This healthy vegetarian cauliflower casserole is perfectly creamy and cheesy. A comfort food side dish that's packed with veggies. An easy to make and simple cauliflower casserole using whole cauliflower florets, cheese and Bechamel sauce.
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A deliciously creamy and cheesy vegetarian cauliflower casserole that the whole family will love! It’s a dish you can serve for picky family members that don’t want to eat vegetables. A quite healthy version of comfort food that will soon become one of your go-to vegetable side dishes.
⭐ Why you'll love this recipe
- Vegetable haters will love this vegetarian cauliflower casserole.
- Both vegetarians and non-vegetarians will enjoy this cauliflower casserole.
- This recipe can easily be made vegan (see substitutions for that).
📖 Ingredient notes
- Cauliflower. You can either use fresh or frozen cauliflower. Personally, I like to use frozen cauliflower as it will already be cut into florets. It saves time and makes it easier to make a smaller batch (you just take the amount of cauliflower florets you need out of the freezer and that's it).
- Bechamel sauce. It is a French white medium-thick sauce. It is usually made with butter and wheat flour. Although here, I'm using a vegan and gluten free Bechamel. This sauce is used a lot in France to make all kinds of casserole or, as we call them, "gratin". This sauce makes it much easier for kids to eat vegetables. You can use it to make Baked chicory with ham and cheese or Gluten free au gratin potatoes.
- Grated cheese of your choice. This recipe is usually made with Gruyere cheese. But as I can't have cow dairy I'm using sheep cheese (a French cheese called Ossau-Iraty). You can also use Cheddar, Emmental if you are not vegan nor dairy free. If you are dairy free or vegan, use vegan cheese.
💭 How to make this recipe vegan / dairy free ?
If you want to make a vegan or dairy free version of this cauliflower casserole, you just need to use vegan cheese. This easy swap is made possible by the fact that the homemade Bechamel sauce I'm using is vegan.
🥣Step by step instructions
Cut head cauliflower into florets, rince them and cook them for 5 minutes (7 minutes if you are using frozen cauliflower straight out of the freezer) in a large pot of boiling salted water.
Drain cauliflower.
Then transfer cauliflower to a baking dish.
Then add minced garlic to the Bechamel sauce and pour the sauce over the cauliflower. Add salt and pepper to taste (but do not forget that the Bechamel sauce is already seasoned).
Afterwards, add half the grated cheese to the cauliflower and mix well. Then add the other half of grated cheese on top of the cauliflower.
Finally, bake for about 30 minutes and voilà! Serve your vegetarian cauliflower casserole warm.
👩🏻🍳 Top tips
Make sure to divide the grated cheese in order to have it both mixed to the dish and sprinkled on top. You don't want to have all the cheese at the bottom nor on the top of your cauliflower casserole.
💬 Recipe FAQs
Yes, I believe so. Many cauliflower casserole recipes are made with tons of cheese, sour cream, cream cheese or heavy cream sometimes even topped with bacon. Whereas my recipe uses less cheese and gluten free Bechamel (which is made with almond milk and only 3 tablespoons of brown rice flour) but still yields a creamy and cheesy cauliflower casserole.
Yes. Like I said in the ingredients notes, for this recipe, you can either use fresh or frozen cauliflower. Frozen cauliflower is my personal favorite as it is time saving.
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📋 Recipe / Recette
Healthy Vegetarian Cauliflower Casserole
Ingredients
- 1 head cauliflower or 2.2 pounds (1kg) frozen cauliflower florets
- 500 ml (2 cups) Bechamel sauce
- 150 grams (1 cup) grated cheese of your choice (make sure to use vegan cheese if you are vegan or dairy free).
- 1 garlic clove minced
- Pinch of salt
- Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 355° F (180°)
- Cut head cauliflower into florets, rinse them.
- Cook the cauliflower florets for 5 minutes (7 minutes if you are using frozen cauliflower straight out of the freezer) in a large pot of boiling salted water.
- Drain cauliflower and transfer it to a baking dish.
- Add minced garlic to the Bechamel sauce and pour the sauce over the cauliflower. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Add grated cheese all over the cauliflower, bake for about 30 minutes and voilà! Serve warm.Bon appétit!
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