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Macaroni cheese with a twist Thermomix hidden vege recipe

skinnymixer’s Macaroni Cheese with a Twist

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Macaroni cheese with a twist Thermomix hidden vege recipe

My most favourite freezer meal in the world… Macaroni Cheese with a Twist (Macaroni Cheese Thermomix recipe with 4 different hidden vege!). 

This healthy kids Thermomix recipe is so incredibly easy to make and makes A LOT. I like to make this for dinner and then freeze any leftovers in portions for easy kids dinners.

Over the years this Macaroni Cheese Thermomix recipe has saved the sanity of so many Skinnymixers parents, who needed to try and get their children to eat more vegetables.

This Macaroni Cheese Thermomix recipe is a fantastic base recipe, that you can easily adapt to your family’s taste. Some prefer to swap the ham for crispy bacon or tinned tuna or even crispy chorizo… drool!

Whichever way you decide to go, one of the best tips when making this recipe is to cut your vegetables small and really make sure it is cooked well before blitzing. This will avoid any strange texture from slightly undercooked vegetables.

If you are making this Hidden Vegetable Mac n Cheese for a fussy eater, you may find this fantastic ‘Thermomix Recipes for Toddlers:Surviving a Fussy Eater’ recipe guide useful.

Thermomix recipes for toddlers

For any Skinnies needing a Dairy Free Macaroni & Cheese, I highly recommend my Dairy Free Cheesy Spelt Pasta recipe.

skinnymixer's Dairy Free Cheesy Spelt Pasta
skinnymixer’s Dairy Free Cheesy Spelt Pasta
Macaroni cheese with a twist Thermomix hidden vege recipe

skinnymixer's Macaroni Cheese with a Twist

5 from 11 votes
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Course: Dinner
Cuisine: Family
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Servings: 8
Calories: 350kcal

Ingredients

  • 100 g cheddar cheese - 2 cm cubed
  • 60 g parmesan cheese - 2 cm cubed
  • 100 g sweet potato - peeled, 1 cm cubed
  • 100 g carrot - peeled, 1 cm cubed
  • 100 g pumpkin - peeled, 1 cm cubed
  • 1 zucchini - roughly chopped (peeled if you don't want your children to spot the microscopic green specks)
  • 300 g macaroni
  • 500 g milk
  • 50 g spelt or plain flour
  • 40 g butter - 1 cm cubed
  • 200 g ham - diced
  • 1 tsp dijon mustard
  • 1/2 tsp mild paprika powder
  • 1 Tbsp chicken stock concentrate
  • 1 pinch freshly cracked black pepper

Instructions

  • Add cheeses into mixer bowl, mill for 10 sec/speed 9/MC on. Set aside.
  • Place 1,200 g or 42.3 oz water into mixer bowl, boil for 10 min/steaming temp/speed 1/MC on.
  • While the water is boiling, prepare your vegetables making sure they are cut very small and put into the large steaming tray.
  • After 10 mins, add your macaroni to the boiling water, and put your large steaming tray in place.
  • Cook for 10 min/steaming temp/speed 1/reverse.
  • Drain macaroni and put into a large thermal pot to keep warm.
  • Put your steamed vegetables into the mixer bowl with 100 g of the milk, purée for 30 sec/speed 8/MC on or until smooth.
  • Stir puréed vegetables through macaroni.
  • Put flour, remaining milk & butter into mixer bowl, cook for 6 min/90°C or 195°F/speed 2/MC on. While this is cooking you may like to pan fry your ham (or bacon if preferred).
  • Add ham, reserved cheeses, mustard, paprika, stock concentrate and pepper to mixer bowl. Cook for 2 min/90°C or 195°F/speed 2/reverse/MC on.
  • Pour sauce over maraconi and stir through. I highly recommend you give it a taste at this point, and add a pinch or two of salt depending on your preference.

Notes

This makes a large amount of food, at least 8 large serves. It freezes and defrosts well.
This was adapted from the Macaroni Cheese recipe in the toddler cookbook, for added vegetables and flavour 🙂
Bellini Users
Use your sharp blade for step 1 and then swap to your blunt blade for the rest of the recipe.
At step 2 use ST temp if using an Intelli and 130°C or 270°F if using a Supercook.
At step 3 use ST temp and speed 3 if using an Intelli, popping a tea towel over the steaming attachment and 130°C or 270°F and speed 4 if using a Supercook. Please note that you may need to cook the vegetables for a little longer if using an Intelli.
At step 4 use ST temp if using an Intelli and 120°C or 250°F if using a Supercook.
Please use speed 1 so that you don't chop up the pasta.
At step 9 use 100°C or 212°F.
At step 10 use 90°C or 195°F.
Tried this recipe?Mention @skinnymixer or tag #skinnymixers!

Nutrition

Serving: 262g | Calories: 350kcal | Carbohydrates: 33.9g | Protein: 19.05g | Fat: 13.87g | Saturated Fat: 8.55g | Sodium: 726mg | Sugar: 7.05g

Healthy Mac n Cheese with a Twist Hidden Vegetable Thermomix recipe

  1. THE best Mac and cheese recipe ever. Thank u so much for sharing this! Everyone in the household loves it, big enough serve for 4 of us for 2 meals. I even add spinach when steaming the veggies, and stir through corn kernels at the end.

  2. Sooo good!!! I have the fussiest toodler EVER and he went back for thirds.. not seconds, thirds!!! Love the hidden veg, massive hit in our house. Thank you 😀

  3. This is delicious! I have 2 grown men at home that are fussy eaters and this won them over.
    Doing a happy dance 🙂

  4. Just made this for my 10yr old twin boys. They don’t normally like mac and cheese because it’s too creamy, but after I told them it had carrot, pumpkin, Brussel sprouts and cauliflower (veggie loving boys) they devoured a big bowl each for lunch and declared it was the best mac and cheese ever. I found I could taste the flour a little too much so next time I will cook it off with the butter before adding the milk. Other than that it was a massive win. Thanks so much!

  5. Thank you thank you for this recipe! My fussy toddler just downed a bowl of this yummy dish after fighting me at dinner time for weeks. It was the first breezy meal in this household for a long time. You just made me one very happy mumma!

  6. Thank you, I’ve just been searching for info about this topic
    for ages and yours is the greatest I’ve discovered till now.
    But, what in regards to the bottom line? Are you sure about the source?

  7. Have made this before but so long ago and my 2 yr old didn’t like it. He’s now 4 and eats much better. Trying it with the him again tonight. Question: after 10 mins steaming veges, should they be really soft or still a little hard? Mine are quite hard still. They are 1cm size chopped as per recipe. Couldn’t cook the pasta any longer so it was a little annoying having to boil water again in TM to continue steaming. Prob should save the pasta water next time.

    1. I ended up steaming veg for another 5 minutes until quite soft. The purée was perfect and end result sooooo much better than the first time I tried it. So good both my kids (4 and 1) gobbled it without question – yippee!! And as I type this I may have even eaten a bowl myself 😉 amazing recipe! So glad I gave it another crack!

  8. I made this tonight but it was too runny…. I have a Mistral so not sure if I did something wrong…Any suggestions on how to get it the correct consistency?

  9. Well that was definitely a winner in our household tonight! Kids loved it, hubby loved it and I loved it. Easy to make and flavourful. I used Thermo chicken stock paste instead and it was awesome. Kids have even requested leftovers for their school lunch tomorrow. Will make again for sure. Thanks!!

  10. I’m Going to try the Mac and cheese tomorrow night. I don’t have any vegetable stock concentrate has anyone used liquid or power from the supermarket???? Suggestions for type and amount please.
    Thanks

  11. Delicious!! My super fussy toddler absolutely demolished this.. definitely going to be a regular in this house – thank you 🙂

  12. Delicious!! My super fussy toddler absolutely demolished this.. definitely going to be a regular in this house – thank you 🙂

  13. We tried this for the first time tonight, it was very tasty. The funniest thing is the kids complained it was too cheesey!! if only they knew.

  14. Love it. Making a batch tonight to serve with sausages, and will make another tomorrow….My youngest loves taking this to school to reheat for lunch. Soe asy, filling and nutritious.

  15. Anyone made this with wholemeal pasta? I made it tonight and it tasted floury! Might cook the pasta seperate next time. Sauce tasted nice though.

  16. This is a favourite in my house (except my fussy 4 year old won’t touch it). We add whatever meat we have in the fridge that needs using. Today I’m cooking it for lunch and adding the meat from a left over roast chicken.

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