By now you probably know I’m a born-and-raised Alabamian, where macaroni and cheese counts as a vegetable at a country-style cafeteria restaurant. I kid you not. Having a Thanksgiving meal without Mac-n-Cheese is an incomplete meal to me. Thanksgiving is about gathering with friends and family to celebrate all the abundance in our lives, and over the past few years Sean & I either hosted or attended FriendsGivings with our friends who couldn’t go home for the holiday. It’s often hard to afford to travel for both Thanksgiving and Christmas since they fall just a month apart.
I can tell you that our FriendsGivings have been nothing but fun and full of sheer thankfulness. And each year I’ve made it a point to make my Mom’s Mac-n-Cheese recipe to share with everyone. Now, the original recipe is full of gluten, which of course I can’t eat, so years ago I set out to make it gluten-free! Note: This is NOT a paleo recipe. It’s a gluten-free recipe. It’s full of actual cheese, milk and rice noodles, but for something that is made only a few times a year (it’s perfect along with the Easter or Christmas ham), it’s worth it if you can tolerate dairy. Plus, it really is a special recipe to me. You’ve got to keep those recipes in your family as best as you can.
The base for the cheese sauce is a bechamel sauce. A bechamel sauce is made from a roux of butter and arrowroot powder (traditionally it’s made with regular gluten-y flour) and milk. It’s known as a “mother sauce” in French cooking. This part takes a little while as you add the milk to the roux, you have to wait until it starts to thicken. (We also add in an onion with the butter to get it cooked down. It’s a great addition to the dish as a whole.)
You could get adventurous mixing the types of cheese you use, (Sean likes it with half cheddar and half aged gouda) but standard sharp cheddar is classic. Luckily, it’s fairly easy to find high quality grass-fed cheeses and milk these days!
If you decide to add this dish to your holiday spread, I sincerely I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family and I have over the years. Happy Holidays to you and yours! ~Suzanne
- 1 package (16 oz) gluten-free brown rice elbow macaroni, uncooked
- 1 onion, minced
- ½ cup unsalted Kerrygold butter
- 6 tablespoons arrowroot powder
- 4 cups grass-fed whole milk
- 4 cups shredded grass-fed cheddar cheese (about 1 pound whole)
- 1 teaspoon dry mustard
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Prepare pasta as directed on package, but cooking only 6 minutes; drain.
- In a large pot, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion and cook until translucent. About 5 minutes.
- Stir in arrowroot powder.
- Gradually stir in milk. Make sure you get all the bits off the bottom!
- Cook and stir until mixture thickens and comes to a boil. It should coat the back of the spoon - it should be that thick! And be careful not to scald the milk. Turn the heat down if it is too hot.
- Stir in cheese, mustard, salt & pepper and mix well until all cheese is melted.
- Mix pasta and sauce together (you can either add it back to the cheese sauce pot or using a separate large bowl) and pour into 13x9-inch baking pan.
- Bake for 35 minutes or until lightly browned.
- Let cool for 5 minutes then dig in!
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