I didn’t mean to purchase the gluten free version of Beecher’s frozen mac and cheese, but during a quick trip to the store I grabbed the wrong box and I’m so glad I did.
Pasta
Beecher’s uses penne pasta in both of their frozen options. Penne is one of my favorite pastas to use in mac and cheese. Small shapes, like elbows are unforgiving when it comes to sauce texture, and tend to make sauces feel a little more gritty than larger sized noodles. However, if you go too large – think spaghetti or fettuccini – the dish becomes difficult to keep on a fork, making it more work to eat than it’s worth. Medium sized shapes like penne or rotini are a perfect mac and cheese vehicle, and Beecher’s knew what they were doing when they used penne.
I don’t have a lot of experience eating gluten free foods, and if the internet is to be believed, they aren’t great. This is a lot of the reason why I don’t reach for gluten free foods when shopping. Plus I like to leave them available for the people who need them. However, the pasta Beecher’s used was fantastic. I expected the noodles to be gummy but if I didn’t already know it was gluten free I’m not sure I would have noticed anything different.
Sauce
While the pasta choice is important, I would argue that the sauce is the biggest component in delicious mac and cheese. I loved the sauce in the original frozen Beecher’s mac and cheese, and they perfectly emulated it in their gluten free version. It’s bold, creamy, and perfect. Exactly what you’d expect from them.
Price
At $14 in my local grocery store, the price is definitely more than you’d see from standard frozen mac and cheeses, but compared to the $13 you see for the standard Beecher’s option, the gluten free option is priced pretty comparably. One dish should feed two people, so if you have a number of people to feed this option may price itself out.
While I didn’t intend to grab gluten free Beecher’s frozen mac and cheese, it was a happy accident. I would gladly purchase this pasta again.
