This Viral Butternut-Squash-Mac-and-Cheese Recipe Is "Fall and Cozy" on a Fork

For a dish that's basically only two ingredients, mac and cheese is almost impossible to get tired of. Whether you eat it in a restaurant or make it from scratch at home, it just always manages to hit the spot. Given how central cheese is to the dish, you might assume the more of it the better; however, Meredith Hayden's TikTok-viral recipe is proof that that's not always the case.

In her unique take on mac and cheese, Hayden — better known as @WishboneKitchen on TikTok — not only uses aged gouda and Parmesan cheese, but also butternut squash, an ingredient she decided to incorporate in order to give the dish a taste of fall. "I'm not really a baker, so I'm not someone who would make a pumpkin loaf. So I was like, you know what? I'll just make a pasta dish. Why not?" Hayden told POPSUGAR while chatting about her partnership with Amex Gold and Resy Present: Dip Into Gold. "And it kind of scratched that itch for making something fall and cozy, but it also came out really delicious." Even though the video only recently popped off on TikTok, Hayden originally created the recipe two years ago. "It's now something I make multiple times every season," she says.

If you're a fan of classic mac and cheese but still want to enjoy a seasonally appropriate dish, you won't be disappointed by the taste of Hayden's butternut squash version. The consistency of the sauce is still just as smooth and velvety as regular mac and cheese, but the flavor is much more complex due to the combination of roasted butternut squash, garlic, and onion, as well as the crispy mushrooms on top.

Though the taste is on par with something you'd spend all day making, Hayden's recipe is also surprisingly simple; in fact, she claims it's "easier than making regular mac and cheese," and after trying it myself, I'd have to agree. In most homemade mac and cheese recipes, you have to make a roux and be mindful of the cheese clumping or the sauce seizing, but butternut squash is much easier to work with. Once you puree it with the other ingredients, all you really have to do is mix it with the pasta and the grated cheese, and it turns into a rich, creamy sauce with very little effort. Not to mention, you get the added nutritional benefits of butternut squash that are usually missing from mac 'n' cheese, including antioxidants vitamin C, vitamin E, and beta-carotene.

Hayden may have intended this butternut-squash mac and cheese to be a fall-themed dish, but it's definitely tasty enough to make all year round. Check out the full recipe below, courtesy of the TikTok creator.