Vegetable Mac and Cheese

Mac and cheese is a comfort food and favourite for many kids. Although, nutrition is very less compared to a vegetable loaded Pasta. This can be compensated with vegetable sauces instead of flour or loads of cheese for a creamy Mac and cheese. Kids love this healthy version of it. This recipe uses carrot and cauliflower for the sauce and that tastes heavenly with goodness of seasonal vegetables. This can be given to kids older than a year old with tolerable amount of cheese. It can also be a baby food avoiding salt and cheese.

Method:

1. Cook macaroni in 2 cups of water for 10 min to 15 min as per the softness needed. It should be done al dente within 12 min, however over cooking might be needed for smaller kids learning textures.
2. Drain the macaroni, save the cooked water.
3. Cut half carrot, 1.25 cups of cauliflower florets. I blanched cauliflower for 2 minutes in boiling water to remove worms and impurities.
4. Cook the vegetables,2 garlic cloves with 1/2-1 cup of water with 1/2 tspn salt for 5-10 minutes soft enough to make it a puree. I pressure baked it with the 1/2 cup of water,salt on high temperature for 3 whistles. Save the cooked water.
5. Cool it and grind into smooth puree.
6. Add 1/2 cup of milk, vegetable puree, cooked water/broth, 1 cheese cube (I used a small Amul cheese cube) in a pan and cook it for 5 min in low flame.
7. Let cheese melt, sauce thicken a bit, add cooked mac. Do not stir strongly to break the shape of Macaroni.
8. Switch it off and serve it warm.