These Sweet Potato Noodles with Basil Cheese Sauce are an adult twist on a childhood favorite: mac & cheese.
If you ask my parents what my favorite meal was as a kid, they’d answer in an instant, “pasta with homemade cheese sauce.” In general, I was a bit of a pasta addict. I’m estimating that at least 30% of my body was made of mac ’n cheese at one point.
But alas, man can not survive on pasta alone, a hard lesson my 10-year-old self had to learn. Since those days, I’ve obviously incorporated many-a-veggie into my diet. I also let the pendulum swing into unhealthy restrictive extremes where I wouldn’t touch a noodle or slice of cheese for years. But I think I’ve finally found that happy medium where pasta is a welcome treat and cheese sauce is back in the rotation.
This dish is an ode to my 10-year-old self, that proves you can enjoy a little cheese sauce and veggies at the same time. It proves that healthy food doesn’t have to be one dimensional or fit into a diet label if you don’t want it to.
I think it’s important to acknowledge that finding a what healthy looks and feels like to your life isn’t always an easy journey. When there are so many extremes promoted, it’s easy to feel guilt when you don’t fit into a food label. When I was making this recipe I started to feel bad that it wasn’t vegan, paleo or gluten-free. Was it even healthy? I had to stop myself and remember that just because something doesn’t fit square into a label, doesn’t mean it can’t fit into a healthy lifestyle.
I know personally I could live without cheese, however I still really like cheese. For me, the less I try to restrict a food group, the less I crave it. Which means extreme diet styles don’t work for me, because they often backfire or become obsessions. But that’s just me. The most important thing is to know yourself and know that you don’t have to explain or apologize for decisions that make you feel healthy and happy both physically and mentally.
So if you like cheese and veggies or want a grown up version of your favorite mac ’n cheese as a kid, then this dish is definitely for you!
[Tweet “Veggie noodles never looked so good: Sweet Potato Noodles with Cheese Sauce”]
- 2 Sweet Potatoes, peeled
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil
- 1 tablespoon of butter
- 1 tablespoon of flour
- 1 cup of 2% milk
- 1 cup of cheddar cheese, grated
- 1 tablespoon of fresh basil, chopped
- Salt & Pepper to taste
- For sweet potato noodles: peel sweet potatoes and spiralize them using the “thick noodle” blade
- In a large sauté pan cook sweet potatoes with a tablespoon of olive oil and a 1/4 teaspoon of salt for 15 minutes
- Meanwhile for the cheese sauce, in a saucepan melt a tablespoon of butter on medium heat then add a tablespoon of flour and stir until the flour absorbs the butter
- Slowly add milk while stirring the flour butter mixture, allow milk to be absorbed before adding more until all of the milk is combined
- Continue to stir over medium heat while the sauce thickens for about 8 minutes then add the grated cheese and stir
- Finally add the tablespoon of chopped basil and mix until well combined.
- Once the noodles and sauce are done, divide into 3 bowls
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Your Turn:
- What was your favorite food as a kid?
You had me at “sweet potato noodles.” My favorite food was Life cereal…that was pre-celiac. My sister’s was/is mac and cheese and it was kind of annoying how much she liked it haha
Sugar cereal was a total forbidden fruit in my childhood. It was awesome when I had sleepovers to raid my friends cereal cabinets.
Haha I was the same exact way. My mom rarely gave us junk food but whenever she made us boxed mac n cheese, it was the best damn day of my life. This looks like the best upgrade eva. Please send me some thanks
Coming right up! Hahaha imagine opening a box from the mail and finding it was just full of sweet potato
Easy mac was a treat in our house growing up, which obviously made it my favorite food ever. And is probably why it’s still one of my favorite foods. Love the sweet potato noodle idea; genius.
Thanks girly! Plus it’s the added bonus of still looking bright and orange (but being totally healthy)
I’ve been obsessed with sweet potatoes lately, but I’m getting tired of just roasting them. Definitely going to have to try out this recipe next 😉 Thanks for the inspiration!
They’re totally delicious in this form! You’ll love it.
This looks amazing and combines two of my favorite foods, sweet potatoes and cheese. I love melting cheese on white potatoes but never would have thought to do it on sweet potatoes! As a kid I was all about the chicken fingers and fries, all the time. Certainly a change to now, but it’s still all about balance.
Totally – it’s fun revisiting some of your favorite childhood foods.
Simple but full of flavor – this is my kind of meal! Love that you uses sweet potato noodles, I have to get a better spiralizer so I can try this!
Just got a fancy-shmansy spiralizer for christmas and I’ve gotta say it’s so much fun! The extra texture really makes a difference
I”m obsessed with anything sweet potato related so I love this. This looks so good and I’m saving this for later! Favorite meal- pigs in a blanket. Is that still a thing? Haha I used to love those.
Omgosh – memz – I used to eat the “blanket” and give my sister all the pigs.
I love the idea of sweet potato noodles! I think you could get so creative with all the flavors.
Absolutely!
Yes, please! Feed me all of this right now 🙂
This looks amazing! And it definitely makes me want to invest in a spiralizer ASAP. I wasn’t really a picky eater as a kid so I pretty much ate and enjoyed everything. I loved raviolis though with my mom’s homemade sauce!
This adult mac n’ cheese looks s’good! I was a big on the instant stuff as a kid as well as cheese sandwiches (recipe: 1 slice of American Kraft Cheese between 2 slices of white Bunny Bread- culinary masterpiece), and microwavable fish sticks! This might have been a little refined for my palate then, but this young adult goes crazy for Swoodles! The sauce sounds amazing too!
Georgie this is such a great idea!! I will definitely be trying this soon. I’ve wanted to make a bechamel sauce for ages as well, so the timing is perfect
TOTALLY hit the nail on the head with this >> “When I was making this recipe I started to feel bad that it wasn’t vegan, paleo or gluten-free. Was it even healthy? I had to stop myself and remember that just because something doesn’t fit square into a label, doesn’t mean it can’t fit into a healthy lifestyle.”
EVERY time I go to make something. I need to just stop the analyzing and make it how I want to because it’s good! Gah, thanks for sharing this.
Also, yes. I was 100% made up of mac n cheese for all of my childhood. It kind of makes me want to vomit thinking about this, but I used to eat Kraft singles as a snack… Just straight out of the plastic wrapping, typically two slices. My goodness gracious.
This recipe looks killer though and I love that homemade cheese sauce!
this is the 3rd recipe with spiralized noodles today..its a sign i need to get one!
I saw a picture of this recipe yesterday and didn’t have time to make my way over. Gah! It looks so good! I’m such a huge fan of sweet potato noodles. And I was alllll about mac n’ cheese as a kiddo – with hot dogs!
This totally makes me feel better about choosing to still love mac n cheese, even though I’m nearing the ripe old age of twenty (I cringe even saying that- where did my childhood go?!).
I especially love your thoughts on extremes. They don’t work for me either. It’s not something I want to aspire to in anything in my life. I don’t want to be an all or nothing, black or white type of person, and I directly face that to my food mentality as well. Love your words, Georgie!
Going to add this recipe onto my link love of this week. Looks freakin delicious!
Sweet potato noodles are the best! I never thought about turning them into something like mac and cheese, this is awesome! Who DOESNT love noodles and cheese sauce?! 🙂
Well now, I’m not even a sweet potato fiend but these non-noodle noodles look amazing. The cheese sauce reminds me of those my mum used to prepare when I was younger – still does? . based on a roux. Knowing how good those were I have no doubt your recipe is a winner.
And oh how I can relate to your worries about this or any dish you want to post not fitting this or that diet, possibly not aligning with readers’ idea of healthy. However, I think we need to remember our blogs are representing ourselves. What we like [be it food, fashion or whatever else], what is healthy or fashionable to use … and there will always be people who disagree but also those who agree with us. Okay, long story short: you do you and cheese is delicious. As are vegan cheese sauces. Both have their time and place in our lives.
Could noodles really get any better than this?! I have a spiralizer but the only thing it works on is zucchini! Which one do you use that works on sweet potato? I’d love to make this dish! Until then I’ll just have to devour bowls of the sauce on its own! 😉
Could noodles really get any better than this?! I have a spiralizer but the only thing it works on is zucchini! Which one do you use that works on sweet potato? I’d love to make this dish! Until then I’ll just have to devour bowls of the sauce on its own!! 😉