Buffalo Winter Mac

a new holiday classic is born

What’s up Broiler Heads, it’s your favorite redhead and resident recipe creator Michelle. I’ve always found it tough to dream up Thanksgiving entrées. This time of year is all about side dishes and I don’t really give a damn about having one thing being the center of attention. I want a table that’s about to buckle from all the different dishes on it, a plate full of variety as I make my way down the line. But the rest of North America is still firmly set in entrée mode. So this year I went about trying to come up with something new since I’ve made our Hominy en Croute and Individual Pot Pies for many years now. 

First, I whipped up a gorgeous seitan roulade with a delish apple and parsnip filling which only reminded me how much I don’t like seitan. The filling was great but I couldn’t get past the seitan so into my file of forgotten recipes it went. The filling may get resurrected at some point but I’m off seitan for a few more years. Such a bummer because it was so fucking pretty. But we want shit that tastes great on our tables, right?

looked the part but didn’t love that damn seitan

Then I had brunch with my sweetheart at beloved LA institution Kitchen Mouse and had their Buffalo Bowl where I subbed in their mac and cheese. It was so damn good that I knew I had to play around with it and make it our entrée for this year and boom, here it is. I took the building blocks from our queso in Book 3 but reworked it for a creamier, more Thanksgiving vibe. You’re gonna love it.

This might initially look like a lot of steps but the actual cooking is super easy. If you have lots to cook on the big day, I recommend making the cheesy sauce ahead of time and cooking the noodles with the sweet potatoes. Then just mix them all together the day you plan to serve it, throw on the breadcrumbs and stick it in the oven alongside your stuffing or whatever else you’ve got going on. Sure, you could make the whole thing the day before but the noodles will absorb the sauce and the dish won’t be as creamy.

To make this gluten free, use gluten free noodles, duh. Then instead of the breadcrumbs, chop up 3 cups of small cauliflower florets. Mix together 1 cup water with 1 cup rice flour or your fav all-purpose style blend, and toss the florets in that with a pinch of salt. Roast them at 450 for 15 minutes until they are looking a little golden. Done. Then make the hot sauce mix as usual and toss them in it right before you place them on top of the noodles to bake. It’s perfect and won’t draw any attention to the gluten free nature of the dish. Plus it’s fucking delicious.

Winter Mac with Sweet Potatoes, Buffalo Breadcrumbs, and Creamy Dill Sauce

Makes enough for 6-8 people as a side

Hot Sauce Breadcrumbs:

2 tablespoon olive oil or melted nondairy butter if you wanna lean into it

3 cups chunky breadcrumbs like old sourdough bread

1/2 cup hot sauce, you know the one

¼ cup unsweetened almond milk

Cheesy Sauce

1 tablespoon olive or avocado oil

1 shallot, chopped or ¼ cup chopped yellow onion

2 starchy potatoes like russets, peeled and chopped, about 4 cups

2 carrots, peeled and cubed

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 cup veggie broth

1 ½ cup unsweetened nondairy milk like almond

½ cup nooch

¼ cup olive or avocado oil

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon Braggs Aminos, soy sauce, or tamari

1 tablespoon ume plum vinegar or 1 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon garlic powder or granules

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 pound dry pasta like cavatappi or shells

2 sweet potatoes, roughly peeled and chopped, about 4 cups

Cashew Dill Sauce

3 tablespoons cashew butter*

1 shallot, chopped or ¼ onion, chopped

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon plum vinegar

¼ cup plain, unsweetened nondairy milk like almond

¼ cup chopped fresh dill

First let’s make the breadcrumbs. Grab a large skillet with a lid and warm up the oil over a medium heat. Toss in the breadcrumbs, stir until everything has some oil on it, and cook until all that starts to look a little toasty, about 2-3 minutes. In a small glass mix, the hot sauce and milk then pour it all over the breadcrumbs making sure everything gets coated. Open a window or turn on your hood fan because that hot vinegar fumes can be a lot. But it’s totally worth it. Turn off the heat and scrap them onto a plate. Wipe that skillet down quick cause we’re using that shit again.

In that sorta clean skillet warm up a tablespoon of oil for the cheesy sauce over a medium heat. Add the shallot and sauté until it looks kinda golden, 3-4 minutes. Add the potatoes, carrots, garlic, and cup of broth to the pan, stir, then cover. Turn down the heat to medium low. Let that shit braise until the potatoes and carrots are soft, about 10 minutes. When the veggies are soft, let that cool for a sec while you toss the milk, nooch, oil, lemon juice, Braggs, plum vinegar, garlic powder, and smoked paprika into a blender. Add the softened veggies and all the liquids in the pan to the blender and run that shit until the sauce is all creamy, about 30 seconds- 1 minute. You want to make sure everything gets broken down so don’t be afraid to really let that blender run.

Now warm up your oven to 425 degrees and grease a large baking dish like what you’d make a lasagna in. Set it aside.

Cook the pasta according to the package directions. When you add the dry pasta to the salted water, toss in the chopped sweet potatoes too. Drain the whole pot when the pasta is ready, then throw it all back into that same pot and pour over the warm cheesy sauce. Taste and add more of whatever you think it needs. Then pour those cheesy noodles into the prepared baking dish and place the hot sauce breadcrumbs on top, sorta pressing them down into the noodles. Bake for 20-30 minutes until the edges start looking crispy and the croutons look browned in some spots.  While that’s baking though, let’s make the dill cream sauce.

Throw everything but the dill in your strongest blender or food processor and run that shit until it looks nice and creamy. Stir in the dill. Done. 

When the mac and cheese is done, drizzle the dill sauce over the croutons with more to put on the table. Serve right away with hot sauce on the side.

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Michelle and Matt