not dirty up a second dish. It’s great to just make the sauce in the slow cooker and cook the pasta separately.

      If you want to make the sauce creamier, you can add a 1/4 cup cashews to the slow cooker and puree all the cooked ingredients, then serve over pasta. I made this nut-free and no-oil added due to a reader request.

      Reply

      • Thanks for your response. I’ll try the cashew trick.

        Being of Italian heritage, I’m probably picker than most about my pasta texture.

        Reply

        • That totally makes sense. Also you might want to try making a cauliflower alfredo by blending cashews, cooked cauliflower, nutritional yeast and a little salt and pepper. Sometimes I sneak in some basil too.

          Reply

  7. I am not a vegan but am happy to eat meatless dishes of all kinds. Gotta say, this one just did not make me happy. It was edible after pouring on the salt….and there was a weird after taste. Reminded me of vegetarian foods from the 70s.

    Reply

  8. Hi I’m in the process of making this right now… stupid question… do you chop the herbs! Or remove them before blending!

    Reply

  9. I love this mac and cheez! I made mine without tomatoes (because I hate the texture) and it came out super sweet. I had to add some serious salt and pepper but once I did, it was amazing. I made a huge batch and we ate on it for days. Reheats in the microwave well too.

    Reply

  10. This recipe came out awful! I followed the directions to a “T” and it came out bitter and lacking flavor. There’s way too much water in this recipe and the rest is missing flavor. Will not be making again.

    Reply

    • I’d be happy to help you trouble shoot it if you want. If there was too much water it could be that your slow cooker is older or cooks at a lower temperature.

      Reply

  11. I’m interested in making this and have 2 questions. Is it ok to use regular cow’s milk? Would I use the same amount? Also, I definitely want to make the pasta separately. So what I decreased the amount of water?

    Reply

    • I’ve never made it with cow’s milk, but I think it would work. You would use less liquid if you cook the pasta separately.

      Reply

  12. I thought the dish was quite bland so I garnished it with raw pumpkin seeds which added texture and more flavor. I also added truffle salt which gave it a nice punch.

    Reply

  14. I made this today and it turned out great! I doubled the recipe because I was using a 4.5 quart slow cooker. My hubby and I both really liked it and I will make it again!

    Reply

  15. We made this for a party of one vegetarian, one pescetarian, one white meat only eater and 5 carnivores (including 4 children), as finding something to suit everyone can be really tough! We were so looking forward to this dish as we had made a few other vegetarian/vegan crock pot meals during the week and they had been delicious, however, I’m sorry to say but this was universally hated. It didn’t have anything resembling a cheesy flavour in spite of the nutritional yeast, and made all of the children swear never to try vegan food again (which was obviously not the effect we were hoping to have!). I’m so sorry but this really was a most unappetising recipe in every way 🙁

    Reply

  17. Good recipe can’t wait to try. If you are cooking the noodles separate, how much water would you recommend using in the sauce recipe?

    Reply

  19. This was surprisingly good! I’m not vegan, so I added some 1/2 and 1/2 and butter at the very end. I like that it isn’t trying to pretend to be mac and cheese. The texture is like that, but the flavor is original and yummy. Definitely measure everything, or you’ll run out of room. I have lots of extra sauce, which I’m going to freeze for quick dinner.

    I used fusili pasta, and it took a good 1/2 hour to get to the right consistency. I will definitely make this again. I liked this so much, I ordered the whole cookbook!

    Reply

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