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2 Comments Delicious cauliflower gratin with fennel and lots of cheese for that delicious cheese crust. There is also extra cheese inside of the dish and lots of vegetables!
Cauliflower gratin
It probably doesn’t come as a total surprise that I looooove cauliflower. It’s such a versatile ingredient from making a cauliflower rice pudding (really?? Yes really!!) to a delicious nasi with cauliflower rice. Or a cauliflower steak and…. the list goes on. But maybe by far one of my favorite ways of making cauliflower is with a cauliflower gratin.
Now I love anything gratin to be honest, as anything gets better with a nice cheese crust right? Golden, salty and delicious. What’s not to love? And the good thing about this cauliflower gratin is that you make the crust extra crispy by also adding in some panko (Japanese breadcrumbs) So good!
What do you need for the cauliflower gratin?
This dish has cauliflower and fennel as the two main ingredients. Furthermore you add fresh thyme, double cream and loads of cheese. And of course a fair amount of garlic. That’s about it. Pretty simple ingredients. I’ll give some additions and variations later on.
How to make the gratin of cauliflower
Now for making the cauliflower gratin I briefly cook the cauliflower florets. The time in the oven is not sufficient to cook the cauliflower and I like it to be soft in this recipe. Even though I also eat a lot of raw cauliflower, that’s not the idea for this gratin.
So precook the cauliflower for a couple of minutes until just tender. The fennel I slice as thinly as possible and sauté in some garlic and olive oil. It’s also delicious to add a bit of butter to the pan at this stage. Once the cauliflower is cooked I add it to the pan as well. With the double cream and half of the grated cheese. Add seasoning to taste.
If you have an oven proof skillet you can actually use this to finish it off. Saves washing more dishes later, but you can also add it to a oven dish of course. Spread it evenly and sprinkle with a mixture of parsley and panko. Finish with the second half of the cheese.
Baking in the oven
Now it’s time to finish the proces in the oven. It needs about 20-25 minutes to melt and get golden brown. Even though the rest of the ingredients are already cooked, you want to give it that time for the cheese to melt all the way through the dish.
Variations and additions
As you probably have noticed; this dish is vegetarian but can be adapted as needed. If you’re not a fan of fennel, the cauliflower gratin will be delicious without it too. So leaving that out is totally do-able. Also if you want to add some other things to the dish you can. This will be delicious with chicken, like this chicken liver with lemon or with some crispy bacon inside.
You can even add pasta or follow this macaroni gratin for that.
Cauliflower gratin with fennel
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp minced garlic
- 1 small fennel bulb thinly sliced
- 1 head cauliflower cut into florets
- 100 ml double cream
- 100 gr cheddar grated
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme chopped
- 50 gr panko
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley chopped
How to make the cauliflower gratin
- Preheat the oven to 200˚C (400˚F). Heat olive oil in a non-stick pan over medium low heat; add garlic and fennel. Saute until tender, about 3-4 minutes.
- In a pot of boiliing water, cook the cauliflower until tender. Add to the fennel and garlic mixture. Cook an additional 4-5 minutes. Remove from heat; add cream and 1/2 cup of cheese and toss together. Season with thyme and salt and pepper where needed.
- Pour into a lightly sprayed baking dish. Stir breadcrumbs and parsley together and sprinkle over cauliflower mixture. Top with remaining cheese.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until bubbly and brown
Nutrition Information per portion:
Disclaimer:
The nutritional values above are calculated per portion. The details are based on standard nutritional tables and do not constitute a professional nutritional advice.
Thank you, thank you thank you! … would have never put these two together and thyme! WOW! … thank you!
I love both this recipe and the dish it’s cooked it! I use fennel a lot, and I’ve made a gratin with it before. But never with cauliflower. Wonderful idea! Thanks for this.