Cauliflower and Cheese Bake

By Addie

This delicious, cheesy casserole is a great way to enjoy cauliflower, and it makes a wonderful addition to the dinner table.

Ingredients

• SAUCE:
• 1 large head of cauliflower, about 1 1/2 to 2 pounds, cut into flowerets
• .......................................................
• 4 tablespoons (2 ounces) butter
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 cups milk
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) Cheddar cheese, mild or sharp
• ........................................................
• TOPPING:
• 1 cup soft fresh bread crumbs
• 1 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley, optional
• 1/2 teaspoon ground paprika
• 1 to 2 tablespoons melted butter

Preparation

Step 1

Boil or steam cauliflower in water until just tender, about 6 to 8 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Grease a 2-quart baking dish. Heat oven to 350°.

In a medium saucepan, heat butter over medium heat. Add flour and stir until smooth and just bubbly. Add salt, pepper, and milk. Cook the sauce, stirring, until thickened and bubbly. Add the mustard and cheese and continue cooking, stirring, until cheese is melted.

Combine the cauliflower with sauce and spoon into the prepared baking dish.

Combine topping ingredients and sprinkle over the cauliflower mixture. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the casserole is bubbly and topping is browned.
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REVIEWS:

Delicious after a few tweaks. It was delicious! I changed things a bit though...I used no mustard (my husband hates mustard)I sprinkled garlic powder into the sauce and into the breading (topping)I used plain bread crumbs mixed with mild shredded cheddar cheese, the butter, a lil paprika ( i just sprinkled a lil in).I used the mild cheddar also in the sauce.mix the breading/topping mixture with your fingers till crumbly kinda looking (nice and moist)I baked it longer than it said too.

Just plain bland. I doubled the cheese and the pepper and it just doesn't help. This recipie sounded much better than it tasted.

Pretty good, but...needed some jazzing up. I think I'd have found this a bit bland had I used ONLY cauliflower, and as I wanted to use up some of my broccoli as well, I put that in, too. I used half broccoli and half cauliflower.
As for taste...I agree with the other reviewers in that it needed a bit more in the way of seasonings. To do that, I increased the salt by 1/2 tsp, the pepper to 1/2 tsp, added a dash of cayenne pepper to the bread crumbs, and used herb butter instead of plain butter. I also increased the Dijon mustard to 1 1/2 TBSP. My herb butter I make from plain unsalted butter and add 1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley and fresh chopped chives . This would have been good with a little garlic, lemon, and thyme added to the herb butter as well. I increased the cooking temp. to 400 degrees. and would have liked there to be more bread crumbs. Will make more next time. Cooking time was about 20 minutes until bubbling and browned.
I think this one's a very good base recipe to start with and each time I can add different herbs or seasonings to make it slightly different.

I had all the ingredients on hand and this was very easy to make. It went over well with the kids, which surprised me. However, the high fat content has me worried. It was good, but I felt too guilty eating it.

Tasty, but a lot of work, and needs a hotter oven! I followed this recipe more or less as written with only minor variations. (For example, I steamed 32 oz. of frozen cauliflower according to the package directions rather than cooking one large head of fresh cauliflower; and I added about 2-3 Tbsp. of parmesan cheese to the topping mixture.) Mainly, this recipe is a lot of work compared to another version I have that has only four ingredients (the other recipe uses one can of cheddar cheese soup in place of the cheese sauce). However, even though this recipe's cheese sauce is very tasty, the dish still came out bland. I would recommend it to others mainly as a good start for a cauliflower dish to see whether they can figure out how to improve it. If I make it again, I will definitely use more black pepper -- at least 1/2 tsp., plus probably 1/4 tsp. of cayenne pepper in the roux -- as well as garlic salt in place of regular salt (which I will probably increase to one full teaspoon). Although I like a lot of "crust" on a dish like this, I think 1 cup of bread crumbs is too much. Also, I think the baking temperature for this recipe is too low. My oven temperature is fairly accurate, but even after 20 full minutes at 350 degrees, the sauce was not bubbling and the topping had not browned. Next time, I will bake this dish for at least 20-25 minutes at 400 degrees. I love cauliflower, so I will likely try this recipe again with the modifications I described to get more flavor. But this was definitely not the home run I would have expected after all that work.