The best Dairy Free Baked Mac and Cheese with Broccoli recipe that is ready in just 35 minutes! It’s made with a creamy dairy free squash sauce poured over noodles and broccoli. Sprinkled with a homemade breadcrumb topping and baked in the oven until crispy and golden brown. It’s perfect for healthy weeknight dinners that the whole family will enjoy!
It’s true what they say, home-cooked meals become a distant memory when you have your hands full as a busy new mom. When I’m not working full time, I’m usually breastfeeding which means I’m spending much less time in the kitchen than I’m used to.
As a long-time HealthNut, healthy eating is still a top priority. This is why I love brands like Evive who are making it easy and achievable for us! Both of their smoothie and lunch wheels are not only a freezer staple now in our home, but also a lifesaver on days when we don’t have the time or energy to whip something up from scratch.
About Evive
If you’ve never heard of Evive, they offer a variety of complete smoothies and meals that are simple, quick, and just about the healthiest ready-to-go meal that you’ll find in your freezer. All of their products are plant-based, certified organic, gluten-free and made with the cleanest ingredients. They’re also so delicious…it’s almost too good to be true!
For this Dairy-Free Baked Mac and Cheese with Broccoli, I’m taking my “Baked Mac and Cheese, Please” recipe from The HealthNut Cookbook and making a few small adjustments. Instead of making my Nacho Average Cheese Sauce to pour on top, I’m swapping it for Evive’s Mac Squash cubes for the dairy-free cheese sauce to keep things healthy and simple yet equally delicious!
These cubes make creating a childhood favourite so much easier and healthier! All you have to do is warm the cubes in a pot and let them melt over your pasta noodles for the ultimate ooey-gooey experience. Made with simple ingredients like, butternut squash, cashews, and nutritional yeast for that cheesy flavour. Before you know it, you have homemade dairy-free mac and cheese in minutes!
Level Up Your Mac and Cheese
Now, you can keep this mac and cheese plain jane. But, I always like to add in extra greens where I can. I’m levelling it up by adding in some broccoli that’s cooked in the same pot as the noodles! We like to keep things quick and easy around here when we can. If that means 1 less dish to wash, even better! Once all of the noodles and broccoli are coated with the cheese sauce, I’m transferring it into a large dish, topping it with homemade breadcrumb mix topping and putting it in the oven to bake!
This Baked Broccoli Mac and Cheese is also meal-prep friendly. Make a batch on Sunday and enjoy it throughout the week with a side of my Simple Kale Caesar Salad. If you make this recipe, be sure to share a photo on social media and tag me @healthnutnutrition and #healthnuteats so that I can see your creations!
Thank you to Evive for sponsoring this blogpost and supporting the HealthNut community one delicious wheel at a time! Click here to check out their products and use code HEALTHNUT10 to save $10 off your first order.
Without further ado, let’s get into the recipe!
Recipe
Dairy Free Baked Mac and Cheese with Broccoli
Ingredients:
Pasta
- 4 cups pasta, uncooked (shells, penne or macaroni)
- 2 cups broccoli florets, chopped
- 2 teaspoon avocado oil (can also use grapeseed or olive oil)
Dairy Free Cheese Sauce
- 1 wheel Evive Mac Squash
- 1 cup unsweetened oat milk
- pinch of sea salt and cayenne pepper optional
Almond Flour Parm (Recipe from The HealthNut Cookbook)
- 1 cup blanched almond flour
- 2 Tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
Breadcrumb Topping
- 1/2 cup breadcrumbs (I like rice breadcrumbs)
- 1/4 cup Almond Flour Parm
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- pich of sea salt and black pepper, to taste
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 350F and prepare a 9x9 inch casserole dish with a light coat of oil.
- Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water for 4 minutes less than the package instructions.
- Add broccoli to the pasta and cook everything together for another 2 minutes. Pasta should still be slightly undercooked and broccoli bright green but not mushy.
- In the meantime, you can prepare your “cheese” sauce by warming up 1 wheel of Evive Mac Squash sauce in a medium saucepan on medium heat with oat milk and seasoning. Stir occasionally until the sauce is heated and smooth. Set aside.
- Drain pasta and broccoli and transfer to a greased casserole dish.
- Pour the cheese sauce over top evenly and stir gently to combine so that pasta is well coated.
- To make Almond Flour Parm, add all ingredients except olive oil to a small food processor and pulse for 5 seconds to combine. Drizzle oil and pulse again for another 5 seconds. Set aside.
- In a small mixing bowl, toss together breadcrumbs, 1/4 cup Almond Flour Parm, and spices. Sprinkle breadcrumb topping over pasta
- Cover with foil and bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and broil on high for 5 minutes, until golden and crispy. Serve hot!
Notes
There you have it, HealthNuts! A quick and easy dairy-free mac and cheese that is so much better than store-bought. It’s perfect for those busy weeknights when you don’t feel like cooking. Plus, it’s one that the whole family will enjoy!
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