Project Description

Cauliflower Cheese

cauliflower cheese 330 size

This recipe has converted many a cauliflower-hater into a cauliflower-lover. Key to the success of this dish is the use of the homemade breadcrumbs so I encourage you to make up a batch of these breadcrumbs!

Ingredients:

  • 1 head of cauliflower
  • 4 tbsp or 1/4 cup unsalted butter
  • 1/2 chicken bouillon cube (my preference is Knorr)
  • 3 tbsp flour
  • 1 tsp dried ground mustard
  • 1/2 tsp kosher salt
  • 4 grinds of pepper
  • 1 1/4 cups milk
  • 1 cup shredded old cheddar cheese
  • 2/3 cup homemade herbed breadcrumbs
  • 2/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Difficulty:

Easy

Prep Time:

20 min

Bake Time:

30-40 min

Lead Time:

N/A

Freezer Friendly:

No

Leftover Alert:

N/A

    1. Preheat the oven to 400 F.  Butter the sides and bottom of a medium to large sized casserole dish (you want it big enough to hold the cauliflower and sauce and to allow the sauce to bubble a bit up the sides).

    2. Rinse and chop up the cauliflower into large pieces. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and boil the cauliflower pieces for about 3-5 minutes.   Strain and evenly distribute the cauliflower in the casserole dish.

    3. In a smaller pot, add the butter and bouillon and melt on medium heat. Add the flour and whisk until smooth. Continue to cook and whisk the flour mixture for 1 minute then add the milk. Whisk and cook until it starts to thicken.

    4. Add the dry mustard, salt, pepper and grated cheddar cheese and continue to whisk until you have a smooth cheesy sauce. Pour this over the cauliflower (don’t worry about trying to work it into the cauliflower- it will eventually seep in when it bakes).

    5. In a separate bowl, combine the homemade herbed breadcrumbs and shredded cheddar and sprinkle on top of the cauliflower.

    6. Bake, uncovered, for 30-40 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the cheese sauce is bubbling.  This dish keeps it’s heat so this should rest for 10 minutes before serving.

This dish is best when made at once. I’ve tried pre-cooking the cauliflower and keeping it in the refrigerator, then cooking up and adding the cheese sauce later – it wasn’t as good. So count on needing about an hour, start to finish, for this dish. It does re-heat nicely, so often we will have this on the weekend, serving up leftovers with another meal a couple of days later.

A couple of preparations time saving tips:

1. Cut up and wash the cauliflower ahead of time, seal in a freezer bag and refrigerate.

2. Start the cheese sauce once you have started to heat up the water for the cauliflower (provided you are comfortable dealing with both the preparation of the cheese sauce and the boiling of the cauliflower at the same time).

One more thing- the homemade herbed breadcrumbs are what really make this dish pop – no substitutes. So make these ahead of time – they keep in the refrigerator for 3 weeks!

We enjoy this side dish with the following:

  • Roasted Chicken
  • Roast Beef
  • Beer Can Chicken
  • Ribs

Refer to each of these recipes for details on how to encorporate Cauliflower Cheese into the menu.