Confit garlic cauliflower cheese
Confit garlic makes everything better, and I feel the same about cauliflower cheese, so together this is a blanket of a dish. Confit garlic, cheesy sauce and burnished cauliflower. Eat this with some lemon-dressed greens or a bitter leaf salad. This is always one of our Christmas Day sides.
Make ahead
The confit garlic can be made and kept in a jar in the fridge for a couple of weeks. The bechamel can be made a day or two ahead and reheated and added onto the cauliflower when you are ready to cook.
Storage
Any cooled leftovers can be kept in an airtight container the fridge for up to 5 days and in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- Duration
- 1hr +
- Serves
- 6
Ingredients
For the cauliflower cheese
- 2 small or 1 large heads of garlic, tops cut off
- 1 small bunch thyme, saving 3 sprigs, leaves picked, for the topping
- 300ml extra-virgin olive oil to cover the garlic
- 75g butter or vegan butter
- 75g plain flour
- 900ml milk or oat milk
- 80g cheddar or vegan cheese, grated
- 50g gruyere or vegan cheese, grated
- Salt and black pepper
- 1 medium cauliflower (around 1kg), broken in to chunky florets, smaller leaves reserved
For the topping
- 150g breadcrumbs
- Zest of a lemon
- 2 sage leaves, chopped
Confit the garlic
Put the 2 heads of garlic and a bunch of thyme in a small saucepan, then cover with the 300ml oil until the garlic is completely submerged. Gently cook over a very low heat for 30 minutes, until the garlic is pale, soft and buttery inside but hasn’t browned. Be careful not to turn the heat up too much or the garlic and oil will burn: be patient, it will be well worth it.
Cool the garlic
Leave the garlic to cool in the oil, then remove with a slotted spoon on to some kitchen paper, reserving the oil for later. This confit garlic is delicious spread on toast and will keep for a few weeks in its oil, if you want to make a few extra bulbs.
Make the bechamel sauce
Heat the oven to 180C (160C fan)/gas 4. Melt the 75g butter in a medium saucepan over a medium-low heat, then stir in the 75g flour until it forms a paste. Cook for a minute or so, then add the 900ml milk a little at a time, whisking continuously into a smooth, white sauce.
Add the garlic + cheese
Squeeze out the soft garlic from one of the bulbs into the bechamel sauce, add half of the cheddar and the gruyere, seasoning, and mix. It should be quite a loose sauce at this stage but it will thicken up as it bakes, so add a little more milk if needed.
Arrange the cauliflower
Arrange the florets from 1 large cauliflower and some of the smaller leaves in a baking dish that will fit everything in nicely, then squeeze out the garlic from the other bulb into the spaces between the cauliflower.
Pour over the sauce
Pour the garlicky cheese sauce evenly over the cauliflower then top.
Make the breadcrumb topping and bake
Mix 150g breadcrumbs with the zest of 1 lemon, remaining thyme leaves and chopped sage leaves, then sprinkle over the cheesy cauliflower. Finally, spoon over some of the oil from the confit garlic and bake for an hour, until the cauliflower is soft and golden. Before serving, let it sit out of the oven for 10 mins.
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