Greek Mac and Cheese
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Greek Mac and Cheese, a healthy twist on a comfort food classic made in a creamy cheese sauce with whole wheat pasta, tomatoes, spinach, olives and Feta cheese.
Greek Mac and Cheese
Greek Mac and CheeseAs we get closer to Fall, mornings and nights get cooler, I start craving more comfort food dishes. This mac and cheese puts a healthy, Greek spin on the classic. Loaded with vegetables and topped with feta and dill.
Made with Delallo’s 100% Organic Whole Wheat Elbow Pasta, the only brand of whole wheat pasta my family will eat (they also make the best jarred Pomodoro Sauce out there!). Prior to trying Delallo’s whole wheat pasta, I only cooked white pasta because no one liked the taste or texture of wheat pasta.
Tips and Variations
- This recipe is adaptable on taste and what you have on hand. If you don’t have fresh tomatoes, a small can of diced can be used in it’s place. It would also be great with some chopped jarred artichokes!
- You can prepare this ahead and refrigerate until ready to bake.
- Leftovers can be frozen, to reheat, place it in a 350F oven covered in foil until heated through, about 20 to 25 minutes.
How To Make Greek Mac and Cheese
More Healthy Mac and Cheese recipes I love:
- Cauliflower Mac and Cheese
- Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese
- Baked Broccoli Mac and Cheese
- Pumpkin Mac and Cheese with Roasted Veggies
- Macaroni and Cheese Soup with Broccoli
Greek Mac and Cheese
Greek Mac and Cheese, a healthy twist on a comfort food classic made in a creamy cheese sauce with whole wheat pasta, tomatoes, spinach, olives and Feta cheese.
Ingredients
- Kosher salt
- 8 ounces Delallo's 100% Organic Whole Wheat Elbow Past
- Cooking spray
- 1 ½ tablespoons unsalted butter
- ½ cup red onion, chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 cups low fat milk
- ½ cup shredded part-skim mozzarella
- 5 ounces crumbled feta cheese, divided
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram or thyme
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 1/2 cups quartered cherry or grape tomatoes
- 10 pitted Kalamata olives, chopped
- 3 cups fresh baby spinach, chopped
- Fresh dill or parsley, for garnish
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Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. When boiling, add macaroni and boil until just under al dente according to package directions.
- Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a deep casserole dish (roughly 8 ½ ” x 10 ½ ”) with cooking spray and set aside.
- In a medium sauce pot over medium-high heat, melt butter.
- Add red onion and sauté until softened, about 3 minutes. Add garlic and sauté 1 minute more.
- Sprinkle flour over the top and stir, cooking 2-3 minutes more.
- Add the milk whisk until boiling.
- Remove from heat and add mozzarella and 1/3 of the feta. Stir until mostly melted.
- Add oregano, marjoram, pepper, diced tomatoes, olives and spinach. Stir to combine, add 1/4 teaspoon salt, or more as needed.
- Transfer everything to the casserole dish. Top with the remaining feta cheese.
- Bake 20 to 22 minutes or until top golden. Garnish with dill or parsley.
Nutrition
Serving: 11/2 cups, Calories: 341kcal, Carbohydrates: 43g, Protein: 16g, Fat: 13g, Saturated Fat: 7.5g, Cholesterol: 39mg, Sodium: 507mg, Fiber: 5g, Sugar: 7g
WW Points Plus: 9
Keywords: Greek Mac and Cheese, Greek Macaroni and Cheese Recipe, Healthy Macaroni and Cheese, How to Make Greek Mac and Cheese
Recipe created in partnership with Delallo Foods, a brand I LOVE and use in my kitchen.
Gluten Free
Under 30 Minutes
Paleo
Slow Cooker Recipes
Low Carb
Kid Friendly
Dairy Free
Pressure Cooker Recipes
Whole 30 Recipes
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Meal Prep Recipes
The Greek Mac and Cheese turned out so yummy I ended being out of milk so I subbed low fat coconut milk. Still turned out very good. Love these easy recipes and still taste great.
Can you add cooked ground beef or chopped cube chicken to this dish. Sounds really yummy. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
I used unsweetened almond milk, as that’s what we keep around. I’ve used it for umpteen different mac recipes. But, either it did *not* work for this recipe or the cheese sauce just lacked. The sauce was creamy, but not cheesy. We ended up adding a bunch more feta, garlic, herbs, and olives.
Super delicious! My husband went for seconds which is always a good sign of a great dish!
I added some fresh basil from my garden that I needed to use up. I also used chickpea pasta cause it was what I had around.
Just wanted to clarify the recipe. When transferring everything to the casserole dish, it doesn’t say if you should stir the cream sauce with the macaroni first then add to casserole dish or put macaroni in dish first and pour the cream on top of it. Can anyone help me?
Four out of five kids devoured this!!!! That’s a win in our house. The husband didn’t even complain once with “where’s the meat??” Another win!
Thank you Gina for taking the decision making out of our meals! You make me look like an amazing homemaker. I tell all my friends about you, but I’ll never tell my husband!
Lol! Glad everyone enjoyed it!
This was so delicious and filling. A great way to use the last of my garden spinach.
my goodness. looks delicious! adding it to my recipe saver to make one day.
Can you make this ahead of time and freeze it?
This was really yummy! I sautéed mushrooms with the onions, used canned tomatoes with oregano (for extra juice) and added Greek seasoning that I had in the cupboard.
Very nice.
TASTY! Made this for a week night dinner. The flavor is AWESOME. Love the olives and onions and garlic. Mmmm. We made the recipe as is for the first time, but next time, we want to add some chicken. Great for couples if you want leftovers, family dinner night, or pot luck!
Made this for a vegetarian friend of mine, and she was genuinely impressed by the ingenuity of this mac and cheese recipe (a dish she eats frequently). Love the use of feta, not a cheese you usually see in a mac and cheese recipe.
I was REALLY concerned about this not going over well with the kids, but this was a hit! The flavors were excellent together. This will definitely be a regular! Really easy to put together too. I made it early in the day, and it was so nice to just pop it in the oven at dinner time!
Two changes I made (just out of necessity)
We were out of mozzarella cheese and Kalamata olives, so I used pepper jack cheese and green olives. I think with my kids, the green olives worked well. They were chopped and not as obvious as they would have been if they were black. They didn’t even realize that they were in there until they had already decided that they liked it!
This is REALLY really good! prepared as directed (except regular macaroni) and served with greek salad.
Hi! A helpful note on the recipe might be adding “a half a box of pasta” next to the pasta measurement. I never thought twice and simply used a whole box. I’d never have caught it by the ounces but seeing half a box would have caught my attention. Otherwise, delicious! Only addition I made was artichokes.
Is there ANY other cheese I can use with this …I do not care for feta .
Goat cheese, Parmesan cheese, cottage cheese, ricotta.
I don’t see why not. Use what you like. The feta will give a sharper taste and different texture so perhaps there’s another cheese that would provide a similar contrast.
This is great made with Banza chickpea pasta shells plus lowers the carb intake!
Hi! Can this be frozen ahead of time? How would I do so!
Thanks!
I tried this recipe last night and followed the instructions as given.
This mac and cheese is full of flavor and the sauce is creamy and flavorful, but healthy! As much as I enjoy feta cheese, next time I won’t top the dish with as much as called for because the feta seemed to overpower the other wonderful flavors just a bit.
I’m wondering if I could swap out the flour for coconut or almond flour without it changing the flavor too much. Thoughts?
This was super good and not too hard for a relatively new cook! Only thing I would change next time is to add more tomatoes and olives. Overall great recipie!
This recipe is terrific! I always add double amounts of onion, garlic, and olives. It gets better and better every time I make it!
I really loved this, and so did my family! I substituted the elbow macaroni for rigatoni because that is what I had, but otherwise this is so delicious! My two year old ate all of his and asked for more! This was a unique twist on the classic. Yummy!
This was delicious!!!
I’m not a feta fan so I made this an Italian mac n cheese. It was amazing. My husband and teenage boys loved it too. This recipe is a keeper. Yum! Thank you, Gina!
Holy cow! This is one of those dishes that you share with all your friends immediately after making and TASTING. So many great flavors. A generous serving size, all good-for-you. Thank you!!!
delicious!!! I did not have feta cheese I used panela cheese was so good.
I love your recipes Gina. They make eating healthy and light fun and delicious. This one was a missing a little something for me. (acidity) Added a half tablespoon of homemade Greek dressing to my serving and then it was perfect.
Will this work with Gluten Free pasta and flour?
Yes, Mary, it does. I made it using Cup 4 Cup flour and Tinkyada Brown Rice Spirals. It was delicious!
Looks great! What do you think would be the ideal noodle replacement ? Zucchini noodles, spaghetti squash maybe? Thanks!!
They have some gluten free noodles and noodles made with veggies that would be a good swap. Zoodles are always good too. She has also swapped noodles for cauliflower.
I wanted to like it but it’s not my favorite Skinnytaste recipe. I like the cheese sauce. I didnt like the addition of fresh tomatoes and spinach. I’m open to trying it again but maybe I’ll try thawed frozen spinach.
Made this countless times (eating it right now!) Me and my partner love it! It’s one of our vegetarian options for when we want to cut down on meat. The only change I made is substituting the milk for coconut milk.
lovely. so tasty. it looked just like the pic and my family raved about it. thanks gina.
Here’s another 5 star review for this recipe! It sounded strange at first, but the glowing reviews convinced me to try it. Please make this recipe! Great for vegetarians, lenten meals, or meatless Monday. Very hearty!
My family loved this. I liked it too. It was a little bland but when I got a bite of olive it was perfect. So next time I’ll add more olives and make 2 pans so I can freeze one. A little labor intensive but a really nice result. I also added artichoke hearts.
THis looks amazing. I’m going to top with shrimp because I live by the sea and have so much shrimp at my disposal, but YUIM! I can’t wait.
I plan on making this tomorrow night! Adding chicken and omitting the tomatoes. ?
This was really delicious! Used organic noodles and added chopped grilled chicken. Also added some 1/4 cup Greek yogurt and 1/4 cup cottage cheese to extend the creaminess for added chicken and add protein. Yumm!!!
I just want to say this recipe was AMAZING such an interesting take on Mac & Cheese + healthy – made it ahead and took it up to a cottage for a gang of us to enjoy and it was everyone’s favourite dish! 5 stars to this one!
I loved this! Just the right amount of creamy cheese, salt, sweet cherry tomatoes and baby spinach! YUM!
I doubled the recipe so I could portion it out for lunch. This was amazing! I added chicken and brisket leftovers from the fridge to add protein and make it a full meal.
This was delicious! I added artichokes to the recipe and it came out exceptional!
This was absolutely DELICIOUS!! We love Skinnytaste and this one is a new top ten for sure.
Thanks Alex!
It was so good my autistic daughter, (a very picky eater), decided it all belonged to her. Luckily I made two. Dishes.
I was so worried I screwed this up because I only had whole wheat and buckwheat flour, so I split it between the two and it still came out great! My husband also said, “you’re not using wheat pasta, are you???” But still ended up liking it ?? Dellalio really is the best. I think I’ll try the gluten-fee next time. Anyway, excellent recipe, Gina!!! Thank you SO much!
You’re welcome Donna!
This was amazing, a yummy variation of mac! The whole family loved it. I used low carb pasta as I havent gotten my hands on the whole wheat yet.
Made this for dinner tonight. It’s really good. I couldn’t find Delallo’s elbow macaroni, so used Barilla whole grain elbow macaroni.
This was so delicious! I used sun-dried tomatoes instead of cherry which were amazing in this dish. I also added chicken breast that I seasoned and cut into chunks so the hubby had meat. It worked really well with the rest of the ingredients and flavors. I will definitely be making this again!
I have made this and added shredded chicken breast. It is delicious and my husband loves it!!!
anyone try to substituting almond flour for the all purpose flour? need a gluten free option.
The flour is only there for thickening. Substitute corn starch, arrowroot, rice flour, potato starch or tapioca starch. You will need to use less of these starches and dissolve them in a small amount of water first before adding them near the end of the cooking. Google the one you plan to use to find out the flour-to-starch equivalent.
This is simply delicious! Leftovers taken to work and reheated.in the microwave. Time consuming to make, but as Gina said you can build it then stick it in the fridge until ready to bake The serving size is huge! I had to cut in half for me. Was more like a Greek casserole to me instead of what I think of as Mac and cheese. But boy is it yummy!!
SO incredibly delicious! Love, love, loved this dish! Will try again with spaghetti squash so that I can enjoy more of it 🙂
Im definitly making this!!! Looked all over website for spoon…
This was so good! I don’t like olives so I left them out and it still was awesome.
Wow! This dish is amazing. Both my husband and my daughter loved it. Plenty for lunch the next day too.
I made this last night (a double batch so as to use the whole box of macaroni) and it was DELICIOUS!!! Then, I fell asleep while letting it cool and the leftovers never made it in to the refrigerator. 🙁 I had to toss all of it since it was left out over night. I am so sad!! I reallyyyyyy wanted to eat the leftovers for lunch. 🙁
Hate when that happens!
Longtime fan, but this is the first time I’ve ever left a comment. Gina, you hit it out of the park with this one. Sometimes, I find feta a little overwhelmingly salty but the amount in this recipe is perfect. The sauce is creamy and rich. The spinach and tomatoes have the perfect texture. I can’t wait to eat this again tomorrow night. THANK YOU for all the recipes you post.
Glad you enjoyed it!
A great twist on Mac & Cheese! I loved the Greek flavors and the healthy additions of vegetables that you wouldn’t have in traditional mac and cheese. Only negatives are that the feta gave the cheese sauce a bit of grainy texture and that my young kids didn’t like it, so probably won’t be making it too often.
I made this tonight and it was FANTASTIC. I cooked the béchamel until thicken & coating back of a spoon. My husband, who’s Greek, loved it – and he’s picky. I did use regular white pasta as I can’t get that brand of WW in Toronto and the others that I have tried are not great.
I’m completely addicted to mac and cheese but this looks like a great twist on it. I shall try this out later in the week – pinning it for my collection!
This was SO GOOD! I accidentally added most of the feta in the initial sauce (whoops, help if I read carefully) but I actually think that made the sauce more creamy and cheesy, which is how I like my macaroni and cheese. It almost didn’t need baking if I didn’t want to dirty another dish. Ample leftovers for lunches as well. Another hit!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU FOR ADDING THE SATURATED FAT AGAIN!!!
This looks great! I love Delallo’s pasta too! They are based out of my hometown! If you love their pasta you should try their other products…yum!!
Thank you so much for this recipe, Gina – it is PHENOMENAL! My husband and I both loved it, and I just ate the leftovers for lunch.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I made it tonight for dinner and it was delicious! My 4 and 2 yes old loved it too! Very easy to make ,I can’t belive that someone will find this challenging to cook.
Yum!!! This was delicious, the whole family loved it. We didn’t miss all the cheese of a classic m&c because there are so many other great fresh/briny flavors with the tomatoes and olives. I made the whole thing in our dutch oven, and just baked it in there, too, so it became a 1-pot-meal which worked great. Thanks for the wonderful recipe!
If you added a meat, what would you suggest? I was thinking chicken sausage but I am not sure what may taste best? Ideas?
I love Mac and cheese and this was absolutely delicious! Never been a fan of whole wheat pasta but the the Dellalo brand is great! Gina thank you for all your wonderful recipes , I make several of them every week and look forward to your new cookbook.
I had the small amount of leftovers for lunch today. I did add about 1/4 C of the pasta water to keep it saucy since I made ahead and refrigerated. Otherwise made exactly and was loved.
My husband and I really enjoyed this! I feel like it would also taste good cold. I made it an easy meal by serving it with a rotisserie chicken and some salad, but I would love to try it as a side to a Greek entree.
This was a GREAT comfort food. My husband even liked it and he is not a fan of mac & cheese.
I own your first cookbook and have also tried a ton of recipes from your site. I’ve really enjoyed them all. However, I think this is my absolute favorite. It has all the flavors I love the most and it is so flavorful that I’ve had it four days in a row and am not at all tired of it!
Thank you so much, Gina, for everything you do on this site. I can’t believe that you publish so many recipes for free. It is easy to find great tasting recipes if calories/fat/etc aren’t an issue, it’s so much harder to find great tasting healthier recipes. I don’t know how you do it, but please never stop or I’ll have nothing healthy to eat that also tastes so good!
There is another cooking site I can no longer visit because her ads lock up my computer. I don’t even notice Gina’s ads for all the beautiful pictures of food, and all the great recipes. Then again, I’m a big fan of small business owners, especially women. Thanks, Gina!
Thanks Pam!
This was amazing!! Made it for dinner last night and it got rave reviews. I can’t wait to eat the leftovers tonight for dinner.
I put this into the weight watchers app only using the nutritional stats and it comes up as 12 points?
Are you using the recipe builder? The only accurate way to determine any recipe’s SmartPoints® value is to plug the ingredients into the recipe builder on the Weight Watchers website (Click on “My Foods,” select “Recipe,” and click “Create a recipe.”) which does not count fruits and vegetables in recipes in the calculations as they are now 0 points.
The SmartPoints® calculator isn’t meant for recipes and will often give you the wrong points (usually higher) because it’s counting the fruits and vegetables. So if you see a recipe with a SmartPoints® value that’s different from what the calculator tells you, now you know why.
I did what you said and what do you know!!! It’s 10 points!!! Thanks so much for your reply, can’t wait to try it tonight with my grilled Chicken!
Looks so good about to make this. Do you only use 8oz of pasta? It appears in the video that you use the whole 16 oz bag.
I made this for dinner last night. I didn’t have all the herbs so I used what I had an added red pepper flakes but otherwise followed the recipe. It is SO delicious and even better as leftovers for lunch today. Thank you so much, Gina!
Can I use unsweetened almond milk as a substitute for milk?
Can’t wait to try this recipe!
You can try, I haven’t.
I’ve made this with unsweetened almond milk several times and got rave reviews every time 🙂
Are there any recommendations for a protein recipe I could serve along with this? Thanks in advance!
Sure! Maybe chicken kebabs, or lamb chops.
Do yourself a favor and double this one so you have leftovers! So delicious! Only modification I did was to omit the olives, since I don’t like them. This was SO good!!
This recipe is absolutely delicious! I sent the link to several of my WW friends. I don’t eat pasta very much so this was a real treat. I had only half of the feta cheese on hand and it was still insanely delicious. I also subbed the Dellano fusilli for the elbow pasta and added half a grilled boneless skinless chicken breast on top. Dill is so good mixed in at the end. Keep your amazing recipes coming!
This dish was wonderful! My husband loved it, as did I.
I made this tonight and this is my new favorite Mac and cheese. Thanks so much! Whenever I am stuck for what to make I know I can count on your recipes.
So glad you liked it!
I made this recipe for my family tonight. Everyone was excited to try it, but we were all very disappointed that it had no flavor at all. In addition, it was quite a challenge to prepare. We won’t be trying this one again! 🙁
Sorry, I guess it’s not for everyone.
I made this today and not only is it a beautiful dish to look at but it is also delicious. The addition of fresh spinach, tomatoes and olives adds color and flavor. I used whole wheat pasta but it would be very easy to use gluten free pasta if needed. Thanks for the recipe!
My husband has IPF (Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis ) and also just had open heart surgery . He was told to go low sodium as much as possible . Is there another cheese besides feta? Its so high in sodium .
All cheese is high in sodium, you can leave the salt out to reduce? Maybe use less cheese
Thank you for another awesome and delcious recipe! I made this tonight and it was the perfect combo of comfort food with a twist. I am huge fan of greek food so I was so excited to make this recipe. Recipe was easy and pretty quick to make. Can’t wait to see how it heats up for leftovers tomorrow. Love, love, love all your recipes!! Can’t wait for your next cookbook to come out. I am a huge fan!
Made this last night and it was a HUGE hit with kids and hubs. Thanks for the continued awesome recipes!
Gina,
It looks like in the nutrition info you omitted the Points + number, just wanted to point that out as I still use the old system.
Thanks for the continued work with all your recipes!
Do you think you could add drained artichoke hearts to this? Love artichokes!
Sure!
Just made this and it was so delicious! Even though it is 10 points a cup and a half was a ton of food!
Looks really good. Not traditional in any way but I bet it rocks!
This looks great! I’m planning it for tomorrow!
I think you might have missed a step, adding the pasta to the casserole dish at the end? But I totally got it anyway.
I just thought you might want to modify it.
Your blog is the best Gina!
Thank you for all you do to keep us healthy while immersing us in delicious flavors!!
At the end of the recipe Gina says to add everything together, so I am assuming that includes the pasta.
Correct assumption and in the video, she adds the pasta to the sauce mixture at the end. I’m making this recipe tonight and adding ground lamb!
I love these recipes but it would be better if I didn’t have to constantly navigate around all the pop up ads. your site used to be so nice but it is annoying now.
Perhaps you’d rather pay for access to all these fabulous recipes? Thanks, Gina, for all that you do. Can’t wait to try this for next week’s Meatless Monday!
put an ad blocker on your computer – done!
Sorry they annoy you, without ads you would not be able to get all these recipes for free.
You can download AdBlocker for free. I find your site very clean and don’t even need to use AB. I get zero pop ups in Chrome.
any suggestions to substitute the feta? a family member doesn’t like feta.
Totally just guessing here, but you might be able to use cojita cheese. It’s similar in crumbly-ness and has a bit of bite like feta, but is way more subdued.
I’ve swapped Cojita before and it works just fine.
Halloumi cheese would still stay on theme with the Greek inspired ingredients but not be as assertive as feta. It’s a thicker cheese, but still a tad salty and delicious!
Could I substitute something for the spinach? No matter how hard I try to like it, I just don’t.
leave it out!
I’m using chopped mushrooms tonight since apparently my spinach spoiled overnight!
I wanted to add some mushrooms as well. Did you sauté them before adding them in?
Where did you buy the wooden serving spoon?? It’s gorgeous!!
The spoon is from Sur La Table!
Can unsweetened almond milk be substituted? I’m never sure if that will work as regular milk does.
Believe it or not, I was just craving mac n cheese and was hoping to find a skinny recipe. Thank you so much! This looks delicious and I can’t wait to try it!
Hi Gina – this looks delicious and can’t wait to try it. I love all of your recipes! I was just wondering where you purchase the DeLallo pasta because my family is the same way about whole wheat and I live on Long Island so I’m hoping I can find it locally! Thank you!
DeLallo’s website has a store locator, hopefully that will help!
I ordered it online this afternoon. I used to have a store by me that sold it but when I scanned my area nothing came up.
You made my day! Can’t wait to eat this!!!!
This looka amazing I can’t wait to try it. I am always amazed and thankful for your creative recipes. Thanks so much for all of your hard work!
That looks so good Gina!!
This looks soooooo yummy!! Can’t wait to try it out!!
This looks amazing!! Can’t wait to try it out. Where is the wooden serving spoon from? It is beautiful!
Thanks! The spoon is from Sur La Table!