Mac ‘N Cheese: The Soy Milk Way

With no idea what to make dinner tonight I suddenly decided to make macaroni and cheese when I walked by the cheese section at my grocery store.  I did a very simple version with what I had on hand at home.  Which meant soy milk instead of moo juice.  I based this recipe off a simple recipe I found on the internet.  I halved the recipe and changed some things and added more spices.  Particularly paprika on the advice of thedarkgrass.

Ingredients:
8 oz small pasta shells, cooked
1/4 cup butter (half a stick)
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 3/4 cup soy milk
8 oz shredded cheddar cheese
small handful diced deli ham
panko bread crumbs
grated Parmesan reggiano

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook your pasta as usual, drain and spread into a 9×13 baking dish (or whatever you have that can go into an oven and can hold all the pasta).

In a saucepan, melt the butter on medium heat, add flour, pepper, and salt.  Whisk the mixture over medium heat constantly.  You’re creating a roux, a flour and butter base that will thicken your sauce.  You have to keep the sauce moving so nothing burns or sets.  Keep whisking for about five-ten minutes.  You’ll see that the sauce has thickened very slightly.  If you do it too long and you notice your roux getting dark, don’t worry!  Roux can get really dark but it loses its thickening power the darker it gets.  I wasn’t sure when to stop so I cooked my roux till it turned noticeably beige.

Take the roux off the stove, add the paprika and garlic powder, mix it in.  Add in the soy milk slowly whilst whisking.  Once it is throughly whisked in, put the sauce back on the stove and let it come to a boil.  It’ll smell a little nutty due to the soy milk.    Let it boil for a minute, you should notice that the sauce is a lot more thicker.  Take it off the stove and mix in the cheese a handful at a time.  Add in the ham.

Pour the sauce over the pasta.  Spread the mixture to cover any exposed pasta.  It might not look like the sauce is filtering down into the bed of pasta, don’t worry.  It’ll get down there in the oven.  Sprinkled panko on top until you get a good cover.  Grate Parmesan reggiano on top of that, as much as you like.  Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.

Optional add-ins:
Caramelized onions, mix it in with the sauce.
Sliced tomatoes, to go on top of the sauce, before the panko and Parmesan reggiano.

You may find this dish slightly bland so add a pinch of salt more if you like.  The edges are very good as is.

I couldn’t wait a few minutes before dishing up some so it didn’t come out of the baking dish in nice squares.  Wait about five minutes or so and it’ll come out of the baking dish nicely.

Sharp eyes will pick out a farfalle / bow-tie pasta here and there.  I had a small amount left so I threw that in.  I was only able to finish a little less than 1/4th of the baking dish… I may do a single serving recipe later on so I don’t end up with leftovers.