This recipe came about as the result of Kyle trying to formulate a gluten free version of the baked macaroni and cheese that he makes every year for his family’s Thanksgiving dinner. Between work and tackling the beginning stages of meal planning for the upcoming holidays, there hasn’t been much time to experiment with homemade gluten free pasta. While the store bought versions might be serviceable in a pinch, they’re not ideal once you venture away from the stovetop and into the oven. Eventually, we will dive into the world of homemade gluten free pastas (it feels inevitable at this point), but for our purposes today, we were looking for something a little more accessible and user friendly. Enter the unsung hero of the gluten free set: Cauliflower. Inexpensive and practically chameleon-like in its usefulness and adaptability, it became evident after a mere split second of consideration that it was the way to go for this creation. If you’re thinking to yourself “What a healthy alternative to pasta!,” you might want to hold that particular horse for a minute. While the cheese sauce used in this recipe can trace its origins—ironically—to a recipe that first appeared in Cooking Light magazine, years of tampering and tweaking have definitively catapulted it out of the “light” category, and landed it right smack in middle of the “comfort food” camp. Depending on the time of year, it has also been known to venture into the “holiday fare” camp, making it the stuff of family legend.
Mind you, this dish wasn’t just pulled out of thin air. There is a wonderful British dish called Cauliflower Cheese that ranks among so many other pub food favorites and seemed like a great touchstone for this adaptation. It utilizes steamed cauliflower and is prepared more like a gratin (love), but we wanted to do something a little fancier, albeit equally effortless, than blandly steaming the vegetable. This called for a nice, caramelizing roast.
Aside from giving the cruciferous vegetable a wonderful flavor note, it also assured that it would have the perfect texture once it had been covered in cheese sauce and baked.
As for the cheese sauce, the only adaptation necessary to render it gluten free was to use sweet rice four in place of the standard wheat flour for the béchamel. It’s the same process used in the cheese sauce for our Creamed Spinach Gratin, so we knew it would be perfect for this recipe. And perfect it was.
Add to that the fact that we threw in some cream cheese along with the sharp cheddar, adding even more richness and a welcome hint of tang to the dish. The finished product, rather than serving as a mere substitute for macaroni and cheese, was instead an exultation of its own ingredients, . If you’re looking for a great vegetable side dish and find yourself missing the rich, cheesy, gooey glory of its pasta-based cousin, then this recipe is for you.
The sauce is finished with a bit of Dijon mustard as a froufrou–and extra flavorful–substitute for simple mustard powder. In place of the breadcrumbs, crumbled potato chips were sprinkled on top of the dish prior to baking, giving it a lovely, gluten free crunchy crust and adding yet another flavor and textural element. Oh, potato chips, how we love thee. From our Vegan Mushroom Cassoulet, Baked Onions with Crunchy Fennel Topping, to our Potato Chip Frittata and now this recipe, you’ve given us a perfect, inexpensive and time-saving alternative to other (sometimes off-limits) ingredients and we will forever be grateful to you.
Another plus to this dish is that you can make it ahead and pop it in the fridge until meal time. We’re not alone in being fans of that. Just add the crumbled potato chips right before it goes into the oven and you’ll be in business.
Despite our earlier reservations, we’re actually with Smitten Kitchen in regarding this bubbling, nutty, cheesy baked dish of vegetable heaven as the healthiest way to partake of mac and cheese, rather than the least healthy way to enjoy cauliflower. These distinctions are important in delineating between “comfort food” and “guilty pleasures.” We’ll take comfort every time. Hold the guilt, thank you very much.
- 1 large head cauliflower, cut into bite-sized florets
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons sweet white rice flour
- 1 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon dijon
- 4 ounces cream cheese, cut into cubes
- 4 ounces extra sharp cheddar cheese, grated (about 1 cup)
- 1 cup potato chips, crushed into about ⅓ cup crumbs
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Place cauliflower florets on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Roast for 25 - 30 minutes, until fragrant and browned, flipping cauliflower halfway through cooking. Once the cauliflower is cooked, reduce the heat to 400 degrees.
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter then stir in sweet white rice flour. Cook, stirring frequently, for 3 minutes. Whisk in milk and dijon, then cook, stirring frequently, until sauce has thickened, about 5 to 6 minutes.
- Add cream cheese and ¾ cup of the cheddar cheese and stir until melted, about 2 to 3 more minutes. Stir in the cauliflower, then taste and adjust for seasoning.
- Pour the cauliflower-cheese mixture into a 2-quart baking dish. Sprinkle with remaining cheddar cheese and potato chip crumbs. Baked until the cheese is bubbly and the topping is golden brown, about 25 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes before serving.
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