You can never go wrong with this Lebanese mac and cheese with soujouk and camembert. The addition of soujouk and camembert makes this a super hearty mac and cheese.
versatile and easy to adjust recipe
I love pasta casseroles recipes because they are very flexible and adjustable. You can add to this Lebanese mac and cheese more veggies if you like. Or you can also use a different variety of cheese. You can also replace the soujouk with a different kind of sausage if you don’t have soujouk on hand. Or any kind of sausages or hotdog even can work. You can also replace the soujouk with chicken or minced beef for a healthier version.
This recipe is smoky, spicy, creamy and absolutely the perfect comfort food that can please any crowd.
It is the perfect side dish on your dinner table. Or the perfect main dish itself with a refreshing salad on the side.
check my simple avocado salad that will pair greatly with this Lebanese mac and cheese with soujouk and camembert. Also, my winter green salad with orange mustard dressing will compliment it greatly.
the perfect meal-prep or make-ahead recipe
And to convince you more with this recipe, it is a perfect make-ahead kind of recipe. You can prepare it and store it in the fridge or freezer to bake it whenever you are ready to serve. You can read more about how to store this delicious Lebanese mac and cheese with soujouk and camembert on the recipe card.
if you like baked casseroles similar to this delicious easy mac and cheese make sure to check my other delicious recipes. Like my baked Indian mac and cheese or my savory sweet potato casserole and make sure to check also my addictive creamy shrimp enchiladas.
Don’t forget to get back to me with your feedback and rating when you try this recipe or any of the blog recipes. I am always happy to hear your feedbacks and comments.
Lebanese mac & cheese with Soujouk and camembert
Ingredients
- 4 Tbsp 60 g unsalted butter,
- plus more for greasing
- 4 slices baguette crusts removed and bread cut to small cubes 1 cm
- 120 g soujouk sausages cut crosswise into 1 cm slices
- 1/4 cup 45 g all-purpose flour
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/ 4 tsp cayenne pepper optional
- 3 cups 750 ml milk, room temperature
- 140 g red Cheddar cheese shredded
- 140 g white Cheddar cheese shredded
- 100 g camembert cheese diced into 2 cm cubes. (see notes)
- 300 g elbow macaroni
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the macaroni, stir well, and cook until al dente, according to package directions.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C.
- Butter a shallow 22 cm baking dish or 4 individual ramekins like I did.
- In a frying pan, melt 1 Tbsp of the butter over medium- high heat. Add the bread crumbs and fry until golden, about 4 minutes. Transfer to a plate. (see notes)
- In the frying pan, fry the soujouk over medium heat until no more bright pink color but not to crispy around 5 minutes.
- add the crumb back to the pan and mix it well with the soujouk and set aside.
- In a saucepan, melt the remaining 3 Tbsp butter over medium-high heat. Add the flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp black pepper, smoked paprika and the cayenne and whisk until a smooth paste form. Slowly whisk in the milk, reduce the heat to medium, and cook, while whisking constantly, until the sauce thickens, about 10 minutes. Mix the two Cheddar cheese together and Add two thirds of it to the pan and stir until melted, about 2 minutes and the sauce is creamy and no cheese lump in it. Remove from the heat.
- Cut and prepare your camembert, and drain your cooked pasta.
- add the pasta to the cheese sauce, and add two-thirds of the camembert to the pans also and mix all well.
- Pour your mac and cheese mixture into your baking dish or ramekins.
- Top with the remaining cheddar cheese mix and sprinkle the bread crumbs and soujouk and finally arrange your remaining diced camembert on top.
- Bake until the sauce is bubbling and the top is golden, about 30 minutes for the big baking dish and 20 minutes for the individual ramekins. Let it cool for 15 minutes before serving.
- Enjoy!
Video
Notes
- Camembert cheese: to easily cut the camembert soft cheese. Put it in the freezer hours before starting preparing your recipe. And whenever you are ready to add it to the recipe remove from freezer and cut the white rim all around the diameter of the cheese wheel, then cut it in half so you can remove the upper and bottom rim safely without it slipping out of your hands. Then you can proceed into cute it into smaller cubes for the recipe.
- Bread crumb: to keep the bread crumbs with more texture, I don’t like to grind them very finely. For that reason, after I toast them, I smash them into smaller pieces but in a way that there are different sizes of bread pieces.
- Soujouk: you can double the quantity of soujouk and add more into the pasta mixture instead of only on top. I went with only on top so I can prepare one without topping for my toddler.
- make-ahead: you can prepare this recipe ahead of time and just stope before the baking step. Cover tightly with aluminium foil and store in the fridge for up to 2 days an in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- Baking after storing: because it was in the freezer you will need to add the baking time. For the big baking dish: remove from fridge or freezer and bake covered with the aluminium foil for 45 minutes than remove the foil and bake for extra 10 to 15 minutes until crispy and bubbly with a golden colour.