Mac ‘n Cheese with Black Beans and Chipotle (+Waffles)

I was feeling poorly the past week. Hay fever combined with a starting bronchitis is no fun at all. 🙁 Nothing to “nurse” you back to health as a good bowl of Mac ‘n Cheese, though.

I don’t think Mac ‘n Cheese ever was big here in the Netherlands, but I do remember it in some varietal when I was young. That was not an oozing type of Mac ‘n Cheese, but more like Mac with cubes of ham and just melting cheese cubes, finished with some splashes of Maggi. Really 80s 😉

I found this recipe some time ago, no surprises here, at Serious Eats. I really liked the Mexican twist, but I didn’t have some of the key ingredients, nor did I think that it would not be a recipe suitable for the kids (and I assumed correctly…), so it just sat in my bookmarks. In the meantime, I did find some imported tins of the missing Chipotle in Adobo sauce and evaporated milk, but I put both them in the back of the cupboard, so totally forgot about them too. It really serves to clean out your closet once in a while…

What worked and what didn’t:
I was surprised how good it was; I did have some reservations with the evaporated milk, but it was gooey, cheesy, and luckily not the density of a neutron star… The coriander provided from some freshness while the chipotle pepper gave it a nice kick. I did, however, tone down on the amount of peppers. I made the unfortunate mistake to taste a sliver of the onions in the adobo sauce, and my taste buds ended up stunned for 5 minutes. So, 1 instead of 2 chopped chipotle peppers was more than enough and I only added 1 teaspoon of the adobo sauce instead of 2 whole tablespoons.

Recipe accuracy:
The recipe was easy to follow. It served about 4 to 6 persons, so we had next day’s seconds… waffled (minus the maple syrup though). Yes, Mac ‘n Cheese will waffle 🙂