Preheat the oven to 350F/180C

The cauliflower must be parboiled or steamed before baking. There are three ways to go about this.

The first is to place a medium saucepan of lightly salted water on to boil.

While you wait for the water to boil, either break the cauliflower apart or slice it into pieces. Once the water is boiling, lower the pieces of vegetable into the pot and cook, 4-5 minutes.

If you live in a drought stricken area, you have two options using less water. The first:

steam the cauliflower whole, using a vegetable steamer. This takes 15-20 minutes.

You may also microwave the cauliflower, either whole or broken apart. Total cooking time depends on your microwave. Mine took about ten minutes.

However you decide to cook your cauliflower, once it is cool enough to handle, break it apart if you haven’t already, and place it in a colander to cool completely while you make the cheese sauce.

As discussed in the post, cheese sauce requires grated cheese. Rather than grating two cheeses, I used a vegetable peeler to shave pieces of cheese into a deep bowl. This was much easier on my hands. Set the bowl of grated or shaved cheese aside.

Melt two tablespoons of butter over medium low heat. Use a medium saucepan. If you boiled the cauliflower, you can use the same saucepan. Once the butter is melted, add the flour and whisk like you mean it. As the roux comes together, the flour/butter mixture will lighten, thicken, and generally find itself. Depending on the size of your pan, there may be barely enough to cover the bottom.

Now gradually pour in your milk, whisking or stirring with a wooden spoon. The sauce may appear to seize or curdle. It’s okay. Just keep stirring. Add all the milk, stirring away. Crank up the heat a bit, until you get a little bit of bubbling around the edges of the pan.

Cheese time. Dump it all in and stir to blend. It will melt. This is good.

Okay, home stretch. We need to toast the breadcrumbs. Then we’re going to build our dish and bake it. The question is, what we are baking our cauliflower cheese in? A single baking dish? A cast iron pan? A few single serving dishes? The choice is yours.

Keep the cheese sauce warm while you decide how to proceed.

Once you’ve decided what sort of baking vessel to prepare your cauliflower cheese in, place a medium frying pan or cast iron pan on the stove. Pour the olive oil into it and heat over low. Gently toast your breadcrumb/mustard mixture. Yes, it’s a hassle. We’re almost done. Cook until you can smell the breadcrumbs, 2-4 minutes. Watch carefully to avoid burning. This isn’t the time to check your phone.

Scrape the breadcrumbs back into their bowl. Now add the cauliflower to the same pan, so it can pick up some incidental crunch. Cook for 3-4 minutes, just to give a bit of texture.

Okay, we are almost there.

In the vessel of your choosing, spread the cauliflower, followed by the cheese sauce. Shower with the crumbs. Bake 20-30 minutes. Cauliflower Cheese is ready when the dish is bubbling, browned, and smells ready.

You could serve cauliflower cheese with a salad, but why bother?

Once baked, cauliflower cheese will keep, wrapped and refrigerated, up to four days. It may be frozen, but the quality will suffer.

To freeze for another day, prepare cauliflower cheese up to baking in a freezer-proof pan or individual baking dishes. Wrap well in plastic wrap or tinfoil and freeze up to three months. Bake from frozen.

Notes:

As discussed in the post, use whatever winter vegetables suit your fancy. Members of the broccoli family are ideal here, as are potatoes, turnips, rutabagas, mushrooms, or a mixture of your favorites. Summer vegetables like tomatoes or cucumbers aren’t ideal in this dish, as they are too watery.

Ella Risbridger calls for salted butter in her recipe. I didn’t have salted, and didn’t notice a lack. Use what you like.

All the cauliflower cheese recipes I’ve encountered call for Gruyere and Parmesan. Lacking Gruyere, I used Parmesan and Cheddar to good effect.

Every cauliflower cheese recipe I’ve read called for some kind of spicing. Some call for small amounts of cayenne or chili powder. Others use mustard, either paste and powdered. I like Coleman’s mustard best. Use what you like. Sweet or hot paprikas are another option,

If you are cooking for celiac sufferers or vegans, adapt accordingly.

The breadcrumbs and seasonings are important to the dish: without them, stodge.