Caramelized Onion Mac + Cheese


This is another one of my Chopped recipes for my weekly competitions with my friends. I oscillate between making recipes we've already tried on the blog and trying something new. When onion was the ingredient I knew that I wanted to steer away from French Onion soup because it seemed too obvious and it had been a while since we made mac and cheese. The end result was a cheesy pasta with great caramelized onion flavor. Although this certainly is not helpful as far as our diets go it's a recipe that we weren't sad about making. You can use any short pasta you have on hand but this particular noodle is a chickpea pasta in an attempt to add a little more protein to the dish. 

Recipe from The Spruce Eats.

Ingredients:
Onions
-1 tablespoon butter
-1 tablespoon olive oil
-1-2 medium onions
-Dash of salt

Mac' and Cheese
-2 tablespoons butter
-1/4 cup flour
-1 1/2 cups milk
-1 cup shredded Gouda cheese
-1/4 cup shredded Swiss cheese
-Dash of salt and pepper
-8 ounces short pasta

Breadcrumb Topping
-1 tablespoon melted butter
-1/2 cup breadcrumbs

Halve the onions, then dice or thinly slice, and saute in a pan over medium heat with butter and olive oil and a dash of salt. After a few minutes, lower the heat to medium-low and cook for twenty-five more minutes, stirring regularly, then set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and set a pot of water on the stove to boil. When the water is ready, cook the pasta according to the directions on the package.

For the cheese sauce, melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, then whisk in flour and cook for 2-3 minutes while whisking. Add milk and whisk to incorporate flour as the milk comes to temperate. Once the milk is hot, gradually add shredded cheese, stirring so that it melts, and finish with salt and pepper. Combine cheese sauce with the cooked pasta and add to an 8 x 8 baking dish.

Top the mac and cheese with the caramelized onions. To make the breadcrumb topping, melt the remaining butter and stir into the breadcrumbs. Add evenly to the top, then bake for twenty minutes.


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