MacAroni & Vegetables with Cheese Sauce

Dorm food, done right. This whole dish (cheese sauce included) builds in the microwave in under 15 minutes, and it uses real cheese and a proper garlic-flour roux instead of neon-orange powder from a packet. The result is a single-serving mac and cheese that tastes like you actually cooked, even if the only appliance you touched was a microwave.

The trick is assembling the sauce in stages. Garlic and margarine go first for 30 seconds, long enough to bloom the garlic. A slurry of milk, flour, and salt whisks in next and microwaves into a light bechamel. Then the cheddar and a dash of Worcestershire transform that bechamel into a proper mornay sauce.

Cooked pasta, broccoli, and cauliflower fold in. The vegetables bulk up the dish and cut through the richness of the sauce. A final shower of cheese on top gets melted under another 30-second blast.

Kitchen Tips

• Dissolve the flour completely in cold milk before whisking into the butter. Lumps start here.
• Microwaves vary wildly in power. Stir and check every minute so the sauce doesn’t break.
• Pre-cook pasta and vegetables until just tender; they’ll warm through but won’t cook further in the sauce.
• Use real butter for better flavor if margarine isn’t required.

Variations

• Swap sharp cheddar or gruyere for a more complex cheese note.
• Stir in cooked diced ham, tuna, or leftover chicken for a one-dish meal.
• Top with buttered breadcrumbs and broil for 2 minutes for a crunchy finish.