When I wrote my Swaptastics series recently, I started by thinking I could put the entire piece out in one fell swoop.

Then, I read it through. >blush<

If you’ve managed to get through everything else on this site, it’s probably not surprising that I’m known for being wordy. I’m working on it. 😉

I’m also known for being a bit nerdy in the research department, which is the reason for this post. As I researched the nutrition information for the various options for making Béchamel and alternative creamy sauces, I learned that the Béchamel sauce and its corresponding cheese sauce contain the best nutrition-to-calories ratio, followed by the butternut squash, nut sauces, and lastly, bean-based sauces.

That stated, depending on your preferred version of a creamy sauce, there’s plenty of room for achieving good balance with a ‘monster mashup’ of two or more sauces:

EASIEST: adding the butternut squash purée to any of the other sauces. You’ve likely seem scores of recipes online with butternut squash as a secret ingredient, and for good reason. It’s smooth and creamy, mildly sweet, low in calories, and contains a great amount of vitamin A and potassium.

RICHEST DEPTH OF FLAVOR: purée 1/4 cup soaked nuts to each cup of butternut purée. It’s terrific thinned with stock as a soup on a cool day, or as-is tossed into pasta or veggie noodles.

SMOOTHEST RESULT: For anyone with dairy and nut issues, the butternut squash and bean purées also work well in combination, in fact they provide the smoothest texture of the bunch, but you’ll have fewer nutrients than the other combinations.

I hope you try some of these sauce alternatives and monster mashups! Please let me know your thoughts if you do!

Meanwhile, what are your favorite sauces?