Roasted cauliflower gratin edit
This is basically just mac&cheese but with cauliflower!
Ingredients
- 1 large head cauliflower, cut into pieces (up to preference on size)
- Would probably be fine with 2 small heads
- 2 tbsp butter + 2-4 tbsp for toppings (breadcrumbs and shallots)
- 3 tbsp flour
- 2 cups hot milk
- 1 cup cheese
- ~1/2 cup gruyere (most melt-y cheese works fine honestly) + extra for sprinkling
- ~1/2 cup parm + extra for sprinkling
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- salt to taste
- 1/2 cup shallots
- 3+ cloves garlic
- 1/4 cup (ish) of ground/smashed nuts
- 1/4 cup breadcrumbs
- can add fresh herbs (I like it with thyme)
- 1/2 cup frozen peas
Instructions
cauliflower (and whichever other veg)
- preheat oven to ~400F
- use lower heat for bigger pieces, higher heat for small pieces
- roast until browned (~30 mins when I do medium sized pieces at ~400)
- I personally wait until there’s charring
- keep oven at 375F when done roasting
mornay sauce (just follow the same steps for making a mornay sauce, follow this if needed:)
- melt 2 tbsp butter
- add 3 tbsp flour into saucepan, low heat
- cook flour ~2 mins, continually stirring
- can add more butter if feels too solid
- gradually add 2 cups hot milk into pan, whisk constantly, bring to boil, continue cooking ~ 1 min until thickened
- remove from heat
- add spices + cheeses
shallots+garlic
- cook shallots in butter until softened and slightly caramelized
- add garlic, cook ~1 min
breadcrumb mixture
- toast nuts and breadcrumbs in butter, ~3 mins
- toss with 1/4 parm and herbs if using)
assembly
- rub garlic and butter around pan (9x9)
- mix cauliflower, shallots, peas, and sauce and add to prepared pan
- bake 15 mins
- top with breadcrumbs (and any other reserved cheese) and bake another 15 mins
Notes
This also good if you add turnips, rutabaga, broccoli, peas (just adjust roasting time based on the vegetable you’re using)! Also, most of the spices and amounts of breadcrumbs/shallots is completely based on preference, so add/remove as you wish. This can get pretty heavy so you could have larger ratio of vegetables to cheese! would probably also be good if you replaced the veggies with noodles or did half half! If doing noodles, don’t cook the whole way through before baking.
I adapted this a while ago from like 10 recipes so I’m not sure who to credit, but probably BA and others!
Enjoy!