Sweet Potato Boxed Mac + Cheese
For this hack on your mac, I really wanted to bring some veggies to the party—while also giving some new flavors and textures to the mac and cheese.
This is an exciting version to say the least, and it still involves almost no extra cooking!
Throw the sweet potato in the microwave, then puree it or just mash it with a fork.
Add in the the sage, nutmeg, cheese, and sweet potato, then mix it all up and top with pecans and cranberries.
You get a whole new flavor—and seriously the only extra thing you did was put a sweet potato in the microwave!
Sweet Potato Boxed Mac + Cheese
makes: 3 cups
Ingredients:
- One 14-ounce boxed mac + cheese with liquid cheese sauce (such as Kraft Deluxe Macaroni + Cheese Dinner Original Cheddar)
- 1 small or medium sweet potato
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped sage, more for a garnish
- ½ teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons dried cranberries
- 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped pecans
Directions:
- Place a medium pot of salted water over high heat for cooking the macaroni. When the water boils, add the macaroni and cook according to the package directions; drain when finished.
- While the pasta cooks, pierce the sweet potato all over with a fork. Cook the potato in the microwave on high in 2-minute increments until soft—4 to 6 minutes total. Then set the potato aside until it is cool enough to handle.
- Peel the sweet potato (alternatively, you can cut the potato in half and scoop out the insides) and place it in the bowl of a food processor. Process until smooth; this should give you about ¾ cup of sweet potato puree. If you don’t have a food processor, you can mash the sweet potato with a fork, adding a little of the hot pasta cooking water to make it easier to mash.
- Return the cooked and drained pasta to the medium pot over medium heat, adding the sweet potato puree, cheese sauce packet, sage, nutmeg, and salt, then stir until fully combined.
- To serve, garnish with the cranberries, pecans, and additional sage.
