Cauliflower Cheese
Cauliflower cheese is a fixture of the British Sunday roast, and it is usually a cheese sauce (butter, flour, milk, and cheddar) poured over boiled cauliflower and baked. Every part of that has a whole-food answer. Soaked cashews and blended white beans build a sauce that thickens without a roux, roasting the cauliflower dry gives it a flavor boiling never could, and a spoon of white miso supplies the salt and the aged savoriness that cheese brings, backed by nutritional yeast for the sharp note on top. The miso is the single reason this dish carries any added salt at all, and it is not negotiable here, so the seasoning is marked as essential.
Ingredients
- 1 whole Cauliflower, cut into florets
- 1 cup Cannellini beans, cooked, drained, and rinsed
- 1/3 cup Raw cashews, soaked in hot water 15 minutes
- 1 cup Unsweetened soy milk
- 3 tbsp Nutritional yeast
- 1 tbsp White miso
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 clove Garlic
- 1/4 tsp Nutmeg, freshly grated
- 1/2 tsp Black peppercorns, freshly ground
Method
- Heat the oven to 425 F (220 C). Spread the cauliflower florets on a lined tray and roast, dry, for 20 minutes until the edges brown. Roasting rather than boiling drives off water and adds a nutty, caramelized note, so the finished dish tastes of cauliflower instead of the water it was cooked in.
- Meanwhile, blend the soaked cashews, cannellini beans, soy milk, nutritional yeast, white miso, Dijon, garlic, and nutmeg until completely smooth. The cashews and beans thicken the sauce the way a butter-and-flour roux would, so it pours and clings with no dairy, no oil, and no white flour.
- Taste the sauce. The miso is doing the work of the cheese, bringing the salt and the aged, savory funk; the nutritional yeast adds the sharp, cheesy top note. This is the one place the dish needs a salted ferment, so it earns its light seasoning.
- Tip the roasted cauliflower into a baking dish, pour the sauce over, and turn to coat every floret. Grind black pepper across the top.
- Bake at 425 F (220 C) for 15 to 20 minutes, until the sauce bubbles at the edges and the surface takes on brown patches. Let it settle for 5 minutes before serving, so the sauce thickens from pourable to spoonable.
Nutrition
Estimated per serving: 180 calories, 11 g protein, 6 g fiber, 220 mg sodium. Computed from USDA FoodData Central reference values for the main ingredients. This is an approximation, not a laboratory measurement. How these are computed.
Cost per serving is estimated from US national-average retail prices for cheap staple forms, using BLS dried-bean prices and USDA produce prices. Prices vary by store and season, so treat it as a guide, not a receipt. How this is computed.
