What are some things I could add to make mac and cheese less of a pleb tier basic bitch soccer mom dish

kielbasa

It's amazing.

This. If you're not trying to serve it as a main dish keep it simple. I mean you could add chicken, broccoli, diced tomatoes, etc. but if your base sucks then any additions are putting a band aid on a gunshot wound. Use good cheese, cook some onions in butter for your sauce, add some mustard seed and other seasonings. Experiment.

I use mac & cheese as a fridge-emptying dish.

Any leftover vegetables that don't turn into total mush like broccoli, red peppers, hot peppers, tomatoes, etc. are all great in it.

Serve it over some chopped arugula or spinach for extra greens.

I also love having some salty meat/sausage into it. Kielbasa is great, I can see italian sausage being okay, cooked bacon is always good, even ham works great.

Then of course topping it with breadcrumbs and finishing in the oven is a good move.

Add powdered jalapeno to the sauce. Do it.

>Annie's White Cheddar and shells
>add to milk
>butter
>a dollop of greek yogurt
>through in some turmeric to give it an aesthetic yellow color
>smoked paprika and cayenne
>capers
>throw in a pouch of tuna or chopped salmon
>splash on some tabasco and a conservative amount of garlic salt

the best

Either chipotle powder, or, if you don't like capsaicin, smoked paprika. Smoky flavor with cheese is an elder-god-tier combo. Also, black pepper is mandatory in any worthwhile mac and cheese. Add the previous two spices with bacon and your taste buds will ascend to a higher plane which could only be rivaled by psychedelic drugs.

Use a good homemade pasta
Get your recipe for bechamel down; infuse the milk beforehand with bay leaf and nutmeg, slowly melt the butter for the roux, and ensure even fusion
For the cheese, use a combination of cheeses; my guide is two parts neutral semi hard (cheddar, comte), one part parmesan, and one part blue (roquefort, stilton)
Shred your cheese to fuck before adding, and stir through
Bit of panko on top
Finish at 220c

As for additions, bacon, spinach and truffles are the popular ones, although I like thyme and sage

What this guy said.

I already disliked this annoying guy, but after seeing this pic, I want to injure him.

I;m thinking about adding thos beans

No thanks I'd like to afford a house someday

Truffle oil

Sure, then I'll toss in a couple faberge eggs to taste.

Tuna fish from a can and/or chopped up hot dogs.

He said less, not more user

add spinach

i use kerry gold "skellig" cheese which is a sweet white cheddar

t. millennial

Fuck your gluten-free bullshit, and fuck your expensive avocados.

Yes, you triggered me, 10/10.

Make Cheesy Spätzle instead.

I like making it with sharp cheddar and adding ground beef, chopped tomatoes and dill pickles.

my fucking sides have ascended

and bake

Make the bechamel. Stir in some plain greek yogurt before stirring in your cheese.

How about pic related

It's vegetarian admittedly but it's pretty tasty and easy to make

Rules of mac and cheese

If it says make a roux, its always bad
If it does not say bake it, its always bad

I don't see any cheese in that ingredients list. The dish is called mac and cheese for gods' sake.

...

Boil some broccoli, set aside.
Cook some bacon. Keep the fat.
Cooks the macaronis in the broccoli water.
Grease the casserole dish with the bacon grease.

Make a roux. Season it well and add a bit of smoked paprika or cayenne.
Use extra sharp sheddar and smoked swiss cheese for the sauce.
Mix the pastas, the sauce, the broccoli and the bacon.
Mix in some mozzarella for the strings.

Top with a mix of breadcrumbs and parmesan. Bake in the oven and broil it near the end to make it nice and crispy.

I wish I had a picture of it but it always gets devoured in minutes. So heres a pic from google image.

Well not a cheese sauce in the traditional sense, so I'll give you that. The cheese flavour comes from the nutritional yeast (nooch) which has a flavour similar to cheese powder.
It's more something from outside the box rather than the standard use different cheeses or add meat.

Broccoli doesnt turn into a mush if you cook it ''al dente'' it before mixing it and baking the whole thing. Then it stays relatively crunchy, or at least crunchy enough to make a contrast with the pastas.

Thug's kitchen. My nigga

GF and I started cooking some of their recipes to reduce our meat intake and, while their commentaries might be slightly edgy/obnoxious at times, its pretty great fucking vegan food.

diced green chilis

What the fuck is this, amateur hour?
Just toss some hot dogs in there.

Thug kitchen is honestly one of the best series of cookbooks I've bought for my library, and one of the only vegan ones I've got.

Plus I'm of the opinion that more recipies need to be written in the sweary/edgy format

>amateur hour
>hot dogs

Spotted the fatty. Top it with ketchup while youre at it.

>ketchup

Pleb. Tomato sauce and parma cheese.

chili mac

Imma try this, but I might use apple wood smoked gouda since I have some.

Actual cheese instead of the powdered shit you americans love.
And then substitute the pasta for something with class, like potato. Just take a big potato, bake it, slice it in half, slit it, open it out, and stuff grated cheese down in there.

My aunt makes really good Mac and cheese. Not sure what's all in it but it seems to be a lot of cream, dash of cream cheese along with the regular stuff. It's very rich you can't eat much at a time and I'm sure it's very very bad for your health. It's weird she's a health but but loves making tasty food for everyone else. She loves watching people enjoy it. Gotta be some sort of psychological thing there.

My go to recipe

Cut up pieces of fried chicken and Buffalo sauce.

>easy to make

stopped reading right there

Makes me happy to know you can read my post in its entirety

>tuna fish

You can just call it tuna, thanks

yeah Kielbasa is a great meat to add. Nice spice-filled sausage.

Kk, then it's not mac & cheese. It's mac and nooch. I hate when people call shit shit that's not actually the shit. Got on my sister hard about that crap when she got into another new-age diet thing a few years ago (which failed, though paleo seems to work well for her.) Saying something is cheese when it's not cheese is a fucking lie and I hate liars.

It's a good thing I didn't lie and agreed that it doesn't contain cheese.
I only said it was a different take on Mac and cheese. Easier to call it what it resembles than make up a new name for it, kinda like vanilla ice-cream that uses vanilla flavouring rather than actual vanilla.

How do you feel about strawberries and blackberries not being berries?

lobster

I'm not american and I don't consider what I make "mac n cheese" but it's pretty much the same thing.

>lightly brown some chopped onion, garlic
>mix in cooked pasta
>make a (cheesey) white sauce and mix that in
>add a bunch of cracked pepper (I liked a shitload)
>chuck in a can of tuna including the brine/water
>mix it all up
>cheese on top and grill it till brown

I've had packet mac and cheese. I don't get why it's so popular, it's really pretty boring after the third mouthful.

Wasn't hard for me to make up a name for it, mac and nooch.

Completely different type of discussion. No one is claiming stawberries and blackberries are in the botanical sense a "berry." It's just their name. Come up with a different name for them that doesn't include the word "berry."

Now when you talk about mac and cheese that doesn't contain cheese, you're specifically trying to claim it is cheese when there is none.

t.he joke flew right over your head

Cunt

autism

Fuck I remember this thread.

>add siracha

wala!

Bacon
Chicken
Broccoli

I rarely make mac and cheese because cheese here is crazy expensive, but I love adding bacon and a bit of garlic powder

broccoli
cauliflower
carrots
corn
green beans
mushrooms
ham

>greek yogurt
Oh hey thanks for the idea

Use sodium citrate. Buy it on amazon then you never have to worry about your roux breaking or a weird greasy texture to the sauce. Just make sure not to add too much salt to the dish because of the salt in the sodium citrate and the cheese.

Normal mac and cheese is also vegetarian. There's no need to play dumb pretend games with yeast powder.

Best thing is just using actual good ingredients.

Instead of shitty velveeta, use actual cheese and make an actual legit cheese sauce. Actually season it. Instead of macaroni use penne or something. Crisp up some prosciutto, pancetta, or bacon. Broil some bread crumbs and parmesan for a crusty top. Give it some spice like red pepper flakes. Add tomatoes. Sprinkle some basil for nice pretty greenness.

Any or all of the above will elevate shitty macncheese.

You can make more of it
protip; it's not mac 'n cheese if it doesn't literally flow
t. used to make and eat an entire fucking pot

Crush some french fried onions and sprinkle it on top.

I'm gonna need a quick rundown.

True, it's more aimed for vegans anyway.
I've toyed with the idea of subbing the yeast out for actual cheese like a parmesan or something similar, though I haven't gotten around to trying that yet.
It's half the fun of cooking imo; follow a recipe the first time to gain a baseline then modify it to suit your tastes and preferences.

Seconded.

Start with roux, add in milk, real cheese (pre-shredded doesn't count) and maybe a dash of paprika. Pour over pasta, and put into oven safe container. Finish in oven for a thicc southern style mnc!

tomatoes
guacamole
fried prosciutto chunks
fancier cheeses
panko
jalapenos
homemade noodles or gnocchi
balsamic
etc.