Cauliflower Broccoli Cheese
Cauliflower cheese, but for some variation in flavour, colour and nutrition we’re going half cauliflower, half broccoli!
A small change, big variety
I love cauliflower cheese. But visually, it’s pretty bland looking. Also, not everyone is as crazy about cauliflower as me (I will snack on it raw while I’m cutting the florets for a recipe). So to mix it up, and because my local market had these absolutely delicious broccolis (it may seem OTT to call a broccoli delicious, but trust me - these really were!), I decided to change a standard cauliflower cheese to cauliflower broccoli cheese. This one is pretty straightforward if you know how to do a regular cauliflower cheese, you just add broccoli and you need to keep in mind that broccoli needs very little time to go soft (and can quickly tip over to too mushy and lose its flavour), so below I’ll share the cook times and method I use to make sure both vegetables are cooked in the perfect way to work together. Spoiler alert: it’s very easy.
You may be surprised at the method for the roux (cheese sauce) here. I had never tried doing it this way before, but used one of BBC Food’s cauliflower cheese recipes (this one!) and decided to try it as described there - just because I was curious to try something different, to be honest. Also, it seemed really quick and easy. Well, I’m happy to report it was quick and easy and I really recommend this way to do roux! I shared a short video of this recipe on social media and it was so interesting to see how the cheese sauce was what caused the most reactions and comments! More on that here. But just to say, if you want to do your cheese sauce a different way, by all means do!
I love this cauliflower broccoli cheese as a side dish to breaded chicken (or nuttermilk chicken!), fish, as part of a vegetarian roast or even just on it’s own - you can sprinkle some crispy pancetta on top maybe? Yum!
Cauliflower Broccoli Cheese
Makes 1 large oven proof dish worth, 3-4 servings
Cook time before oven: 10 minutes | Oven time: 20 minutes | Total time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
Half a head of cauliflower
Half a head of broccoli
500ml milk
50g butter
1/4 cup (about 4 tbsp) flour
100g (or a bit more!) mature cheddar (you can mix in other cheese too, like parmesan or even mozzarella - especially for the top!)
Salt and pepper
Optional: A handful of breadcrumbs
Method:
Preheat the oven to 220ºC/200ºC fan/430ºF.
Cut the half head of cauliflower into florets and put in a saucepan with boiled water - let boil for 3 minutes while you cut the half head of broccoli into florets as well. When 3 minutes have gone, pop the broccoli florets on top in the same saucepan and leave it all (still on the heat) for a further 2 minutes (so the cauliflower cooks for 5 minutes, broccoli for 2). Drain in a colander and pour into a medium/large oven proof dish.
In the same pan, add milk, flour and butter (all at the same time!) over gentle heat and start whisking as the butter starts melting, and keep melting until the butter and flour has mixed well and the sauce has started going thick. Turn the heat off and fold in the cheese, but leave a good bit of it to sprinkle on top. I like to add my salt and pepper into the cheese sauce, but you can just sprinkle some on top of the dish as well.
Pour the cheese sauce all over the cauliflower and sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top, and add breadcrumbs on top too if you want to add that. You can also add other spices if you want to play with flavour, a bit of nutmeg perhaps, or some chilli!
Cook the dish in the oven for about 20 minutes, until it’s golden and bubbly on top. Serve as a side to anything you want really, or as the star of the show in a veggie roast.
I’d love to see your cauliflower broccoli cheese! Share on Instagram and tag @TheFromScratchBody and hashtag #TheFromScratchBody so I don’t miss it, or email me a photo!
