Gluten Free & Dairy Free Macaroni & Cheese

One of our biggest challenges with making gluten and dairy free meals has been the loss of macaroni & cheese.  One of my girls' very favorite meals is Macaroni and Cheese Pie - a recipe that I got back in college from the mom of some babysitting charges.

We stumbled upon some clearance-priced gluten free shells a couple weeks ago so I decided to try the recipe with dairy alternatives.

It didn't occur to me to take pictures until halfway through.  I also only made a half recipe because I wasn't sure how it would turn out.

Here is the recipe for a 9" pie plate:

Ingredients
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1  & 1/2 t. salt, divided
8 oz. uncooked pasta
6 T. butter
1/2 c. chopped onion
1/3 c. flour
3/4 t. dry mustard
1/2 t. white pepper
1/4 t. nutmeg
2 & 1/2  cups milk
2 & 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1. Preheat oven to 375.  Butter a 9" pie plate and sprinkle with bread crumbs.  I just used olive oil and skipped the bread crumbs.  A great bread crumb solution is to food process GF oatmeal into very fine crumbs.

2. Put noodles on to cook, salt the water - should make 5+ cups cooked

3. Melt butter over medium/high heat.  I used Earth Balance.  Add the chopped onion and sautee for about 5 minutes.  Stir in the flour (GF all-purpose), 1/2 t. salt, dry mustard, white pepper, and nutmeg.  Cook until this bubbles.  It should be liquid enough to bubble since there's more butter than flour.  If it's too pasty to bubble just add the milk (next step) extra slowly.

4. Gradually add milk and cook until sauce thickens.  I used coconut milk.

Cooking with milk added.

5. Add 2 cups cheese - I used Daiya Cheddar

This was the moment of truth: Would the cheese melt?

YES!!!

6. Remove sauce from the heat and stir in noodles.  Spoon the mixture into the pie plate and sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup of cheese. I left the cheese topping off for economy.  That fake cheese is expensive.

This was only a half batch so it clearly doesn't fill the pie plate.

7. Bake until golden & bubbly, about 25 minutes.  Let stand for 15 minutes, serve cut into wedges.

Katie