macaroni & cheese with broccoli
Here is my cheesy, ooey, gooey Macaroni and Cheese with Broccoli. It is comforting (and healthy) for a mid-week supper. Honestly my family loves it so much they request it for special occasions too, like for their birthday dinners. I even made it one year for Valentine’s Day baked in a heart-shaped baking dish.
With it’s creamy cheesiness, I don’t even think they know how healthy it is. I love that it requires no planning because the ingredients are always on hand.
I usually use a 10-ounce box of frozen chopped broccoli, but a large crown of chopped fresh works well to if you happen to have it. I’ve also made it with edamame, which my kids will gobble up like jellybeans. Try it with whatever vegetable your family will eat.
Tips for Healthy Homemade Macaroni and Cheese with Broccoli
Prepare first for efficiency
To maximize your time, get all your ducks in a row! Start boiling the water right from the get-go, and get your oven pre-heated.
Since they can take a while to heat-up, if you start that before you start chopping and measuring, you’ll save a bit of time in the end.
Cook the Macaroni
Undercook the pasta in the water. It is going into the oven, so it will keep cooking in the sauce.
Tip For Fresh broccoli
If you’re using fresh broccoli, add it to the cooking pasta at the end.
How to Make Cheese Sauce more healthy
- To make the healthier cheese sauce, I use a slurry method. This is different than a roux because it doesn’t require any butter (I like to save my fat calories for cheddar cheese thank you very much!)
- To ensure the slurry method works best, make sure you preheat the milk in the skillet.
- Then use a little of the milk to mix with flour to make the slurry.
- Here I boosted the flavor of the sauce by enhancing the slurry with some Dijon and salt and pepper.
Make The Sauce
- Once the milk in the skillet is steaming hot, just whisk in the slurry.
- It’s important to keep stirring and whisking at this point to keep the sauce from becoming lumpy.
- Pay attention to those corners!
Add the Cheese Off The Heat
Only after it thickens, remove it from the heat, then stir in the cheese. That’s the fool-poroof way of melting the cheese, without causing it to clump or curdle.
Tips For Frozen Broccoli
Note: if you’ve opted to use frozen chopped broccoli, you just add it right into the cheese sauce.
It Will Look Too Saucy
Mix the pasta and sauce, and note, this will seem really saucy at this point, but as it bakes the sauce will absorb into the pasta for that perfect creamy texture.
Crunchy Baked Topping
Then top it with a snazzy breadcrumb mixture which will become all golden and crunchy (arguably the best part of the casserole.)
Since it is already pretty hot, it only needs 15 or 20 minutes in the oven to become bubbly and crusty.
Steps To Make This Baked Macaroni and Cheese with Broccoli
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- 1. Chop broccoli.
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- 2. Boil macaroni for 4 minutes less than package instructions.
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- 3. When the timer goes off, add broccoli and cook for two more minutes.
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- 4. Drain the pasta and broccoli
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- 5. While the pasta cooks, make the cheese sauce. Whisk 1/2 cup milk, flour, Dijon, 3/4 tsp salt and pepper in a bowl.
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- 6. Heat 2 cups of milk in a saucepan and whisk in slurry. Bring to a simmer, whisking often.
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- 7. Remove from the heat and add cheese. Whisk until smooth.
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- 8. Add the sauce to the pasta and broccoli mixture and stir to combine.
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- 9. Stir breadcrumb, paprika, 1/4 teaspoon salt and garlic powder with olive oil in a small bowl until the bread crumbs are evenly moist.
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- 10. Transfer the pasta mixture to a greased 2-quart baking dish. Top with the breadcrumbs and bake until golden and bubbling, 15 to 2 minutes.
Thanks for reading! For those of you who are new here, you may want to sign up for my email list, or follow me on instagram to stay in the loop.
Happy Cooking!
~Katie
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macaroni & cheese with broccoli
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Category: Main Course
- Method: Stove Top/ Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
This delicious baked macaroni & cheese with broccoli is a healthy make-over of the classic casserole. With its crunchy golden brown breadcrumb topping and uber-creamy cheese sauce you won’t miss a thing. This is a family weeknight dinner favorite and is ready in just 45 minutes!
Ingredients
- 12 -ounces whole-wheat macaroni, about 3 cups, uncooked
- 1 large broccoli crown, chopped (about 4 cups) or 1 10-ounce box frozen chopped broccoli, thawed
- 2 1/2 cups milk, preferably non-fat, divided
- 1/4 cup flour
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
- 1 1/2 cups shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese (6 ounces)
- Crumb topping
- 3 tablespoons dry breadcrumbs, preferably whole-wheat (see ingredient note*)
- 3/4 teaspoon paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Coat a 2-quart baking dish with cooking spray. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
- When water boils cook macaroni 4 minutes less than package instructions. Add the raw fresh broccoli if using (the frozen broccoli goes in later if you are using that.) Continue cooking for 2 minutes longer until the pasta is slightly undercooked (the broccoli should be bright green and crisp tender.) Drain thoroughly and return to the pot.
- Meanwhile prepare cheese sauce. Heat 2 cups milk in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring often until steaming hot. Whisk together the remaining 1/2 cup cold milk, flour, Dijon, 3/4 teaspoon salt and white pepper in a medium bowl until completely smooth. Whisk the flour mixture into the steaming milk and bring to a simmer whisking often until smooth and thickened. Remove from the heat and stir in the cheese. If using the frozen thawed broccoli stir it into the cheese sauce.
- Stir the cheese sauce into the pasta. Transfer the pasta mixture into the prepared baking dish. Stir together breadcrumbs, paprika, 1/4 teaspoon salt, garlic powder in a small bowl. Drizzle in olive oil and stir until completely combined. Sprinkle the crumbs over the pasta and transfer to the oven. Bake until the pasta is bubbling and the topping is golden, 15 to 20 minutes.
Notes
8 mg cholesterol, 0 g added sugars
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 1/2 cups
- Calories: 401
- Sugar: 8 g
- Sodium: 744 mg
- Fat: 7.4 g
- Saturated Fat: 1.7 g
- Carbohydrates: 62.6 g
- Fiber: 9.5 g
- Protein: 20.5 g
I made this recipe today.. The taste was WONDERFUL but I found the dish was not creamy and somewhat dry…. I wonder what I could have done differently. ?
With the slurry I did as you suggested but how thick should the sauce be??
That may have been my downfall. I will try this again as my husband and I really enjoyed it… PS: I also used whole milk , would that have been a problem..?
★★★★
I have not had that problem if it is freshly prepared. The pasta does absorb the sauce as it sits though. And my guess is that some whole-wheat pastas are more absorbent than others. You could try experimenting with the amount of milk you use, or what may be a safer bet would be to try using 10 ounces of pasta instead of 12. That way you aren’t going to end up throwing the flour to milk ratio off for the sauce, but there will be less pasta to absorb the sauce.
Thank you for the recipe. Made it last night and really enjoyed it. Do the leftovers freeze well?
★★★★★
They definitely can be frozen. The texture will suffer a tad (the pasta will be a little more soft), but the broccoli holds up surprisingly well!
This recipe turned out great! I had shell pasta and really enjoyed the way those stored the creamy cheese sauce. Directions were easy to follow and the end result was absolutely delicious.
★★★★★
I am glad you liked it Joanne. Thanks for letting me know!
Great and versatile recipe! I wanted more vegetables after I saw the broccoli chopped, so I added some frozen peas. Made with some vegetable penne noodles instead of whole wheat and turned out great.
I particularly enjoyed the smoky crumb topping. I might add a bit of heat to the slurry next time, but this was a simple and enjoyable meal to make!
★★★★★
Hi Jayd, I am so glad you liked this. Thank you for coming back to leave a review.
This recipe is just horrible. There’s too much mustard and the roux isn’t developed correctly. I finished the cheese sauce and dumped it as soon as I gave it a taste. The initial flavor is mustard with a hint of cheese and the aftertaste is uncooked white flour. Cut down on the mustard and build a normal roux. I tried this because I thought it might be a good shortcut but it is just bad.
I’m sorry to hear you didn’t like the way this recipe tasted. What type of cheddar cheese did you use? It should be the sharpest available in order to give the recipe extra flavor. This is not a roux, it is a slurry which is a nonfat way of thickening and stabilizing a milk sauce. Every tablespoon of butter has 110 calories. By using a slurry, you end up cutting the calories of this dish substantially which is important to my readers. I am bummed you didn’t follow the recipe completely, because if you had actually mixed everything together, added the broccoli and topping I think the two teaspoons of Dijon wouldn’t have been so prominent and you would have been less grouchy. Hope your week turns around for you Fritz. Happy new year and happy cooking!
Thank you for this recipe, it was SO good! I made it for my lactose intolerant toddler using lactose free milk and aged cheddar cheese. Also added cubed uncured ham. I love that it’s healthier and she gave it a solid two thumbs up!!
★★★★★
Hi Tiffany! I am so happy you discovered this recipe! Thank you for letting me know that you did and that you both love it!