Fun with cauliflower

I’ve had a head of cauliflower sitting in my fridge for over a week.  Luckily, it hadn’t gone to hell by the time I got around to doing something with it.  My original plan was to make a soup, but I didn’t have an onion or any other veg, and I didn’t feel like going to the grocery store.  And a soup with just cauliflower in it seemed…. dull.  So I began poking around my cookbooks.

I found a recipe for cauliflower in a cheddar sauce.  Fairly basic.  Cook cauliflower the usual way – boil in a little water – and then make a cheese sauce with flour, butter, milk, and cheddar.  Being lazy, and remembering a cooking show on stir frying cauliflower, I took the basic recipe and added a little change.  Instead of cooking the cauliflower separately, I sauteed it in the pan with butter – roughly 3 tablespoons.  After cooking it for a bit – long enough for some of it to turn slightly golden – I added a tablespoon of flour.  I mixed the flour in, then added half a cup of milk.  The liquid mix quickly turned thick, so I added another half cup of milk.  I set the heat to simmer to give me enough time to shred some cheddar.  I tossed in a half cup of cheddar cheese, turned the heat back up to low and stirred everything together.

It came out quite well.  I didn’t think to take a picture, however.  Sorry.

Here’s the recipe:

1 head of cauliflower, chopped
1 tablespoon flour
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup milk
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
ground pepper to taste

In a large pan, saute the cauliflower with pepper and butter over medium heat.  After cauliflower starts to get tender and cook down a little, add flour.  Mix in thoroughly.  Add milk.  Stir until the liquid thickens.  Add cheese.  Stir until cheese has completely melted and the sauce is smooth.  Add more pepper if desired.

Now I have a ready made dinner for tomorrow night that’s also healthy – veg with fat and protein and calcium.  That should give me more time to do some grocery shopping for Thanksgiving dinner.  I dread the grocery store.