This recipe is great for those of you who have non-keto family members who you’re trying to cook for. It’s simple, versatile, and kid-friendly. In the pictures, mine was served over Pastability Hearts of Palm Linguine, but you could use shirataki macaroni or use it as a sauce for a chicken skillet and serve it over Miracle Rice or cauliflower rice. For my family, it was served over this Barilla Ready Pasta that I keep on hand for them so I don’t have to waste the time and effort to make a separate pot of noodles for them. And you can do whatever you like to the sauce as long as you use the base. Don’t like broccoli? Leave it out and just use the cheese and bacon. Want it to be vegetarian? Replace the chicken broth with vegetable broth and don’t use the bacon. Don’t have an Instant Pot? You can easily make this on the stovetop. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination and your macros.
I did mine in the Instant Pot. Pour in a cup of chicken broth, then put in a trivet with handles. Place a half-pound of fresh broccoli florets on top of the trivet, then set the Instant Pot for 0 minutes. Yes, you can do that. It just has to reach the pressure level, then it immediately turns off. Once that happens, use the quick release, then open the lid and using oven mitts, remove the trivet from the pot by its handles and place the broccoli on a cutting board.
Turn the Instant Pot to Saute now. You should have some chicken broth left in the bottom. To that, add 6 ounces of cream cheese and 1/4 cup of heavy cream, and whisk until the cream cheese melts. Add 4 torn-up slices of real American cheese (as always, the kind from the deli, not the kind wrapped in cellophane that is probably closer to the cellophane chemically than it is to cheese), and whisk until they’re mostly melted. Then add 8 ounces of shredded sharp cheddar cheese, whisk until it’s melted, and turn it down to the Keep Warm setting. If the sauce boils a lot while you’re melting the cheese, make sure to whisk it from the bottom so that it doesn’t scorch. If it starts to brown on the bottom, turn it to Keep Warm and use the residual heat to finish melting the cheese.
Once the sauce is made, chop the broccoli and stir it in, and stir in 4 slices of cooked bacon. You can always use more if you’re a bacon lover. I just used what I had left in the fridge. If you use more, make sure to add it to your macros! This will make 8 generous 1/3 cup servings, which is enough to coat pretty much any type of pasta you’ll serve it over.
Broccoli and Bacon Mac and Cheese Sauce
Equipment
- Instant Pot
Ingredients
- 1 cup chicken or vegetable broth
- 1/2 pound fresh broccoli florets
- 6 ounces cream cheese cubed
- 1/3 cup heavy cream
- 4 slices deli-style American cheese diced
- 8 ounces shredded sharp cheddar cheese
- 4 slices cooked bacon optional
Instructions
- Pour the broth into the Instant Pot. Rest a trivet with handles over the broth, and place the broccoli on the trivet. Close the lid and set the Instant Pot to manual pressure cook with a time of 0 minutes. When the timer goes off, use a quick release and open the lid. Using oven mitts, carefully lift the trivet to remove it from the pot, and put the broccoli on a cutting board to rest.
- Set the Instant Pot to Saute. Add the cream cheese and heavy cream to the pot and whisk constantly until the cream cheese melts. Add the American cheese and whisk constantly until it melts, then add the cheddar cheese and keep whisking until all the cheese is melted.
- Turn the Instant Pot to Keep Warm. Chop the broccoli and crumble the bacon and add them to the pot, then serve over your favorite pasta substitute.
- Macros per serving (1/3 cup): 265 calories, 4 grams net carbs, 13 grams protein, 22 grams fat.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Any embedded link to a product earns me a portion of the purchase price if you click and buy it.
Recent Comments