Cauliflower cheese
50 min · 12 g protein · 180 cals / serving
Tender cauliflower in a smooth, tangy cheese sauce with a bubbling, golden-brown top, the side dish that disappears first at Christmas lunch. The sauce gets its sharpness from mature cheddar, parmesan and English mustard and its silkiness from cottage cheese blitzed in, so it tastes rich with far less cheese and butter than the classic.
Ingredients
- 1 large (about 1 kg trimmed) cauliflower, cut into large florets
Cheese sauce
- 400 ml 2% milk, semi-skimmed
- 2 1/2 tbsp cornstarch, cornflour
- 150 g cottage cheese (1%), low-fat
- 70 g cheddar cheese, extra mature, grated
- 1 tsp english mustard
- a grating nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp salt
- a pinch black pepper
Topping
- 15 g grated parmesan, finely grated
- 1 tbsp breadcrumbs
Steps
- Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Cook the cauliflower in boiling salted water for 5–6 minutes, until just tender to the point of a knife. Drain well and let it steam dry in the colander for a few minutes, then arrange in a baking dish of about 2 litres.
- Whisk the cornflour with a splash of the cold milk until smooth, then whisk in the rest of the milk in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer over a medium heat, whisking, and cook for 2 minutes until thick. Take off the heat, add the cottage cheese and blitz with a stick blender until silky, then stir in the cheddar, mustard, nutmeg, salt and pepper until the cheese melts.
- Pour the sauce over the cauliflower, mix the parmesan and breadcrumbs and scatter over the top. Bake for 20–25 minutes, until bubbling at the edges and deep golden on top. Let it settle for 5 minutes before serving.
Good to know
Why cottage cheese in the sauce?
Blitzed smooth, it melts into the white sauce and gives the body and creaminess you would usually get from extra butter and cheese, without tasting of cottage cheese at all. The mature cheddar and mustard carry the flavour.
Can I make it ahead?
Assemble it, cool and chill for up to a day, then bake for 35 minutes until piping hot in the middle. Keeping the cauliflower slightly firm at the start stops it turning soft on reheating.
Can I add broccoli or leeks?
Yes, swap up to a third of the cauliflower for broccoli florets or sliced leeks softened in a pan. It is lovely with both.
Alternative
Per
- Calories
- 71
- Protein
- (28%)
- 5 g
- Fat
- (36%)
- 3 g
- Carbohydrates
- (37%)
- 7 g
- of which sugar
- 3 g
- Fiber
- 1 g
- Sodium
- 203 mg
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Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How
As written, 1079 kcal goes into the pot and 1680 g of ingredients comes out as about 1530 g of food: 71 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.