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    Home » Noodles

    Author: Emily Krill | Published: Jan 13, 2022 | Modified: Oct 11, 2021

    Keto Mac and Cheese with Real Noodles

    Jump to Recipe

    This Keto Mac and Cheese recipe is a cheesy, noodley comfort dish that you can bake up in just 30 minutes.  It’s a keeper.

    A casserole of Keto Mac and Cheese
    Jump to:
    • 👨‍🍳 Who invented Mac and Cheese?
    • 💬 Low carb dieters often ask...
    • 🧀 The Keto Cheese Sauce
    • 🥓 Optional Add-Ins
    • 🍝 The Low Carb Noodles
    • 💬 What does "net carbs" mean?
    • 📖 Instructions
    • 📋 Recipe

    Greetings my cheese-loving friends. 👋

    Today we’re going to make some Keto Mac and Cheese and talk a little bit about the where, when, and why of how it came to be.

    a spoon serves low carb mac and cheese

    👨‍🍳 Who invented Mac and Cheese?

    No one knows for sure, but the idea of combining macaroni noodles and cheese sauce goes back to the colonial era, a heady time when Yankee Doodle put a feather in his cap and called it "Macaroni". So it's old.  Thomas Jefferson was an early adopter who spread the word about the delights of Macaroni and Cheese from the South to the rest of the country.  

    But modern-day macaroni and cheese came into existence during the Great Depression.

    People in dire straights turned to cheap processed foods like Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Dinners. These meal kits included uncooked macaroni noodles and powdered cheese packets that mixed with milk and butter to become a poor man’s cheese sauce.  Or you could just use Velveeta, a substance so processed that the FDA won’t even let them call it “cheese” anymore.  

    They have to call Velveeta a “cheese product”.

    a vintage ad for Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Dinner

    💬 Low carb dieters often ask...

    Is Mac and Cheese bad for the Keto diet?

    Yes, yes it is. But no worries, the Mac and Cheese we are going to make today is very low in carbohydrates (10g net carbs). And it's made with real cheese and dairy, unlike some macaroni and cheese mixes I could mention.

    Is there a low carb macaroni?

    Yes, thankfully there are several. So we won't need to resort to cauliflower for a faux Keto Cauliflower Mac and Cheese. Ours will have real macaroni noodle goodness.

    What brand of cheese is Keto-friendly?

    All brands of cheese are Keto-friendly, although some cheeses are lower in carbs than others. The lowest in carbs are cheddar, Gouda, blue, and goat cheese and the highest are low-fat and overly processed cheeses. But if you actually want to eat Velveeta, then I won't stop you.

    🧀 The Keto Cheese Sauce

    Since cheese is not only allowed on Keto but encouraged, we are going to go a little crazy. This tasty cheese sauce has no fewer than four cheeses. And if you have some other cheese you want to include, well throw it in there. The more the merrier!

    • butter
    • cream cheese
    • heavy cream
    • sharp shredded sharp cheddar cheese
    • shredded mozzarella cheese
    • shredded parmesan cheese
    • ground paprika
    • salt and pepper

    🥓 Optional Add-Ins

    My recipe is very basic, but you can load up your Keto Mac and Cheese with some optional add-ins if you like. Try adding ½ teaspoon garlic powder and ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper along with the paprika. Or bacon. So many dishes can benefit from the flavor of bacon. Fry 4 slices of bacon in a pan and crumble into bits. Sprinkle on top of the cheese. And finally, for a little more texture and crunch, you can top the whole shebang with a mixture of ¼ cup pork rind panko crumbs, ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese, and 1 tablespoon melted butter.

    🍝 The Low Carb Noodles

    The secret to this low carb Mac and Cheese is the noodles. Instead of trying to pull the wool over your eyes and using cauliflower florets in place of real noodles, we're going to use one of the two low carb pasta noodles that are currently on the market. The Great Low Carb Bread Co. noodles have 7g net carbs per serving and the ImPASTAble noodles have 8g net carbs.

    • Great Low Carb Bread Co. Elbow Noodles
    • ThinSlim Foods ImPASTAble Penne Noodles
    a bag of ImPASTAble penne noodles

    💬 What does "net carbs" mean?

    This is an important concept in low carb and Keto diets, so it’s best to understand the idea behind it.  The way we calculate net carbs is to take the total amount of carbohydrates in a food and subtract the fiber because our body can't digest it or get any energy from it.  It passes right through you, without making a dent in your low carb diet. So even though ImPASTAble and the Great Low Carb Bread Co. noodles have the same amount of total carbohydrates as normal pasta, they contain so much fiber that there are far fewer grams of net carbs.

    If you like this low carb noodle recipe, then you might like my Keto recipes for Keto Ramen Soup, Cold Peanut Noodle Salad or Lupin Flour Fettuccine.

    a forkful of this comfort food

    📖 Instructions

    1. Get out an 11 x 8 inch or 9 x 9-inch baking dish.
    2. Boil a large pot of salted water.  Add pasta and cook for 10 minutes until tender.  Drain.  Add pasta to a large bowl.
    3. In a medium-sized saucepan, over Medium heat, melt together butter, cream cheese, and heavy whipping cream.  Stir until completely melted with no clumps of cream cheese left.
    4. Stir in 1 ¼ cup cheddar, 1 cup mozzarella, and 1 cup parmesan cheese and cook until fully melted and smooth. You can change the ratio, so long as it adds up to 3 ¼ cups of cheese.
    5. Remove from the heat and stir in the paprika.  Taste for salt and add salt and pepper if desired.  How much salt you need will depend on how salty the cheese you use is.
    6. Pour the cheese sauce into the bowl of pasta and mix to combine.  Pour the mixture into the casserole dish. 
    7. Top with remaining ½ cup cheddar cheese and broil it in the oven for 1-2 minutes until cheese is melted.  If you like it browned on top, then you can broil it for 3-4 minutes.  Keep a close eye on it though, because it will go from browned to burnt very quickly.
    8. Store leftovers in an airtight container for up to 5 days in the refrigerator or up to 6 months in the freezer.
    a white casserole dish of low carb macaroni and cheese on a gray cloth with a wooden spoon

    That’s all there is to making Keto Mac and Cheese.

    In about 30 minutes, you can bake up a melty, cheesy, noodley comfort food masterpiece.

    And you won’t have to resort to “cheese food” to do it.

    a vintage ad of a woman shocked by Velveeta Cheese Food
    Big-Chef-Orange-Square

    Ok, chow for now!

    Big-Chef-Orange-Square
    (But let's keep in touch.)

    Print

    📋 Recipe

    Keto Mac and Cheese with Real Noodles

    Print Recipe

    ★★★★★

    5 from 9 reviews

    This Keto Mac and Cheese recipe is a cheesy, noodley comfort dish that you can bake up in just 30 minutes.  It’s a keeper.

    • Author: Emily Krill
    • Prep Time: 5
    • Cook Time: 25
    • Total Time: 30 minutes
    • Yield: 6 servings 1x
    • Category: Side DIsh
    • Method: Boiled
    • Cuisine: American
    • Diet: Diabetic

    Ingredients

    Units Scale
    • 1 (8 oz) bag of The Great Bread Co. Elbow Noodles or ImPASTAble Penne Pasta
    • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
    • 5 oz cream cheese, softened and chopped into cubes
    • 1 ¼ cup heavy whipping cream
    • 1 ¾ cups sharp shredded cheddar cheese, divided
    • 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
    • 1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
    • 1 teaspoon ground paprika
    • salt and pepper to taste

    Instructions

    Step 1.  Get out an 11 x 8 inch or 9 x 9-inch casserole dish.

    Step 2.  Boil a large pot of salted water.  Add pasta and cook for 10 minutes.  Drain.  Add pasta to a large bowl.

    Step 3.  In a medium-sized saucepan, over Medium heat, melt together butter, cream cheese and heavy whipping cream.  Stir until completely melted with no clumps of cream cheese left.

    Step 4.  Stir in 1 ¼ cup cheddar, 1 cup mozzarella, and 1 cup parmesan cheese and cook until fully melted and smooth.

    Step 5.  Remove from the heat and stir in the paprika.  Taste for salt and add salt and pepper if desired.  How much salt you need will depend on how salty the cheese you use is.

    Step 6.  Pour the cheese sauce into the bowl of pasta and mix to combine.  Pour the mixture into the casserole dish. 

    Step 7.  Top with remaining ½ cup cheddar cheese and heat under the broiler for 1-2 minutes until cheese is melted.  If you like it browned on top, then you can broil it for 3-4 minutes.  Keep a close eye on it though, because it will go from browned to burnt very quickly.

    Nutrition

    • Serving Size: ⅙
    • Calories: 552
    • Fat: 48
    • Carbohydrates: 44
    • Fiber: 34
    • Protein: 24

    Keywords: Real Low Carb Mac and Cheese, Real Low Carb Macaroni and Cheese, Real Low Carb Mac-N-Cheese

    « Keto Yogurt
    Quick Keto Granola »

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Laura says

      January 16, 2021 at 10:13 am

      Checking out keto mac n cheese for my restaurant. I see comments that it's really 8 - 1 cup servings but the carb count is 1-6, 44. Are you saying that there are 44 carbs per 1 cup serving or are you saying it's 44/6 or 8 which would yield 7 or 5.5 carbs per serving?

      Reply
      • EmilyKrill says

        January 16, 2021 at 10:51 am

        The nutritional info is for 1/6 of a pan of mac and cheese and each serving is approximately 1 cup. Each serving has 44g carbohydrate and 34g fiber. Because we go on net carbs in Keto, the net carb amount is 10g net carbs per serving.

        Reply
    2. CookDrinkFest says

      November 30, 2020 at 11:40 pm

      Thanks for turning me on to the Impastable pasta. I used the penne pasta to make my great-aunt's super-secret mac & cheese recipe this Thanksgiving. It came out perfect.

      ★★★★★

      Reply
      • EmilyKrill says

        December 01, 2020 at 8:23 am

        Yay! I love it too. I don't taste any difference either.

        Reply
    3. Ashlee says

      August 06, 2020 at 12:56 pm

      Quick question, is the cream cheese necessary or can it be sub for something else or more heavy cream?

      Reply
      • EmilyKrill says

        August 06, 2020 at 9:06 pm

        Yes, you can always make a super easy cheese sauce with just shredded cheese and heavy whipping cream. It won't be as thick as one with cream cheese, but it will taste good.

        Reply
    4. Diana says

      June 18, 2020 at 8:56 pm

      Sooo sooo good!! very fulfilling! I was just wondering what’s the serving? It’s says 1/6, is it 1 cup per serving and it makes 6 cups in total.

      ★★★★★

      Reply
      • EmilyKrill says

        June 18, 2020 at 9:04 pm

        So glad you like it. It's a favorite recipe of mine. And yes, it should be a little more than 1 cup per serving, since a 9 x 9 inch pan holds about 8 cups.

        Reply
    5. Karen says

      February 07, 2020 at 1:13 am

      Where do you buy the pasta?

      Reply
      • EmilyKrill says

        February 07, 2020 at 6:25 am

        I buy these noodles on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/ThinSlim-Foods-Impastable-Pasta-Elbows/dp/B01FE8O3PU/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?keywords=impastable+pasta+elbow&qid=1581074718&sr=8-3

        Reply
    6. Faith says

      February 05, 2020 at 8:35 pm

      I could kiss you! I LOVE Mac and cheese but again it’s on the no no list. I looked it up and I live in the south hills 5 minutes from the only store in the entire state that sells this imPastables I will be going tomorrow to get some and make these great looking recipe.

      Reply
      • EmilyKrill says

        February 05, 2020 at 9:07 pm

        Yay! I love using these noodles. Hope you like the recipe.

        Reply
    7. Kate Westling says

      January 25, 2020 at 9:46 pm

      OMG. The best low carb Mac & Cheese I’ve ever tried and I made it myself!!!!!

      ★★★★★

      Reply
      • EmilyKrill says

        January 25, 2020 at 9:56 pm

        Thanks!

        Reply
    8. Sara Welch says

      June 16, 2019 at 4:59 pm

      What a great tasting recipe! So glad I can enjoy a classic dish without the guilt! Yum!

      ★★★★★

      Reply
      • EmilyKrill says

        June 16, 2019 at 6:13 pm

        Thanks!

        Reply
    9. Raia Todd says

      June 16, 2019 at 4:11 pm

      Oooooh my goodness. How could you go wrong with all that cheese! All the heart eyes for this one!

      ★★★★★

      Reply
      • EmilyKrill says

        June 16, 2019 at 4:28 pm

        You really can’t add too much cheese.

        Reply
    10. Jen says

      June 16, 2019 at 3:50 pm

      I love that I no longer have to miss out on one of my favorites! So good!

      ★★★★★

      Reply
      • EmilyKrill says

        June 16, 2019 at 4:26 pm

        Thanks!

        Reply
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    I'm Emily, the diabetic behind Resolution Eats. Many years ago, I made a New Year's resolution to switch to a low carb diet. It improved both my health and my outlook on life. Since then, I've come up with hundreds of Keto recipes for everything from soup to nuts. And this blog is a way for me to share the low carb love. Cheers!

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    DISCLAIMER: I'm a home cook, not a nutritionist, so please take my advice with a grain of salt.  I calculate the nutritional information using the Lose It app, which sometimes contains errors.  You should also know that there are affiliate links on my website, so if you follow them, I'll receive a small commission. 

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