An authentic French Cauliflower Gratin recipe with a deliciously creamy béchamel sauce. An indulgent side dish for a perfect winter meal!
Today’s recipe is another gem from my French in-laws and is one of those classic gratin dishes that the French love so much. (‘Gratin’ just means a dish which is topped with a browned crust, by the way…). I like to think of this as a classier version of cauliflower cheese. 😉 Although it is not the most…erm… photogenic of foods, it is super tasty and extremely easy to prepare.
In fact, the recipe couldn’t be much simpler – lightly cooked cauliflower is added to a rich and creamy béchamel sauce and then baked in the oven until bubbling and crispy on top. With these types of baked cauliflower cheese recipes, many people seem to use a scattering of breadcrumbs across the surface of the dish before it goes in the oven, but my fiancé‘s family does not do this, instead allowing the sauce itself to brown over and form a cheesy crust on top. The sauce is also made without butter, so it’s lighter on calories than a typical béchamel. It’s a perfect addition to roast meats and green veggies.
If you like the sound of this recipe, I think you’ll love my popular Winter Vegetable Gratin – another dose of vegetables in a yummy cheesy sauce!
French Cauliflower Gratin
Prep
Cook
Total
Yield 4-6 servings
An authentic French Cauliflower Gratin recipe with a deliciously creamy béchamel sauce. An indulgent side dish for a perfect winter meal!
Ingredients
- 1 large cauliflower, leaves removed, washed and cut into florets
- 500ml whole milk
- 80g plain flour
- 200g gruyère or emmental cheese, grated
- pinch of salt
- pinch of freshly ground black pepper
- pinch of ground nutmeg
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6.
- Bring a large saucepan of lightly salted water to the boil. Add the cauliflower florets to the pan and boil for 3-4 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the heat and drain the cauliflower in a colander.
- Add the flour to a pan along with a little of the milk and stir together over a medium-high heat to form a paste. Add the rest of the milk a little at a time, stirring continuously, until each addition is absorbed and a thick, smooth sauce forms.
- Add 150g of the cheese to the sauce. Add the salt, pepper and nutmeg. Stir to combine.
- Place the cooked cauliflower into a shallow baking dish and pour the sauce over the top. Place the dish into the oven for about 20 minutes.
- Once a skin or crust has formed over the top of the gratin, scatter the remaining 50g of cheese over the top of the dish and return to the oven for about 10 minutes. The gratin should be golden brown when ready.
Courses Side Dish
Cuisine French
Join me as I make healthy Mediterranean style recipes!
My mother in law in france always made this for us but added yellow potatoes. Delishess