Green Well Mac-n-Cheese

If you know you know, and I know that the Green Well’s mac-n-cheese is iconic. It’s everything you want in a macaroni and cheese and then some. You feel like your eating healthy but also cheating on your diet at the same time, because of the veggies. The ingredients are slightly unconventional but once you take one bite you will understand why this dish is iconic.

My favorite restaurant is the Green Well. If you are from Grand Rapids and you haven’t been there, I’m sorry! Here’s the scoop I got my slimy hands on the recipe for my absolute favorite thing on the menu at the Green Well. It’s their Mac-n-Cheese, and this isn’t any ordinary mac-n-cheese or moe-Key-cheese as one little girl I know used to say. My kids balked a little bit, however once they gave it a try there were some serious ooohs and aahhhs around the table. It does exceed the 5 ingredient limit, as far as easy goes, but once you do the prep it’s a throw it together meal. Seriously. You can make this recipe your own if you want, use leftovers take out or put in what you like. So feel free to mess with it. The Green Well roasts their own chicken, beautifully I might add, but I just bought mine at the store already roasted. Easy! Here’s how you do it!

NOTE: Sadly since I first published this recipe the Green Well has closed. This is a restaurant that was supposed to stay open for ever, but it didn’t, and I am immensely sad about it, and feeling a bit guilty I didn’t frequent there more often. However, in the last couple years it was around they did a full rehaul of the menu removing ALL the best things. They also gave the place a weird redo making it look like a diner, which was not. Any way I could bitch endlessly about the redo of this restaurant and the closing of it, but I will not seal my lips and say, I am so thankful I can share this recipe with you! Go forth and enjoy!

Gather these ingredients

How to make Green Well Mac-n-Cheese

There are a lot of ingredients to to make it easier on yourself, the best thing to do before you start cooking is to get all the ingredients measured and ready to go. This is called mise en place, and it’s actually the best way to be successful when cooking anything. Be prepared, by prepping ahead, it will save you time in the long run. Have a glass of wine, or ice water whatever your thing is and get your mise en place!

Cook the noodles al dente, reserve some of the cooking water. Rinse noodles and set aside.

Add portobello mushrooms and cherry tomatoes to a hot non-stick skillet and saute until tomatoes are starting to pop and mushrooms are browning.

Add shredded chicken, bacon, ham, and minced garlic to skillet, combine. Cook this for a minute to allow garlic to get fragrant and start to cook.

Add cheese and thyme to the pan.

Stir to combine.

Add heavy whipping cream and stir carefully to combine, trying not to disturb tomatoes too much.

Add the reserved pasta water to the sauce to loosen it up before adding the snap peas.

Add snap peas and allow to cook for 1 minute. Then fold in noodles. The pan will be really full at this point to take care.

After noodles have been added and all the ingredients are cooled through, add fresh basil to finish off the dish. Keep in mind the snap peas are not suppose to be soft, they should retain a snap to them, cook them enough just to get them warmed through.

Let’s connect!

So there you have it! I would love to hear from you. Had you ever eaten this dish at the Green Well in Grand Rapids? Let me know how it compares. It’s decadent and delicious, so completely unexpected, not something you would eat every week, but maybe on a Sunday afternoon when you have time to dance around in the kitchen and enjoy something as scrumptious as The Green Well Mac-n-Cheese.

Please leave me a comment. Give this recipe a star rating in the recipe card below. Tag Eat2gather when you make this and share it on your socials! Enjoy. From my table to yours with so much love, Sheila

 

1. boil your noodles….al dente=not too done, reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water, then drain noodles.

2. fry up your bacon, while that’s frying dice your ham and pull your chicken then throw it all in the pan with the bacon to warm up a bit while you prep your vegis.

**Prep is key in this recipe because once you start cooking it you just basically throw it all together. So you want all your stuff ready!

3. Mince up your garlic, you can use one of those squeezer thing-a-ma-jigs if you have one or a knife works good too. Get your basil and thyme out there and ready.

4. get your cheeses all together and ready to go

5.wash up your tomatoes and snow peas. You can cut your now peas in half, I left mine whole, clean off mushrooms and slice them chunky.

NOW are you ready? It’s gonna go fast.

6. Over medium high heat cook up your meats, and mushrooms about 3 minutes until mushrooms start to brown a bit.
-now throw your tomatoes, peas, thyme and garlic in give it just a minute
-add in cheeses, give them guys a second to get acquainted
-pour in that heavy cream (you can use milk, but cream is better), move that around with a big rubber spatula, careful not to break up the tomatoes.

Turn off the heat and throw your noodles in and fold them in to coat with all that yummy sauce, add pasta water if you need to loosen up the cheese sauce.

Voila! There you have it! Not quite as good as the Green Wells, but a close second. They use truffle oil to finish theirs off.  I am sure that is why theirs is better. I kinda want the Green Wells to stay better, a girls needs a reason to eat out once in a while!

Hope you try it, enjoy!

Sheila