Baked cauliflower cheese with crispy breadcrumbs

Immediate Media

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The best side dishes are healthy, require as little effort as possible to make, yet manage to deliver maximum taste payoff. This baked cauliflower cheese recipe ticks all the boxes and takes just 10 minutes to assemble in a single oven dish. Perfect for fussy eaters or as a healthy roast potato alternative.

Tip: To make this recipe nut free, simply replace the walnuts with an extra sprinkling of bread crumbs.

Ingredients

1 extra-large cauliflower, cut into small florets

500ml milk

50g butter

3 Tbsp cornflour

3 fresh bay leaves, folded

140g mature cheddar, grated

Sea-salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper, to season

25g ciabatta or other white bread, torn into chunky crumbs

50g walnuts, chopped

Method

Bring a large pan of salted water to boil on high. Add cauliflower and boil for 8 minutes or until just tender. Drain in a colander and allow to steam dry. Shake cauliflower if necessary to remove as much water from the crevices as you can. Arrange in a large casserole dish.
Preheat oven to 200 degrees C fan-forced (220 degrees C conventional). Whisk milk in a saucepan with butter, cornflour and bay leaves then heat gently, stirring, until it boils and thickens to a smooth sauce. Remove bay leaves, add 100g cheddar and season to taste. Pour over cauliflower and scatter with remaining cheese.
Scatter over bread and walnuts and bake for 25 minutes until golden. Serve as a side.