Cauliflower cheese

 

I'm in the mood for autumn comfort food, so I've been cooking a lot of it and loading a heavier plate at work for lunch. I need to be a little bit more careful and get some exercise on the weekend, otherwise it's just getting too much. I need to make a few lighter meals again, but before I start with those, let's talk about cauliflower cheese.

Cauliflower cheese is such a nice side with many different dishes and I could eat it as the main dish as well. I often make cauliflower cheese just with melted cheese on top, but lately I've made it more often with a proper roux based white sauce. The white sauce does make it so much better, but is of course a bit of extra work. If you use colourful cauliflower like the purple and yellow ones, it's also easy to add a bit of a colour to the dish. I used yellow cauliflower on one of these samples. Sometimes I roast the cauliflower first instead of boiling or steaming, as roasted cauliflower is just so tasty.

I just saw today that my blogging friend Johanna from Green Gourmet Giraffe blog had also written about cauliflower cheese. She had made a quite special creation of cauliflower cheese pasties. I think that's a great combination and is lifting the dish to another level of comfort food. This will definitely go on my to-cook-list. Johanna also linked to her previous creative cauliflower cheese dishes, which are so inspirational. Recently she shared an idea with me how to use leftover cauliflower cheese: on a pizza! That's another candidate for the must-try-list. Go and have a look at her post and nice blog, if you haven't already.

Here are my simple steps for making this basic cauliflower cheese with roux based white sauce and Cheddar. The photos are just some different cauliflower cheese cooking sessions lately.

Cauliflower cheese

Ingredients

1 cauliflower

3 tbsp butter

3 tbsp wheat flour

100 g grated Cheddar

½ tsp onion powder

½ tsp garlic powder

½ tsp vegetable stock powder

A grind of ground black pepper

500 ml water (cauliflower cooking water can be used)

Method

Cut the cauliflower into florets and cook them in water. Save the cooking water and place the florets in an oven dish.

Prepare the roux. Heat the butter in a pan and whisk in the wheat flour. Let the flour cook a bit, for about 2 minutes.

Slowly add some of the cauliflower cooking water and keep whisking. Gradually add more water until you are happy with the texture.

Season the sauce and start adding the cheese in there. Whisk the cheese in and let it melt into an even sauce.

Pour the sauce on the cauliflower. Add some additional grated cheese on top and bake the cauliflower cheese at 180 C for about 25 minutes.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Yellow cauliflower and nuts

I've been fascinated by the different cauliflower colours recently, and was even planning a rainbow cauliflower dish. Maybe it will still come at one point. Now I just picked up a yellow one, which may not differ so much from the regular colour, but added a different touch nevertheless. This is a dish of cauliflower and nuts, roasted with brown crispy sage butter.

This is how I made the dish. I roasted the cauliflower first in florets. When it was nearly ready, I added some finely chopped fresh onion and garlic pieces and let it roast some more. I prepared separately a brown crispy sage butter in a pan. I then added some coarsely chopped nuts (hazelnuts, pine nuts and cashews) to the butter and poured the whole thing over the cauliflower. I left it in the oven to finish and finally served it in a combination that I will reveal to you soon, hopefully tomorrow. You can easily veganise this dish by using a butter substitute.

There is not much to this dish, so I didn't make any measurements of the ingredients. You can just go here with your own taste and be a bit generous with the estimations. This is supposed to be a rustic autumn dish anyway and it's better as a side. So as mentioned, I will post the full dish soon.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Your VegHog

Green tahini cauliflower with quinoa cabbage roulade

The weather has become more autumnal here, and I'm turning to my comforting seasonal autumn favourites in food. There will be a lot of roasting, stews and steaming bowls of soup in my near future.

This dish was widely improvised around the ingredients I had. I bought a green cauliflower for a change. It's a bit paler than broccoli, and still tastes like cauliflower, so it sends a confusing message to the brain. I roasted it with a tahini-lemon-garlic-coriander sauce, which is always such a good choice, definitely one of my vegan comfort food favourites!

On the side I served a large cabbage roulade filled with quinoa and pearled spelt that were cooked in vegetable stock with onion and garlic and some spices. It was quite basic and rustic, but actually very tasty. I just couldn't resist the lovely purple cabbage. Does anyone have good cabbage recipes by the way, as I always tend to make only roulades or casserole, and would appreciate some inspiration?

So it's almost the weekend, my friends. Do you have any good plans or are you mainly just going to take it easy? Have fun whatever you do!

Your VegHog

New potatoes and cauliflower cheese

Ah the summer is truly here and it's time to enjoy some of the wonderful seasonal produce. I hope it's not too hot where you are! Here in Copenhagen a fresh wind has already started, so we are coping well.

New potatoes have always been my favourites, already as a child. In the Nordic countries they are served in the summer as soon as they have grown a bit, but some of them are actually still quite tiny. They are boiled and served with just butter and dill, or sometimes in a milky sauce. They are eaten with the skins on, as the skin is at this point of growth very thin.

The new potatoes of the north have a special sweet and nutty taste to them, something that I can't quite describe. They just melt in your mouth. Some say it comes from the growing under the midnight sun. There might be some truth to it, as at least in the UK and Germany the new potatoes don't taste the same.

In this dish I combined some of the finest Danish new potatoes with a cauliflower cheese. It really was a fine feast.

Mexican cauliflower cheese with sweetcorn and pepper

Happy Easter to everyone! I hope that you are having a relaxing weekend with nice food! I'm soon heading for a small day trip and intend to have a good time. It could be sunnier today, but at least it's not raining.

Before I go, I wanted to share this Mexican style cauliflower cheese recipe with you. I've been Mexicanising quite a lot of dishes lately, and it's already a running joke with my partner. He now knows to expect all things Mexican.

This cauliflower cheese with a little bit of heat of chilli and some warming spices, and with the addition of sweetcorn and pepper, was so nice. I just served some refried beans and tortilla chips on the side, and it was a really lovely meal.

Mexican cauliflower cheese with sweetcorn and pepper

Ingredients

1 cauliflower

1 onion

3 garlic cloves

2 small chillies

1 romano pepper

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 small can sweetcorn

2 tbsp smoked chilli paste

1 tsp vegetable stock powder

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

½ smoked paprika

100 g grated Cheddar

Sides:

Tortilla chips

Refried black beans with tomatoes

Method

Cut the cauliflower into florets and steam them for a couple of minutes.

Chop the onion, garlic, chilli and pepper finely and cook them in a pan until soft.

Add the sweetcorn and the seasoning to the pan with some water (about 100-150 ml) and let simmer for a while.

Put the cauliflower florets in an oven dish and coat with the spicy veggie mix.

Cover the dish with grated cheese and bake at 180 C for about 40 minutes, and finish at 200 C for about 10 minutes, until everything is cooked nicely and the surface is golden brown.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Mexican cauliflower cheese

I stumbled upon Gran Luchito's Mexican Cauliflower cheese recipe and decided to give it a go. In the end I made my own version of it, as my partner doesn't eat milk-based sauces. I opted for vegetable stock as the liquid instead, and the dish turned out really nice. It was luscious and comforting, perfect for the darkening evenings. And of course I do adore Mexican food, there are so many good vegetarian and vegan options in that style of cooking.

Have a look below, how I made my version of the Mexican cauliflower cheese.

Ingredients

1 cauliflower

2 garlic cloves

15 g butter

2 tsp smoked chilli paste

2 tbsp wheat flour

400 ml vegetable stock

150 g grated Cheddar

Method

I steamed the cauliflower florets for a few moments and made the roux in the meanwhile.

For the roux I just heated garlic cloves in butter in a pan and added the smoked chilli paste followed by the wheat flour. Then I added the vegetable stock and let it all cook for a couple of minutes.

Then I placed the steamed cauliflower florets into an oven dish, covered with the chilli sauce and cheese.

And the whole thing baked at 180 C for about 30 minutes and was then ready to be enjoyed.

It was so good have a different twist to cauliflower cheese.

Your VegHog

Bowl of roasted potatoes and cauliflower with spicy chickpeas and tahini sauce

Sometimes I just love putting several things into a bowl and enjoying the variation of vegetables and legumes and whatever as one meal. Pretty bowls are also so nice to look at, as we know from the social media. This bowl may not be the greatest of all time, but it was definitely tasty. The combination of roasted potatoes and cauliflower with tahini can never go wrong for me anyway. Have some chickpeas as extra protein on the side and we're ready to go!

What are your favourite weekday bowls?

Here is one of mine:

Ingredients

New potatoes

Smoked paprika

Salt

Vegetable oil

Cauliflower

Cooked chickpeas

Smoked chilli paste

Lambs lettuce

Tahini + juice of lemon

Method

Roll the new potatoes in vegetable oil and sprinkle smoked paprika and salt on them. Then roast them in the oven until done.

Also brush the cauliflower florets with oil and roast them in the oven.

Fry the cooked chickpeas in a pan for a little while with smoked chilli paste until they are warm and nicely seasoned.

Mix some tahini with lemon juice to make a dip. Add some water, if needed.

Then serve all components together in a bowl with some lettuce on the side.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Roasted cauliflower with lentils, freekeh, pomegranate seeds and tahini sauce

I absolutely love roasted cauliflower with tahini and here's another vegan dish combining these flavours. Apart from those ingredients I used puy lentils and freekeh as strong protein additions and pomegranate seeds and coriander for the freshness and vibrancy. I really liked this dish. I got inspired by the Braised cauliflower & puy lentil tabouleh recipe by Lee Watson, which is in his wonderful vegan cookbook Peace & Parsnips (p. 112-113). My dish was quite different in the end, but the inspiration was definitely there when flicking through cookbooks once again. So here comes my recipe.

Ingredients

1 cauliflower

Olive oil

½ cup puy lentils

½ cup freekeh

1 onion

1 red chilli

Vegetable stock powder

Salt Ground black pepper

Ground cumin

1 pomegranate's seeds

Fresh coriander

Tahini sauce

1 lemon's juice

3 tbsp tahini

Fresh coriander

3 tbsp water

Method

Make the tahini sauce by mixing the ingredients and set to side.

Cut the cauliflower into florets, brush with olive oil and roast in the oven.

Cook the lentils and freekeh in water until done.

Chop the onion and the chilli into half rings. Cook the onions in olive oil until browned.

Then add the chilli, lentils, freekeh and seasoning. Also add the roasted cauliflower to the mix.

Serve with the pomegranates and tahini sauce.

Have a good weekend!

Your VegHog

Lebanese rice, tahini cauliflower and roasted carrots

Finally it has been a bit warmer and sunny, but I've been quite busy this week, as usual after returning from holiday and therefore unable to really enjoy the weather. I will probably only be able to take a closer look at my holiday photos on the weekend, some of which I'm keen to share with you. So don't worry, there will be something more about the holiday sooner or later. Today's post is just a quick meal recommendation for nice vegan feasts.

This dish and similar ones have been great favourites of mine this past winter and I'm probably going to continue to cook them in the spring as well: Lebanese rice with vermicelli served with a tahini cauliflower bake. This time I also added some roasted carrots to the dish and also a roasted garlic head. It was really very very nice.

I have already posted similar recipes previously, so have a look here for the Roasted cauliflower in tahini sauce and here for the Lebanese rice with vermicelli. What do you think, is this something you would like to eat? Believe me, it's very tasty and yet simple to make!

Have further a nice week!

Your VegHog

Carrot-cauliflower-lentil soup

I've been meaning to make a carrot and cauliflower soup for a while now, all last winter basically, but only just managed to make one on my holiday in Finland. My mum was at work and I wanted to make a light yet nutritious dinner for all of us once she would be back, so I decided to make a soup. I used carrots, cauliflower and red lentils as main ingredients in this and it turned out to be quite comforting. The addition of cottage cheese for serving was also a nice one. I love the firm and grainy Finnish style cottage cheese, very different to the more moist British style. Here is the simple recipe.

Ingredients

5 carrots

1 small cauliflower

1 large onion

1 cloveless garlic

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1,5 l water

1 vegetable stock cube

1 cup red lentils

Salt to taste

Ground black pepper to taste

Cottage cheese for serving (optional)

Method

Chop the carrot and cauliflower into pieces and the onion and garlic finely.

Start cooking them in oil until they are slightly glazed.

Add the water, vegetable stock cube and the red lentils and let simmer until the components are soft.

Season and purée.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Roasted cauliflower with Arabian nutty rice, tomato sauce and tahini sauce

It's time again for a vegan Lebanese feast! I know that many of you have been having Veganuary, so I thought that I would squeeze in one more vegan dish for this month. I have been eating mainly vegan this month, but unfortunately didn't commit fully to a vegan month. January has been so very long, so I'm quite happy to move on to February.

On this plate I combined Arabian nutty rice (recipe previously posted here) with roasted cauliflower and a couple of interesting sauces. The first one is a tomato sauce with chilli and the second one is a tahini sauce with lemon juice and garlic and they both complimented the cauliflower and rice very well.

All these recipes are from the book A Lebanese Feast of Vegetables, Pulses, Herbs and Spices by Mona Hamadeh. I would very much recommend that book, if you want to make simple, but very tasty, vegetarian and vegan dishes with Middle Eastern spices.

Your VegHog

Whole roasted chilli cauliflower

So December is already well under way... that surely came around fast! I'm not at all prepared for anything relating to Christmas yet and can almost feel the stress creeping in. I have been looking for presents online, but not bought much yet. I haven't had the strength to browse for Christmas recipes and think that a good old nut roast has to believe in it for the festive table. I still hope that I can cook something more innovative to present here on the blog as well. How are you getting along with the whole festive season?

However this recipe that I cooked now could also be a centrepiece for a vegan Christmas feast, even though it's made with very simple ingredients. I have been wanting to roast a whole cauliflower for a while now, and since I had a cauliflower, I thought that the time had come. I brushed the cauliflower with hot chilli sauce and roasted it with some tomatoes, and it was quite nice with a hint of heat. I'm sure that it would go very well with roasted potatoes, roasted vegetables and gravy.

Ingredients

1 large cauliflower

200 g cherry vine tomatoes

1 garlic clove

4-6 tbsp vegetable oil

1-2 tsp hot chilli sauce

Method

Take one large cauliflower and trim a bit away from the bottom so that the cauliflower comfortably sits upright. You can leave some of the leaves around it, if you'd like that look for the presentation. Place it into an oven dish, brush with vegetable oil and put into the oven.

Roast the cauliflower altogether for about 1,5 hours, the first hour just brushed with vegetable oil and the rest of the time brushed with hot chilli sauce and with tomatoes and chopped garlic in the dish. Keep brushing the cauliflower during the roasting with the chilli sauce.

If the cauliflower doesn't get cooked during this time but starts browning too much, try covering the baking dish with foil for a while and cook the cauliflower slowly. It's done when a skewer can easily be pushed through all the way.

What do you think of this recipe, suitable for Christmas or rather not?

Your VegHog