Dairy-Free Cauliflower Cheese is sweet, savoury, creamy, and cheesy—a combination that ticks all the boxes for a warming winter comfort food. Starting with a plant-based béchamel sauce, it’s easy to make a creamy dairy-free cauliflower cheese to grill on top of rounds of roasted butternut.
The individual servings of Roasted Butternut with Dairy-Free Cauliflower Cheese are perfect for building a plate around. Add quick pickled raised red cabbage for contrast and texture, a side of pickles for a tangy bite, or just a simple green salad to garnish the plate. If you prefer to serve food family-style with sharing plates or platters, this dish comes ready-portioned for easy service and makes an inviting centre piece for any feast.
Roasted Butternut with Dairy – Free Cauliflower Cheese
Serves 6-12 as main or side
Ingredients
- 1-2 onions, finely diced
- 2 stalks of celery, finely diced
- 1 head cauliflower, small florets
- oil or plant-based butter
- 2 x recipe plant-based béchamel sauce
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
- 2 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp mustard powder
- Seasoning to taste
- 2-3 Butternut
- olive oil
Method
The elements, sautéed vegetables, cheesy sauce and roasted butternut can be prepared separately ahead of time. Keep separate until final cook, this will stop the cheesy sauce from becoming watery from the cauliflower mix.
Preheat oven 180ºC.
Prepare a double portion of béchamel sauce, add nutritional yeast, onion and mustard powder then season to taste. If using immediately keep warm.
Slice rounds of butternut about 15mm thick, place on a lined baking tray and season with sea salt and ground pepper, a brush of oil is optional. Use only the solid rounds, suggestions for bottom halves below.
Roast for 10 minutes, turn over and continue cooking until just beginning to soften.
In a large frying pan on a medium heat, heat oil or plant-based butter and add the diced onion and celery. Sauté until beginning to soften and add the cauliflower florets, raise the heat and quickly cook, while stirring to lightly colour the cauliflower.
Pour 3/4 of the cheesy béchamel sauce into the pan with the sautéed cauliflower mix. Spoon onto the roasted butternut rounds and top with a little extra cheesy sauce.
Return to the oven and heat through for about 10 minutes, then move the baking tray higher in the oven and use the grill/broiler setting to toast the tops until golden.
To Serve
The roasted sweet butternut with the savoury, creamy, and cheesy top pairs well with crunchy, acidic or salty sides. A crunchy red cabbage, fennel and apple slaw or a spicy fermented red cabbage curtido , or a simple garnish of pickled red onions to a bite. Other pickled sides might be nasturtium or green tomato caper berries, pretty pink pickled turnips or just a seasonal green salad on the side.
Love your leftovers
There will be leftover butternut, but there lots of ways to enjoy them. They could be stuffed to make little portions of the recipe that uses butterkin. In a turtle bean and butternut salad, added to a focaccia or used for a pumpkin and red pepper soup. All my favourite ways to use pumpkin, butternuts and butterkins are together in this post.
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