Mac & Chilli Cheese/Cauliflower and Chilli Cheese Sauce

Macaroni cheese is good comfort food. It can also be jazzed up a bit with the addition of other ingredients!

Here at Carole's Cupboard we're very partial to a cheese sauce. But sometimes we want our macaroni cheese or cauliflower cheese to be a bit more exciting...

Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a small pan and add 3 tablespoons plain flour. Stir well and heat gently, gradually adding 300 ml milk as it warms and thickens. Turn down heat to simmer and add half a teaspoon of vegetable stock powder (I use marigold bouillon powder), a little black pepper and 1-4 chopped green chillies (depending on how hot they are and how spicy you like your food!).

Just before serving, stir in 100g of grated mature cheddar and stir until it melts.

Serve on top of cooked macaroni or steamed cauliflower florets.

Notes

1. If you don't have green chillies, you can use red, but the green chilli flavour works very well with cheese. This recipe does not work well with dried chillies - the sauce cooks too quickly for them to rehydrate.

2. If you have leftover ham or bacon, this works well in this sauce. If using bacon, cook it in the pan first before adding the butter and flour. If using ham, add with the chillies and stock powder.

3. A cheese and bacon sauce goes well with many vegetables, particularly cauliflower, broccoli, fennel, carrots and green beans.