Creamy Sourdough Mac And Cheese

This creamy sourdough mac and cheese recipe uses sourdough discard as a thickener for the cheese sauce instead of adding regular flour, creating a rich, silky sauce with just a subtle sourdough tang. Top it with buttery sourdough breadcrumbs and bake until golden and bubbling for the ultimate easy comfort food.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe!

• A Sourdough Twist on a Classic – this creamy sourdough mac and cheese uses sourdough starter to thicken the cheesy sauce, giving a classic comfort food recipe a subtle sourdough twist. It’s also a fun way to use your starter beyond bread, just like sourdough pasta.
• Perfect for Using Sourdough Discard – this recipe is an easy way to work sourdough starter into dinner, and it pairs beautifully with the kinds of meals where you’d normally serve mac and cheese. You can find even more ideas in my guide to adding sourdough starter to any recipe or my week of sourdough dinner ideas.
• Stovetop or Baked – serve it straight from the stovetop when you need dinner on the table quickly, or top it with crunchy sourdough breadcrumbs and bake until golden and bubbling. It also makes a great side dish for Thanksgiving dinner.

Ingredients

• Macaroni – dried pasta is perfectly fine here! However you can use homemade sourdough pasta if you prefer.
• Butter – I’ve used salted butter for all of the butter in this recipe because I just love salt but if you prefer things less salty, use unsalted butter. If you use unsalted butter, don’t skip adding the salt, if you use salted butter, add salt to your own taste.
• Bread Crumbs – you can use store bought bread crumbs (no shame here) or you can use breadcrumbs made from a sourdough loaf. If you want to take your sourdough mac and cheese next level, chop up a loaf of classic sourdough bread, toss in olive oil and then top your mac and cheese with that before placing it in the oven. Voila, homemade sourdough breadcrumbs! … it’s oh so good!
• Sourdough Starter – you can use sourdough discard or active sourdough starter with no issue in this recipe. The only thing I will add is that if your discard is old and sour it will overpower the flavor of this dish, so use with caution. I prefer using discard that’s only a few days old or active starter for a better flavor.
• Milk – I’ve used whole milk, but 2% is also fine. I prefer not to use heavy cream for this recipe as I find the sauce becomes too heavy. Milk still gives a creamy texture without weighing everything down.
• Cheese – My favorite everyday combination is cheddar and mozzarella because it gives you plenty of flavor while keeping the sauce creamy and family-friendly. For the smoothest cheese sauce, grate your cheese from a block. Pre-shredded cheese is coated with anti-caking ingredients which can prevent it from melting as smoothly.
• Salt – a little black pepper is also nice, but just add this to suit your own taste … I love it, my kids don’t.
• Garlic and Mustard Powder – I have tested this recipe with fresh garlic, but much prefer using garlic powder, it creates a more mellow flavor. You can use dijon mustard if you don’t have mustard powder.

How To Make Sourdough Mac & Cheese

Sourdough mac and cheese is such an easy recipe to make! You are basically using your sourdough discard to thicken the cheese sauce, rather than just adding flour to the mixture. Clever, right?

First boil the macaroni noodles in a pot of water to the package instructions. Once the macaroni is cooked al dente, drain it but don’t rinse it. Coat the cooked macaroni with butter to stop it sticking together while you cook the cheese sauce.

To make the cheese sauce, you’ll need to make a roux by whisking butter, sourdough discard and a splash of milk, cooked on a low heat to ensure you don’t burn it.

As it comes together and starts to cook, you’ll need to start adding a little more of the milk, while continuing to whisk. 

Once the sauce is thick and coats the back of a spoon, remove it from the heat and add the shredded cheeses, mustard powder and garlic powder (if you’re using them).

Continue whisking until all of the cheese has melted through (it really doesn’t take long). It’s the cheese that gives the sauce a rich, creamy texture. 

Add the pasta on top of the cheese sauce and stir it altogether, ensuring all of the macaroni is coated in the cheese sauce. This is basically stove top mac and cheese, so if you’d prefer not to add the bread crumb topping, you can serve it just like this!

Now pour the macaroni cheese into an oven safe baking dish and top with the buttery sourdough bread crumbs. Then it’s time to bake until the sourdough bread crumb topping is golden and the sourdough macaroni cheese is bubbling underneath.

Flavor Variations

I love the simplicity of classic sourdough mac and cheese, but like any good classic, there are always things you can add to make it taste a little different, or just use up something you already have in the fridge. Here are a few ideas of other ingredients you can add to your sourdough mac and cheese:

• Bacon and Jalapeño – Add 100 grams of crispy bacon pieces and as many diced, pickled jalapeños as you like to the sauce along with the shredded cheese.
• Broccoli and Cheddar – I love adding lightly steamed broccoli florets to my sourdough mac and cheese before baking, but other vegetables work well too like peas, spinach and cauliflower.
• Garlic Parmesan – Substitute the 100 grams of mozzarella cheese with the same amount of shredded parmesan cheese.
• Ham and Cheese – Add 100 to 200 grams of diced ham to the sauce along with the shredded cheese.
• Buffalo Chicken – The perfect way to use up leftovers! Add 100 to 200 grams of shredded buffalo chicken to the sauce along with the shredded cheese.

I love serving this sourdough mac and cheese alongside these sourdough sausage balls or this sourdough grilled cheese sandwich.

How To Store + Freeze

You can make this sourdough mac and cheese up to 3 days before you want to eat it. Once baked, it lasts in the refrigerator, covered tightly in aluminum foil for around 3-5 days. You can reheat leftover sourdough mac and cheese gently in a moderate oven (around 180ºC/350ºF).

If you want to freeze your sourdough mac and cheese, portion it out into smaller portions and seal in plastic take away containers before placing in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before reheating in a moderate oven (around 180ºC/350ºF).

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