Greek Yogurt Bacon and Pea Macaroni & Cheese Recipe (2024)

If it makes you feel any better, I decided to make homemade pasta this afternoon for me and my boyfriend. For lunch. And now I’m SO BEHIND. Sigh. I need to stress-eat some of this mac and cheese. STAT.

Definitely going to have to remember to make this after all the holiday craze.

I love that you added peas! It makes it seem french 🙂

Oh my gosh this looks delish! I want it right now!

I like that you used greek yogurt. I just made some light mac and cheese with some reduced fat milk and corn starch. But I imagine the greek yogurt can help cut a lot of those calories. I’ll have to try this out.

Angelika

gonna have to eat this 😉

Fab idea! Must try it! Hope that the rest of your christmas went smoothly without any burnt bits!

Curious, why not cheddar cheese (I have sharp and mild on hand)? Will be trying this recipe.

• foodiebride

  The sauce doesn’t get creamy & smooth if you use more than half cheddar.

Hey Shawnda, you’re one of the few bloggers I follow who has great photography AND does a lot of dinner-y foods… how do you work it out? You’d cook, say, a turkey (!) in the morning just so you can shoot it in natural light?

• foodiebride

  Thank you! It really depends on how dark it is and how motivated I am 🙂 For totally dark, I use a tripod and bounce the flash in my totally dark dining room (set focus, switch off auto focus, turn off lights, shoot). For times when there is still some usable light outside, I use a tripod and super slow shutter speed (no flash) next to a window. Weekends are my best friends right now – big, late lunches = dinnery foods with lots of pretty light available.

Made this for dinner last night. It was AMAZING! Next time I think i’ll add mushroom just to make it that much better. Thanks!

Ariana

Thank you!!!!! For putting weight watchers points on this recipe 😀

Kelda

This was delicious, buuuut, the WW points are WAY off. The cheese alone (8 oz divided by 4 servings) is 6 points…I made with turkey bacon and high fiber penne (Ronzoni Smart Taste) and it still came in at 11 points! As written, it must be closer to 15 or 20.

• foodiebride

  I use and recommend SparkRecipes for all calorie calculations. You’ll get some variation because of different brands (example: I use Dreamfields Pasta and Total fa*ge yogurt) or inexact measurements (I weigh everything – “bad” things like bacon down to the gram) but 7 points is most definitely accurate for this recipe.

Julie

Julie

Oops I mean 494 calories is still great for me.

Just made this tonight for dinner. It was delicious and husband approved. I found shredded Cabot cheddar on sale so I just used that instead of cheddar and fontina and of course I added a little extra cheese but it was reduced fat so it’s ok. Def a keeper in the recipe box!

Yum! My son will love this, thanks

I made this dish and it was fabulous.
I added red peppers and black olives and sprinkled
some peccarino cheese on top.

I made this for dinner tonight and it was AMAZING!!! I’m adding this recipe to my recipe book.

I stumbled upon this on Pinterest and made it tonight!!! I used whole wheat penne, fat-free Greek yogurt, and half cheddar/half mozzarella cheese (and I probably used closer to 2-3 oz of each). I used Srichcha for the hot sauce and I used probably a little less than a tablespoon I’m thinking? It was SO good!!!! Will definitely be making again! Thanks for the awesome recipe.

Shannon

Making this tonight, changing the Penne to Angel Hair and Fontina to Pepper Jack because it’s what I have. Hope it works out.

I ate this pasta with bacon and peas in Italy long time ago and I just loved it. I am so glad I found this recipe because I really want to make it this weekend. It is so delicious!

Paula Atkinson

OMG!!! This is so good I am almost speechless!!! I am standing here eating it right out of the pot!! The only thing I did differently was that I used Havarti instead of Fontina because I couldn’t find Fontina in the store. I also used an entire 6 oz. container of the Greek yogurt only because I didn’t want to have to save the tony leftover bit. This is incredible & I will be making it again!! I served it w/leftover chicken & broccoli casserole but it could definitely be eaten by itself! 🙂

Hannah

• Shawnda

  I think it would be better hot… but that’s just my personal preference.

Gennifer

This was GREAT!! I actually put shrimp in as well and it was sooo yummy!! (Not healthy but I cooked the shrimp in a little bit of the bacon grease and some “seafood” seasoning) thanks for sharing. My 3yr old ate it up!!

Jessica

I was planning to make this tonight but can I use regular plain yogurt instead of greek? I don’t have greek on hand.

• Shawnda

  Yes – I use Greek simply because of the extra protein. But plain will be fine.

  • Jessica

    Thank you!!

Heather

I did not think this would please my manly man husband, but it did! I used whole wheat pasta and there was enough cheese and bacon in this that he didn’t even mind! Great recipe. I did add a little cream cheese and flour because I thought it was a little too watery, and it worked out well.

Magen

Maybe I did something wrong, but all my cheese clumped together with the peas. Any thoughts? Thanks!

• Shawnda

  The pasta water should be hot hot and the cheese should go into the pot in batches. I make some variation of it once a week and don’t usually have any problems.

• Ed

  Take your pot off a hot burner when you’re stirring in the cheese- super hot pasta water is necessary, but unintentional boiling of the cheese sauce will make it break up…
  Speaking as someone who has ruined many a cheese sauce

Wendy

I made this a few days ago. Such an easy recipe and the kids loved it! A total hit in our home. Thanks for sharing.

I found this on Pinterest and made it for dinner last night, using swiss as the second cheese. It gave it a fondue flavor. And my 7 year old asked for seconds. Thank you for sharing.

jessemi

Can I skip the yogurt, really not a fan, if so what can I use as a substitute?
Thanjs

Siimone

We loved this in our home and we added shredded rotisseri chicken…so yummy! Thanks for the recipe!!

Angelica K.

Just wanted to FYI…I plugged this into the Weight Watcher’s recipe builder tonight using all the exact ingredients and measurements, and it came out to 13 points plus per serving. Not sure how the 7 pts was calculated, but just thought I’d give a heads up! 😉 Regardless, I am looking forward to trying it!!

Kristie

Just made this with goat cheese instead of cheddar/other and it’s holy cow YUM!! So easy, too. Thanks for the great post!

tiffany

I made this over the weekend, it is a keeper. I even forgot to add the greek yogurt and it still turned out great. I subbed prosciutto for the bacon, as the hubby doesn’t care for bacon. I think the yogurt would have helped with some of the stringiness of the cheese, but still totally worth it. Thanks for a great recipe!

Tangi

Just finished making this…so good! Thanks for the recipe.

I made this exactly as stated, and I didn’t love it…I think it might have been too much yogurt? Any suggestions? I’d like to try this again.

Tina T

I am going to try this, and while I agree with some of the comments regarding actual calories being a bit higher (I used Calorie Count’s recipe builder), I got 483 which isn’t too far off and not a major concern. However I must say the fiber content stated looks WAY off. There is no way this recipe has over 12 grams of fiber per serving. Even if you use whole wheat pasta you wouldn’t come close to this number. The only ingredients that would contain fiber are the pasta and peas but both are not considered high fiber by any means.

Cheryl

This is really good with Asiago cheese also.

Stefanie

This was delicious. Hard to stop eating it… But once you let it settle, you realize you’re quite full 🙂 Ultimate comfort food. Very tasty

Emily

Just made this tonight and while I had high hopes, it was sort of a disappointment. The flavors were good but like another poster, the cheese clumped to the peas and did not melt at all. And I followed the directions to a tee (my pasta water was hot, hot, hot; added the cheese a bit at a time; used cheddar and fontina, etc.). Not sure what the problem is. Might try it again as I really liked the flavor combination. Thanks!

Baird

Any tips on helping the cheese melt well? This was just an epic fail with chunks of cheese in the middle of the pot and not creamy in the lease bit. Do I just have to buy specific brands? I used a shredded cheddar (store brand) and a nice havarti cheese. Quite a few bucks down the drain with how this turned out.

• Shawnda

  Does Havarti melt really well? Cheddar doesn’t, which is why I cut my mac & cheese with Fontina or White American – both of those melt smoothly, like a dream. Otherwise, splashes of really hot pasta water tossed/stirred with the “easy-to-melt” grated cheeses has always turned out.

Jennifer