Vegan Recipe: Cauliflower Cheese

article by Julia on May 1, 2011

Sometimes I just fancy comfort food and this week I really wanted cauliflower cheese. Of course this is a difficult dish for vegans for the obvious reason; all that cheese! Vegan cheese just does not cut it as far as I am concerned, so last night I gave into my craving and made a white sauce with a fantastic food that I had never used before; nutritional yeast. Basically this is dried inactive yeast which can be sprinkled into soups, sauces and casseroles, or salads and breakfast cereals. It has a wonderful cheesy, nutty flavour and is packed full of b vitamins. I didn’t tell my husband about the lack of cheese in the sauce and he never noticed, just told me that the meal was delicious. That’s a result!

Ingredients

Serves 4

1 med cauliflower, separated into florets
55g / 2oz vegan margarine
1 onion, chopped
40g / 1 ½ oz plain flour, sieved
425 ml soya milk
2 tbsp of nutritional yeast
Paprika pepper
Salt and pepper

Method

Steam or gently boil the cauliflower florets for about 15 minutes. The cauliflower needs to have a little bite.
Meanwhile, melt the margarine in a saucepan on a medium heat and add the onion. Cook until the onion has softened but try not to let the onion brown.
Remove from the heat and slowly add the sieved flour, mixing with a wire beater. When fully mixed cook on a low heat, mixing all the time for a few minutes, until the raw flour taste has gone.
Then slowly add the milk mixing all the time to stop the sauce catching. Bring to boiling point. If sauce is too thick add a little of a cauliflower cooking water.
Take from the heat and add the nutritional yeast, stir until melted. Season if required.
Arrange the cauliflower florets onto a serving dish, pour over and sauce and sprinkle with paprika pepper.
Serve at once with roast parsnips and sweet potato with steamed green beans. Absolutely fabulous!!