Creamy Cauliflower Mac

Macaroni and cheese doesn't ever happen at our house. Mostly because my son doesn't like cheese and it's kind of hard to hide the cheese in mac n' cheese. Plus, I don't think I ever ate it growing up, so it really isn't something that I think about very often.

I came across this recipe and remembered seeing things like this before, where cauliflower puree is used in the sauce and replaces almost all of the milk/cream/cheese, or whatever people usually use in their mac n' cheese. I had 2 heads of cauliflower in my fridge and decided I would try this one out. I used whole wheat shells for the pasta because I couldn't find whole wheat elbows. You cook the cauliflower in boiling water and then the pasta. The cauliflower is pureed with a little bit of cheese and some other ingredients that add flavor, like dijon mustard. I added more cheese than called for because I tasted the sauce and it was a little bland, so I added more cheese and tasted it again.

My family liked this recipe. My daughter whose favorite food is cheese, absolutely loved it. I thought it was really good and a nice way to use cauliflower.

Here is the recipe for Creamy Cauliflower Mac from Mark Bittman
* I used whole wheat pasta
* I added about 1/3 cup more cheese than called for because I pureed the sauce and tasted it and decided I wanted it to have a little bit more cheese flavor
* I would add less Dijon mustard next time