This pumpkin mac and cheese recipe is the ultimate fall dinner! Pumpkin puree makes the cheese sauce extra creamy and delicious.

If you haven’t tried it yet, adding pumpkin puree to mac and cheese is truly delicious. I remember being surprised the first time I tried it, but it makes the sauce silkier, creamier, and just a little bit richer.

You can use homemade pumpkin puree or canned pumpkin puree. I often turn to this recipe when I have leftover pumpkin from baking a batch of pumpkin scones or making pumpkin spice lattes.

Key Ingredients

• Pasta: Choose pasta with nooks and crannies that hold onto the sauce. Elbow macaroni or shells are perfect.
• Pumpkin: Use pure pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie mix, which has added spices). Libby’s and Whole Foods 365 are great store-bought options, or try our pumpkin puree recipe.
• Butter and Flour: These form a simple roux that thickens the cheese sauce once you add the milk.
• Milk: Whole or reduced-fat milk both work beautifully.
• Cheese: Sharp cheddar melts really well and has a classic flavor. For the creamiest sauce, grate the cheese yourself rather than using pre-shredded cheese.
• Extras: A bit of Dijon mustard, black pepper, and nutmeg improves the flavor of the sauce, making the pumpkin mac and cheese incredible.

Find the full recipe with measurements below.

My Tips for Making Pumpkin Mac and Cheese

Tip 1: Start with a roux. Start the sauce by cooking the flour in melted butter until it smells nutty and turns a light golden color. This step creates the base that thickens the milk and gives your cheese sauce a rich flavor. We use the same method when making classic baked mac and cheese and this creamy mac and cheese.

Tip 2: Make the pumpkin cheese sauce. After whisking in the milk, the mixture will thicken. Stir in your seasonings, pumpkin puree, and most of the cheese. I highly recommend tasting the sauce before adding the pasta. If it seems flat, add a pinch more salt and pepper. The flavor of pumpkin will be there, but it will be subtle. I love it!

Tip 3: Decide how you’ll serve it. For a creamier, looser mac and cheese, serve it straight from the stovetop. For a golden, bubbly topping, transfer to a baking dish, sprinkle on extra cheese, and bake. I love it served both ways!

Serving Suggestions

I love richer dishes like this one with something fresh on the side. A crisp green salad with honey mustard dressing, or roasted vegetables like roasted green beans or Brussels sprouts, work really well. I also love this tahini kale and white bean salad!

For a heartier meal, you can serve it as a side to pork chops, roast chicken, garlic herb roasted turkey breast, or sausages, like beer brats. You can add toppings, too! Consider crumbled bacon or sausage. And of course, a side of garlic bread or focaccia is always welcome.

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This lobster mac and cheese is outrageously delicious! The rich lobster cheese sauce is the star of the show, packed with lobster flavor and perfect for any special occasion, from date night to the holidays.

We don’t skimp on flavor in this lobster mac and cheese. Unlike other recipes that simply add lobster meat to a standard mac and cheese, we take it a step further. We create a deeply flavorful lobster cheese sauce using the lobster bodies, similar to how lobster bisque is made.

This results in an intensely flavorful mac and cheese, so much so that adding lobster meat is entirely optional! The sauce itself delivers incredible lobster flavor. You can absolutely add cooked lobster meat if you wish, but you might prefer to save it for other delicious dishes like lobster rolls.

Key Ingredients

• Lobster: We will start with 2 live lobsters, then cook them so that you have perfectly cooked lobster meat and lobster bodies ready to make our cheese sauce. If you prefer, you can ask your local fishmonger to cook your lobster, but don’t forget to ask for the lobster bodies back (the main shells with the head and tiny legs attached), as this makes our lobster cheese sauce so delicious. Remember, adding lobster meat to the mac and cheese is up to you. The bodies in our sauce add plenty of rich lobster flavor, so you may prefer to use the meat for another lobster recipe instead.
• Aromatics: Since this is a classy dish, we bring in a few more ingredients than our basic macaroni and cheese. We use onion, carrot, garlic, fresh thyme, bay leaf, and tomato paste in our sauce. When they are all soft and sweet, they are blended into the cheese sauce, adding lots of flavor.
• Butter and Flour: These help thicken our sauce.
• White Wine: A dry white wine like Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc, or unoaked Chardonnay adds complexity. For a non-alcoholic option, substitute vegetable broth.
• Milk: For the creamiest sauce, use whole milk.
• Cheese: A high-quality white cheddar, such as Beecher’s or English cheddar, is my favorite for this mac and cheese. Gruyère would also be lovely!
• Pasta: Use your favorite short pasta shape. Since this is a special recipe, it can take a fancier shape like cavatappi or torchiette.

How to Make Lobster Mac and Cheese

Step one for lobster mac and cheese is to prepare your lobsters. I know working with live lobsters might sound overwhelming, but I walk you through everything you need to know in our recipe. You can also learn more about working with live lobsters in our lobster roll recipe!

Our method for dispatching the lobster is quick and effective. Place the lobster on a cutting board and find the faint cross on its shell where the head and body connect. Quickly and firmly insert a large, sharp knife into this cross, pushing down through the head and between the eyes. This severs the spinal cord, killing the lobster instantly.

From there, you can separate the bodies from the tail, claws, and legs. We want to keep the bodies uncooked, so we can use them to make our lobster cheese sauce. Then, we will cook the lobster meat in boiling salted water. Once cooked, you can pull the meat from the shells and save it for adding to our lobster mac and cheese or save it for another dish. It keeps in the fridge for up to 4 days.

The trick to the best lobster mac and cheese is to cook the lobster bodies with butter, aromatics, and milk for about 30 minutes. In this time, the bodies perfume the mixture with rich lobster flavor (more than any meat ever could). After 30 minutes, you’ll discard the bodies and blend your sauce with some cheese.

Finally, toss the sauce with cooked pasta, add optional lobster meat, and bake in a casserole dish until bubbly. It’s incredible!

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The whole family will love this creamy vegan mac and cheese recipe. We use plant-based milk, nutritional yeast, and the perfect blend of spices. You can make this as a stovetop or baked mac and cheese!

Our family loves mac and cheese! We’ve shared our traditional dairy-based mac and cheese before, but I’m incredibly excited to finally share our absolute favorite vegan mac and cheese! We went through countless variations, and this recipe is the one that won everyone over. It’s creamy, cheesy, and so satisfying you won’t even miss the dairy.

I was inspired to create this vegan version because we’re trying to eat more plant-based meals, and my son loves mac and cheese. And honestly, it’s become a new family favorite (as have many of our vegan recipes)! This recipe has two options: enjoy it as a comforting stovetop mac and cheese, or bake it until bubbly and golden brown. I love serving it with a simple green salad or trying it with my lentil-based vegan meatballs.

Key Ingredients

• Pasta: Use what you love. I always go for something that will hold on to the sauce really well, like shells or elbows!
• Vegan Butter and Flour: The combination of butter and flour thickens the sauce. Some recipes start with a base of cashew cream, and while we’ve tried that variation, making a roux and building our vegan cheese sauce from there was our favorite way to make vegan mac and cheese.
• Plant-Based Milk: I typically use unsweetened soy milk, but non-dairy milk will work. Unsweetened is best.
• Nutritional Yeast: This makes our mac and cheese taste so cheesy. Nutritional yeast is quite common in vegan recipes. If you are unfamiliar, it’s full of vitamins and minerals and adds a cheesy flavor to dishes. It’s perfect in this mac and cheese. We also use it when making our delicious vegan queso.
• Dijon mustard: We also use Dijon mustard when making our dairy-based baked mac and cheese. It rounds out the sauce’s flavor and makes it taste even better.
• Spices: I love adding onion powder, garlic powder, nutmeg, salt, and pepper to make the sauce taste incredible.

How to Make Vegan Mac and Cheese

To make my favorite vegan mac and cheese, you’ll first make the creamy sauce. We start with a roux made from melted butter (plant-based) and flour.

Once the flour and butter smell toasty, you can pour in non-dairy milk. As it heats up, the milk thickens and turns into the base of our cheese sauce. To make it taste cheesy, we whisk in lots of nutritional yeast, mustard, and spices.

When the sauce is smooth, you can stir in cooked pasta. Remember choose pasta shapes that hold onto the sauce really well. I like these medium shells because lots of that cheesy sauce gets trapped inside them.

You can serve it as a stovetop recipe or pour it all into a baking dish, top it with some breadcrumbs, and bake until the sauce is bubbling and the top gets a little color.

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Two juicy all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, and onions all on sesame seed buns! You’ll love recreating this copycat Big Mac burger at home.

If you really want to take your homemade burgers up a notch, try using homemade buns! They’re so much better than store-bought and have the best texture. Try these classic hamburger buns or brioche buns if you want to switch things up.

Homemade Big Mac Burger Recipe

Sure, you could just go to McDonald’s, but who wants a burger chock full of fillers that looks nothing like its picture? With this Big Mac burger recipe, you get everything you love about a Big Mac (like the special sauce!) but it’s much better quality. It’s comfort food at its finest and will have you satisfied down to the last bite.

Because, let’s be honest, is there anything better than sinking your teeth into a juicy all-beef patty topped with melty cheese, lettuce, onions, and Big Mac sauce? And let’s not forget that Big Macs have an extra bun in the middle, so the bread to burger ratio is just perfect! My mouth is watering just writing this. Trust me, you’re going to want to add these copycat Big Macs to the dinner lineup this week.

Burger and Sauce Ingredients

Mix all these flavors and textures up, and you’ve got yourself a homemade Big Mac – a tasty tower of yum that’s got a little bit of everything in each bite. Exact measurements are in the recipe card below.

• Ground Beef: The juicy patty that’s the heart of the Big Mac burger. It’s seasoned and cooked just right for that delicious, meaty taste.
• Salt and Pepper: Think of these as the flavor boosters. They make the beef taste even better!
• Sesame Seed Buns: You’ll need 2 bottoms and 1 top per burger.
• American Cheese: For some cheesy, melty goodness! You can also swap this out for cheddar, pepper jack, colby jack, you name it!
• Diced White Onion: These are the crispy, kind of spicy bits that add a kick and a satisfying crunch.
• Shredded Iceberg Lettuce: It’s crisp, it’s light, and it’s there to balance out the richness of the meat and cheese.
• Dill Pickle Slices: Sour and tangy, these cut through the richness, making sure each bite isn’t too heavy.

Big Mac Sauce:

• Mayonnaise: The rich and creamy base of the Big Mac sauce.
• Sweet Pickle Relish: Relish adds a sweet and tangy flavor to the sauce that’s so delicious.
• White Vinegar: For a little bit of tang.
• Garlic Powder: Makes the sauce nice and savory.
• Onion Powder: Another flavor booster!
• Paprika: Paprika adds a bit of smokiness and gives the Big Mac sauce a bit of kick.
• Turmeric: For a subtle earthy flavor that pairs well with the other ingredients.

Copycat Big Mac Burger and Sauce Recipe

Delicious, gourmet burgers ready in less than 30 minutes! Big Mac burgers are the perfect hearty meal and something that the whole family will enjoy.

Big Mac Sauce

1. Whisk Ingredients Together: In a small bowl, combine the mayonnaise, pickle relish, vinegar, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, and turmeric. Chill in the refrigerator for several hours before serving. This will help the flavors meld together.

For the Burgers

• Shape: Divide the ground beef evenly into 3-ounce portions and form into balls. Then cover and place in the refrigerator while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
• Heat Skillet: Heat your griddle or cast iron skillet to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Add to Pan: Place two balls of beef on the hot griddle or skillet. You can cook all of the hamburgers at the same time if your griddle will fit them all. Just work quickly because the meat cooks fast.
• Flatten: Press the ball of meat down with a large flat metal spatula. Get the patty as flat and thin as you can. You’ll be doubling up the patties, so don’t be nervous about a thin patty. It helps to cover the meat with a piece of parchment paper so it doesn’t stick to the spatula.
• Cook: Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side, then assemble.

To Assemble

• Layer: Add the following ingredients, working from the bottom up: bottom bun, big mac sauce, onion, lettuce, beef patty, cheese, pickles, bottom bun, big mac sauce, onion, lettuce, beef patty, pickles, top bun.

More Delicious Burger Recipes

Satisfy the carnivores in your house with these other tasty burger recipes! They’re all juicy, flavorful, and piled high with the best fixings! Everything that a burger should be, in my opinion.

Dinner

Oklahoma Fried Onion Burgers

25 minutes

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