Vegan Kale and Cannellini Bean, Cauliflower Cheese Gratin
Vegan Kale and Cannellini Bean, Cauliflower Cheese is a hearty dish packed with beans and vegetables wrapped in a silky cheese sauce. Get the recipe below.
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Vegetable gratin
This Vegan Kale and Cannellini, Cauliflower Cheese is essentially a type of vegetable gratin. A gratin is any dish that is topped with cheese, or bread crumbs, then heated in the oven or under the grill until it is brown and crisp on top.
How to make is a dish that is topped with cheese, or bread crumbs mixed with bits of butter, then heated in the oven or under the grill until brown and crisp
How to make Vegan Kale and Cannellini Bean, Cauliflower Cheese
It’s probably self evident from the title what goes into this dish. I use:
- curly kale (though you could use any variety);
- tinned cannellini beans (these could be swapped out for any white bean); and
- cauliflower (but not just the florets, I also use the smaller tender leaves of the cauliflower to stop them going to waste)
For the cheese sauce you can use any vegan butter and any vegan cheese that melts. I like a strong cheese flavour so the Violife extra mature cheddar block is my favourite. The Cathedral Cheese cheddar also works well.
Cooking the vegetables
Before popping this dish in the oven, it’s important to give the cauliflower a head start. We do this by boiling it in lightly salted water for 10 minutes. This helps to soften them before they are added to the beans and the cheese sauce.
Towards the end of the cooking time, I plunge in the tender cauliflower leaves and curly kale. (That’s right, I put in the cauliflower leaves too!)
Making the cheese sauce
While the vegetables are cooking, it is time to make the cheese sauce. This is done by melting vegan butter, adding plain flour to make a paste, slowly adding milk until you have a smooth sauce and then adding the vegan cheese. Once the vegan cheese has melted you have a delectable cheese sauce for pouring over the beans and cauliflower.
Getting a crispy top
So you’ve cooked the veggies, made the cheese sauce and combined it altogether with the cannellini beans in an oven dish. Now what?
All that’s left to do is sprinkle over some dried breadcrumbs and pop it in the oven.
The recipe
Vegan Kale and Cannellini Bean, Cauliflower Cheese Gratin
Ingredients
- 1 large cauliflower
- 2 handfuls kale stalks removed
- 50 g vegan butter
- 50 g plain flour
- 200 ml soy milk
- 0.5 tsp mustard
- salt and pepper to season
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 200 g vegan cheese
- 400 g cannellini beans tinned weight, drained
- 50 g bread crumbs
Instructions
- Prepare the vegetables by removing the hard stalk of the cauliflower and breaking it up into florets.
- Discard any large cauliflower leaves but keep the little tender ones.
- Place the cauliflower into a saucepan of salted boiling water and cook for 10 minutes.
- While the cauliflower is cooking, remove the stalks from the kale and chop into rough strips.
- Add the kale and cauliflower leaves to the pan for 2 minutes until just wilted.
- Remove from the heat, drain and place leave to dry out – you don’t want the extra moisture in your final dish.
- To make the cheese sauce, melt the butter in a small saucepan then add the flour.
- Beat until you have a thick paste, then slowly add the milk stirring regularly so that no lumps form.
- Add the mustard and season well.
- Next add the cheese and let it melt, again stirring regularly.
- While the cheese sauce is cooking, heat the oven to 180 C / 350 F / gas mark 4.
- Add the kale, cannellini beans and cauliflower to a roasting dish then pour over the cheese sauce and sprinkle with breadcrumbs.
- Bake in the centre of the oven for 20 minutes.
Nutrition
Serving suggestions
This Vegan Kale, Cannellini Bean and Cauliflower Cheese Gratin would take delicious alongside my sticky sausages with caramelised onions. You could also serve it as part of a roast dinner, perhaps with this stuffed seitan “turkey” joint.
More oven bakes and gratins
More autumn recipes
For the full range of autumnal, warming dishes, check out the autumn recipe collection.