Cauliflower Gratin

I had the idea to make cauliflower gratin and it turns out I’m not the only one! I thought I was being all original, but no, not so much. I had originally envisioned using my food processor to slice the cauliflower a la scalloped potatoes, but decided to work off the recipes I found online for my first ever attempt at making this and so kept the cauliflower pieces whole (in floret form).

I got this bad boy at trax farm outside of the ‘burgh.

I used half of this cauliflower a couple days before, roasting it on the grill in a tinfoil pouch (you may see this in another post), so I used the other half for the gratin (the recipe calls for a whole head, so I halved it).

I cut the cauliflower into florets and boiled them in salted water for about 5 minutes to make them tender.

Meanwhile, I prepared the sauce, which was essentially a bechamel.

I veered off from the recipes online in a several ways, the first being that I added chopped onion to my version.

I melted butter in a saucepan and added the onion, cooking until it was translucent.

Next, I added the flour. It creates a thick paste.

I then added milk and spices and whisked away.

I veered off the recipe again by using cheddar cheese. The recipe called for gruyere, which would probably be amazing, but I did not have any at home.

I also threw in some parmesano reggiano that I had.

I used gratin dishes, but if you don’t have these you could use a baking dish (in fact, this is what the recipes called for). Start by coating the bottom of your dish with a little of the sauce.

The recipes noted above instruct you to add the cauliflower to the baking dish next and then pour the sauce on top. I found that my sauce was pretty thick by this point and I wasn’t sure how well it would permeate the cauliflower. So, I added the cauliflower directly to the sauce and mixed it up before pouring the cauliflower into the dishes.

I added some more cheese on top, ’cause you can never have enough really. I omitted the bread crumbs for the topping, but I’m sure that would be quite tasty.

The final step is to bake them to get that nice cheesy crust on top. YUM.

This was a little more labor intensive than most side dishes, but well worth it. It would be fun to make this in the future using different cheeses or adding some hot peppers for example.  Cauliflower can be a little bland, but preparing it in this way certainly adds some more flavor!

Enjoy!

– E

Recipe for Cauliflower Gratin