Cauliflower baked 'Mac and Cheese'

I found this recipe in my current issue of Fine Cooking and it was really tasty!  It is a healthy twist on Mac and Cheese and my kids liked it a lot.  Maelle ate an almost disturbing amount of it for dinner....

Here is what I did.

Cauliflower Mac and Cheese (adapted from a Fine Cooking recipe)

You need:

- 4 cups of cauliflower (broken into smallish pieces, about one small head of cauliflower)
- one onion, sliced
- two cloves of garlic (whole, peeled)

Put the above in a veggie steamer and steam until the cauliflower is soft.  I have a neat counter top veggie steamer that Rob got from his mom when he moved out years and years ago (that steamer has held up well!) and it took about 20 minutes.  Once cooked, put the cauliflower, onion and garlic into your blender with:

- 2 cups of milk (I used 2%, the recipe called for 1%) and puree until smooth.  Add in salt, pepper, one teaspoon of dried mustard and thyme (the recipe called for fresh but I only had dried).  I used a teaspoon maybe?

Take the blended milk, veggies and spices and put on the stove in a small saucepan.  To this add:

-1 cup of shredded white cheddar (I used extra sharp for added flavour) plus one cup of parmesan cheese.  Oh reserve a handful of each cheese to spread on top.  Mix in the cheese until it has melted.  The recipe called for more parmesan and less cheddar but you can really do any combo of any cheese.

While you are making the sauce, cook some pasta.  The recipe called for penne and I used some spiral pasta.  I also used more that the recipe called for, one 454g bag.  It was the perfect amount of pasta.  Cook your pasta until it is not even al dente (it will bake in the oven) and then once it is drained add the hot cheese/cauliflower sauce and mix well.  Put the pasta in a baking dish, sprinkle the remaining cheese on top and bake until bubbly and brown on top.

I actually made this while the baby napped this morning so I just put it in the fridge and baked it before dinner for about 45 min at 350.  Very tasty!  I am going to branch out and do some different veggie combos (maybe spinach and broccoli) and I might add some cayenne next time.  The onion and garlic steamed with the cauliflower was a nice way to add a lot of flavour without using butter and cream.

Enjoy!

-E