Cauliflower gratin

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Now I have a recipe for cauliflower casserole with cheese in Bechamel sauce. This is a fairly ordinary, but very tasty and satisfying stand-alone dish or, for example, a side dish for poultry, meat or fish. Cauliflower gratin in snow-white cheese sauce turns out unusually tender, juicy and nutritious.

Perfectly, under the definition of gratin, it is customary to understand not the perfect dish, but the method of its culinary processing. Due to preparatory greasing or sprinkling of the surface of the workpiece during the cooking process, an appetizing golden brown crust appears. This not only improves the taste characteristics of food, but also gives the dishes a pleasant appearance.

In the cauliflower gratin recipe, I suggest not sprinkling the top with grated cheese, but adding it directly to the sauce. It will turn out even tastier, and the cheese will stretch. By the way, if you wish, you can additionally sprinkle the workpiece with bread crumbs - after baking, the crust will be not only golden brown, but also crispy.

Making this dish consists of 4 main steps: preparing the cauliflower, making the snow-white Bechamel sauce, assembling the ingredients and baking the gratin in the oven until golden brown. This is very convenient: for example, you can create a sauce in advance or assemble a cabbage casserole, and bring it to readiness the next day.

Ingredients:

Making a dish step by step:

The recipe for this ordinary, tasty and satisfying dish includes the following ingredients: cauliflower, milk of any fat content (I use 2.5%), wheat flour (I use the highest grade), butter (fat content of at least 72%), hard or semi-hard cheese (I chose Russian), salt, ground dark pepper and, of course, ground nutmeg, which gives the finished dish a special smell.

First, prepare the cauliflower: wash the forks and cut off the inflorescences. We cut very large ones in half lengthwise, but don’t make them too small – this is of no use in gratin. The weight of cabbage is indicated specifically in this form (as in the photo).

Place a saucepan of water over high heat, add half a teaspoon of salt and bring to a boil. Place cauliflower in boiling water and cook over medium heat for no more than 3-4 minutes after boiling again. If you overcook, the cabbage inflorescences in the casserole will become very soft or completely turn into porridge.

We take out the blanched cauliflower and place it in a sieve or colander.

We transfer the cabbage into a suitable-sized baking dish with high sides and move on to making Bechamel sauce. By the way, you already need to turn on the oven at 200 degrees.

Bechamel sauce. First, heat the milk well - you don’t necessarily need to bring it to a boil, but it should be very hot.

Then take a saucepan or saucepan and put butter in the dish. Place on medium heat and let it melt completely.

Add the previously sifted wheat flour to the melted butter.

Stir all ingredients vigorously until smooth, without removing the pan from the heat. This is how we brew flour to get rid of the corresponding floury taste.

Then add hot milk evenly in small portions (almost 1-2 tablespoons), always remembering to vigorously stir the contents of the pan. Do not let lumps form, otherwise they will be in the finished sauce.

At this stage of making Bechamel sauce, a homogeneous thick mass comes out.

In this way, evenly introduce all the hot milk, without removing the dishes from medium heat and constantly stirring the sauce. Cook until the mass thickens and becomes homogeneous. If there are still few lumps, you must definitely rub the mass through a sieve. But with constant stirring, there shouldn’t be any lumps!

Cauliflower gratin

Ingredients

Cauliflower – 1-1.2 kg

Ground dark pepper - to taste

Butter – 50 g (sauce) + 20 g (for baking)

Nutmeg - to taste

Breadcrumbs – 20-40 g (to taste)

75 kcal
50 min.
50 min.

Photo of the finished dish

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Video recipe: Cauliflower gratin

Step-by-step recipe with photos and videos

Gratin with cauliflower is a savory, low-calorie, appetizing and very delicate-tasting dish that will decorate both a formal table and an everyday menu. Wrapped in a thick creamy sauce, sprinkled with crispy bread crumbs and baked under a fragrant, gooey cheese crust, cauliflower prepared according to this recipe turns out indescribably appetizing in appearance and completely unforgettable in taste. Try it!

Prepare the ingredients according to the list.

Soak the cauliflower in cool, salted water for 5-10 minutes. And then rinse with running water and divide into small inflorescences. Soaking in a saline solution will thoroughly clean the cauliflower.

Boil 2 liters of water. When the water boils, add 2 tbsp. salt and pieces of cabbage. Bring the water to a boil again and cook the cabbage for 3 minutes, from the moment the water boils.

Then rinse the cabbage in cool water and dry lightly. The contrast of hot and cool water will slow down the cabbage making process. The inflorescences will remain in a state of semi-preparedness, during the upcoming baking in the oven they will reach full readiness, become soft, delicate in taste, but at the same time retain their shape.

Heat the milk without bringing it to a boil. To make cabbage sauce, you need warm milk or milk at room temperature.

Melt the butter over low heat.

Add wheat flour.

Stirring, fry the mixture for 2-3 minutes until golden brown and fragrant.

Then pour in warm milk and stir everything well with a whisk so that there are no lumps left.

Stirring constantly, bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat. Once the mixture comes to a boil, reduce the heat to low and cook the sauce for a couple more minutes, stirring occasionally, until it thickens.

Then turn off the heat and add nutmeg, salt, ground dark pepper to taste and 2/3 of the grated cheese. Stir everything well.

Add about 1/3 of the prepared sauce to the baking dish and spread it with a spatula across the bottom of the pan (I use a 28cm pan).

Then add cauliflower.

Pour the remaining sauce into the mold and spread it moderately with a spatula over the surface of the cabbage florets.

In a separate bowl, combine the remaining cheese and breadcrumbs (I use homemade panko breadcrumbs). Stir everything well and sprinkle with the resulting gratin consistency.

Add a few pieces of butter to the pan. Place the prepared gratin in an oven preheated to 175 degrees and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown.

Cauliflower gratin is ready.

Despite the fairly light cauliflower base, the gratin is nutritious and satisfying. The dish can be served alone or as a side dish. To give the dish an even more catchy, solemn taste, instead of ordinary hard cheese, use the most fragrant gruyere (50 g) and parmesan (3-5 tbsp).

Cauliflower gratin

I found a recipe for cauliflower gratin on the Internet and decided to repeat it in my kitchen. The result eclipsed all my expectations. The cabbage came out indescribably tender, tasty and fragrant. I baked it in the oven with bechamel sauce and hard cheese. Using the same principle, you can prepare cauliflower gratin with cream, mixing it with grated cheese and spices. This casserole can become either an independent dish or serve as a side dish for poultry, meat or fish. If you want to prepare a gratin with a crispy crust, sprinkle it with bread crumbs before baking.

Ingredients:

500 g cauliflower
500 ml milk
150 g hard cheese
50 g butter
50 g wheat flour
1 tsp. little salt
0.25 tsp ground nutmeg
1 pinch dark ground pepper
fresh herbs for decoration

How to make cauliflower gratin:

Wash the cauliflower forks and trim the inflorescences. Cut very large inflorescences in half lengthwise.

Boil the cauliflower inflorescences in salted water for 3-4 minutes after boiling again. Place the blanched cauliflower in a sieve or colander.

Let's prepare the bechamel sauce. Melt a piece of butter in a small saucepan or saucepan. Add sifted wheat flour to it.

Stir the mixture of butter and flour intensively until it becomes homogeneous, without removing the pan from the heat. This is how we brew flour.

Stirring the mixture constantly, pour hot milk into it in small portions.

In this way, add all the hot milk without removing the pan from medium heat and constantly stirring the sauce.

Continue cooking the bechamel sauce over low heat until thickened. The mixture should resemble thick sour cream. Then add a pinch of salt, ground nutmeg and dark pepper to it.

Grind the grated hard cheese on a grater with a large blade. Add half the grated cheese to the prepared sauce and mix thoroughly.

Pour 1/3 of the prepared bechamel sauce with cheese into the bottom of a heatproof dish. Spread the blanched cauliflower on top in an even layer.

Pour the remaining sauce over the cauliflower.

Spread the second half of the grated cheese moderately on top. It will give the finished dish an appetizing golden crust.

We will bake cauliflower gratin in the oven at medium level at 180 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Decorate the finished dish with fresh herbs and serve hot.

Tips and advice:

Cauliflower is a rather capricious product, and for preparing all dishes, choose only the freshest, unwilted inflorescences with the freshest greenish leaves, since the freshness of the cabbage directly affects the taste of the finished dish. I really don’t recommend preparing gratin from frozen cauliflower, and in principle, freezing cauliflower is a bad thing and the result will most likely disappoint you.

Cauliflower gratin. Step-by-step recipe with photos

If you haven't tried cauliflower gratin , be sure to prepare this delicious dish. Cauliflower gratin is baked cauliflower with bechamel sauce under a cheese crust in the oven. Cauliflower gratin can be prepared only using this vegetable; you can also add other vegetables to it, for example, potatoes, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, onions, carrots, asparagus, bell peppers.

Cauliflower gratin - recipe

Wash the head of cauliflower. If there are dark areas on the cabbage, then they must be cut off. Using a knife, cut the cauliflower into small florets. Boil water with a pinch of salt. Place cauliflower sprigs into boiling water.

Boil the cabbage for 3-4 minutes. To make a gratin, the cauliflower must be slightly hard and crispy, the main thing is not to overcook it, otherwise the gratin will turn out to be very soft and not so tasty. Drain the cauliflower in a colander; while it cools, prepare the milk sauce for the gratin. Cut the soft butter into small cubes. Stirring with a spatula, melt it in the pan.

Add wheat flour to butter.

Quickly stir the butter into the flour until you get a watery dough. By the way, the French call the resulting flour base for the sauce “Roux”. In French cuisine, a large number of gravies and sauces are prepared on the basis of this base.

Pour in the milk. Instead of milk, you can use cream, with it the cauliflower gratin will turn out even more delicious. Because I didn’t have cream at home, I used 2.5% fat milk.

Whisk the milk into the flour base of the sauce. Add salt, dark ground pepper and ground nutmeg. Milk sauce for cauliflower gratin, stirring continuously, cook for another 3-4 minutes. During this period of time it should thicken slightly.

Grate hard cheese on a medium grater. It will be useful for golden crust on gratin.

Grease the prepared form in which the cauliflower gratin will be baked with vegetable or butter. Place the blanched cauliflower florets.

Pour milk sauce over it.

Top the cauliflower gratin with grated cheese.

Heat the oven to 180C. Place the mold on the middle shelf. Bake the cauliflower gratin for 20-25 minutes. The finished gratin should be juicy on the inside and with a golden cheese crust on the outside.

Gratin is considered a main dish or a side dish, so you can serve it with some light salad, as well as a meat or fish dish. Bon appetit. I will be glad if you like cauliflower gratin recipe You can also prepare potato gratin with mushrooms.