cauliflower gratin
Surely I’m not the only one who cannot resist those freakishly-hued cauliflowers, right? But although these were labeled “organic” and “all natural” I had my doubts when I par-boiled the purple and it turned the water a deep blue and I boiled the orange and it managed to get even brighter. Like Cheez-Whiz from a can. Not that we here at the Smitten Kitchen would ever know about such unnatural things.
Anyway, there is something rather brilliant about vegetable gratins. You start out with all of the fixings of a good mac-and-cheese — a roux, a bechamel, a pile of glorious shredded cheese and a little breadcrumbs to help form a top crust — and then you swap out the pasta for a vegetable. Because if there is a vegetable in it, it must be health food, right?
Hoo hoo hee. That said, I think that gratins are any dinner party host’s best friend. They reheat fantastically, or they can be par-cooked and finished as guests arrive. They can easily be made a day in advance and just baked as needed. And, they’re forvgiving if you need to leave them in the oven a bit longer as your always-tardy friends filter in.
They’re also, with an earnest pile of green salad, a great cold-weather weekend lunch. Like, it is so on.
One year ago: Tiramisu Cake
Two years ago: Apple Pie and the Bourbon Pumpkin Cheesecake I make every single year.
Cauliflower Gratin
Adapted from Ina Garten
1 (3-pound) head cauliflower, cut into large florets
Kosher salt
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, divided
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups hot milk
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
3/4 cup freshly grated Gruyere, divided
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Cook the cauliflower florets in a large pot of boiling salted water for 5 to 6 minutes, until tender but still firm. Drain.
Meanwhile, melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a medium saucepan over low heat. Add the flour, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon for 2 minutes. Pour the hot milk into the butter-flour mixture and stir until it comes to a boil. Boil, whisking constantly, for 1 minute, or until thickened. Off the heat, add 1 teaspoon of salt, the pepper, nutmeg, 1/2 cup of the Gruyere, and the Parmesan.
Pour 1/3 of the sauce on the bottom of an 8 by 11 by 2-inch baking dish. Place the drained cauliflower on top and then spread the rest of the sauce evenly on top. Combine the bread crumbs with the remaining 1/4 cup of Gruyere and sprinkle on top. Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and drizzle over the gratin. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the top is browned. Serve hot or at room temperature.
Purple and orange cauliflower for real? Hmmm…
Oh my gosh! This looks fabulous, you managed once again to make my mouth water, I love Smitten Kitchen :)
I love that it looks like some kind of blueberry cobbler-ish kind of dessert.
I love nature! This looks so delicious. Not that you can taste the color, but cauliflower becomes so much more interesting and that much more delicious when it is not white. My steamed broccoli suddenly seems much less tasty….
So, I read up, and orange cauliflower has 25x the vitamin A as white cauliflower, while the purple color comes from the same type of antioxidants as are found in red cabbage. (Thankyouverymuch wikipedia…) Very interesting! Now I am that much hungrier for this lovely casserole!
I need to eat this, just this, for dinner. With a glass of really good wine.
It looks heavenly!
(Okay, you are making an Ina believer out of me…)
I’ve seen the orange cauliflower before, but I was never sure how it would turn out when cooked. Now I know! Awesome.
Total, ultra, mega yum! I love cauliflower. And isn’t AU GRATIN translated as “Superyum”?? :-)
I’ve never seen such crazy-colored cauliflower around here! It’s beautiful, though. (I saw your Flickr pic and thought it was a blueberry dessert. Imagine my surprise!)
I thought blueberry too. Crazy cauliflower! I’m not sure I could mentally prepare for something savory that looks like blueberry crumble.
There’s nothing like a boatload of cheese to make vegetables palatable.
Love the pretty colors!
The gold, the purple, the cheesiness, it’s Sunday.
I’m sorry, I have to say it.
Go Vikings!
I am officially staring resentfully at my kitchen for not containing the ingredients to this recipe. WANT.
You are a genius and the savior of my “what to cook for Thanksgiving” dilemma. The teenage boys scowled heartily when my carbophobic sisters in law (all four of them) nixed my famous mac & cheese side dish (figuring we already had at least 6 other carb dishes for the day). I’ve been casting about for a veggie dish and this will be perfect.
And no, you aren’t the only one who can’t resist the bright cauliflowers. I wish I could find the blue but I’ve been loving the orange this fall from our CSA!
Thanks again & happy cooking.
Never seen Cauliflower that color. I am intrigued.
I’ve been a fan of the multi-colored cauliflower for a while (I like the green, too), but seeing the orange and purple in the pan together like that just makes me think of the local NFL team! Ha!
I thought I was a rebellious teen when I deliberately wore purple and orange together. That was about as anarchistic as I got in the 70s, which saw avocado and orange and marigold. Bleck. This is like some kind of prank! In fact, when I saw the above picture of the gratin, it looked like a blueberry crumble and not a cheese festival of unnatural colors. The only time I have made a baked cheese dish that unnatural was when I added blue food dye to my mac n cheese bake….just to tease my sister. She ate it anyway, even though it was Army Green.
Man, even when I’m so proud of myself for finding my own great recipe rather than defaulting to something you recommend, it turns out that you’ve already made it! The pumpkin cheesecake from 2 years ago – it is, I agree, amazing. Oddly, I also made it in a 4-inch springform pan and in a muffin pan. But my cheesecakes came out of the muffin pan without a problem. Maybe because I stuck them in the freezer for a few minutes first?
Anyway, gratin. I love cauliflower, and cheese, and bechemel, so this looks great.
So delicious! It’s one of my favorite Ina recipes ever. (I did a similar one on my site that I altered just slightly.) Thanks Deb!
Low carb food, ahhh! Deb, it makes me so happy when you make these kinds of dishes. That cauli is gorgeous! Will replace the bread crumbs with almond meal bread crumbs. :)
If it weren’t for your amazing, sarcastic writing style…I wouldn’t ever come to this blog (oh well, the recipes and pictures help a bit too) ;)
Can’t wait to try this dish! Not sure I have ever seen this purple hued cauliflower in my neck of the woods…
Angela
well, since cauliflower are a member of the cabbage family, and red cabbage, when boiled turnes BRIGHT BLUE! I wouldn’t worry about it. Looks delish. I made a cauliflower, brussels sprouts and fennel gratin last week.
Wow. I’ve seen the purple cauliflower before, but the orange is… interesting. Maybe I ought to give Ina a try after all.
Debra,
Sounds decadent.
I love cauliflower any way, especially roasted.
If I didn’t see the finished product, I would be dubious that those cauliflower were actually found in nature and not photoshop creations. So pretty!
Northeast farmer’s markets often have wonderful cauliflower in different hues — the purple is fun, but the yellow tastes a bit sweeter than the usual white. Both are a great hit with kids.
I have to say that the colorful cauliflower is best raw or steamed lightly – almost a waste in a gratin where it’s cooked, then baked and covered in sauce…
I’m having a hard time getting over the fact that it looks like this gratin has blueberries in it, but beyond that, I love cauliflower and gratins and ina garten. I must try this!
This is like Lakers cauliflower au gratin!
Ok, veggies move over. I heard the promise of a gluttonous birthday cake recipe.
Woah, those are some crazy veggies. Love the second photo!
Hi,
Just thought you might like to know…the pigments that cause the bright orange and purples occur naturally – orange is a carotenoid and purple is anthocyanin (yay finally putting those food science classes to use), but other than spewing food geek-dom I also wanted to let you know that these are water-soluble pigments…which is why the color leeches into the water. Unfortunately, that means a lot of vitamins are lost in the water too…a better way to preserve color and nutrition is by steaming, baking, or roasting the vegetables.
Your dish looks great btw! I thought it was a blueberry cobbler when I first saw the picture. :)
Oooh, why so many former Ina disbelievers on here? Ina rocks! Thank God you’re making converts out of all these people, Deb!
This really looks cool; purple’s my favorite color, so I think I have no other choice but to try this. I know it’ll taste good but it will be fun to serve too!
Love this recipe! I never really liked cauliflower until a couple of years ago and now I cant get enough of it (I’m making up for lost time) :) Thanks for sharing this!
omgggggggggggg!!!!!! this is so amazing! PADRES COLORS!!! i have to say thought i’ve never seen anything but white cauliflower. and i live in SOCAL! you’d think we’d have some crazy varieties. mmm this is a perfect future side dish. i’d make it for thanksgiving but i’m already doing Giada’s butternut squash lasgna which is basically also bechamel and cheese. man oh man i cant wait to try this!
it’s so funny to discover your receipes on the other side of the Ocean ! I went on “FOOD BOX” blog and discover your link.
your cauli is really…purple ! and remeber me the Romanesco cauli (green and strange structure) and the Vitelote potatoe (purple potatoe).
see you next by the net !
(sorry for my english, I hope it’s not so bad…)
How pretty! I bet kids would get a real kick out of this stuff!
that looks so cool – artistic even!
That looks absolutely delicious!
I’m going to have to make this for an upcoming Christmas party. I think you just made my husband really happy. He seems to be having cauliflower cravings of late. I bet he’ll love this!
GORGEOUS!! It almost looks like a blueberry cobbler in the first photograph, haha.
OMG – the photos of the freakishly hued cauliflower is FANTASTIC! I love freakishly hued veggies!
Deb,
I just want to understand your life. How on earth do you have enough time and energy to make all of this gorgeous food? I suppose you have no kids so that makes for more time but then who eats it all? I can’t live without your blog for constant inspiration. Thank you SO much! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I wish I was joining you. Ours aren’t that great anymore because my brother can’t eat gluten, his girlfriend can’t eat fat and then she and my daughter are vegetarians….though I am most of the time, not on Thanksgiving.
I’m not sure bleeding color is an indication of artificial coloring. Ever get blueberry or even plum stains on your clothes? Look at the color water turns when you boil little red-skinned new potatoes. You’re probably right, someone probably DID artificially color those psychedelic cauliflower, but it doesn’t necessarily follow. And I’m sure the gratin is great with plain old dingy white cauliflower.
I am a total sucker for purple and cheddar colored cauliflower – if nothing else, it looks very pretty together. Sorry it bled!
I *love* orange cauliflower (and it looks so beautiful in broccoli and cauliflower soup). I munch on it raw at work – it seems to a slightly nutty flavor to it compared to the white. (Or maybe I’m just nutty. Yes, that’s a distinct possibility). My go-to grocery store carries orange, purple and green (romanesco) varieties – they will all be beautiful this yummy dish. Thanks for sharing.
how on earth did you know that I have 2 huge heads of cauliflower in my refridgerator??? (I guess that takes the guesswork out of what to make for dinner tomorrow night!)
PS – I love Ina!!!
I don’t know…in theory this recipe looks great, but the blueberry-ishness of it kind of turns me off.
Those colored cauliflower are a hoot! I see the bright orange one at the farmers market and I swear that it would taste like cheez-its! I just made that gratin too! Sooo good.
That color is crazy, I am going to have to seek those out.
Wow! That purple cauliflower looks like it was grown at 3 mile Island. Talk about an electric colour!
That said, I do love cauliflower concoctions and I’m glad to see more people giving this worthy veggie the air time it deserves.
yum, love the colors.how can anyone resist eating cauliflower.
Oh no, you’re not alone! I also slack on my postings because I just keep cooking instead of writing. I made your pb brownies about a week ago and still haven’t had a chance to write about them… because I made boeuf bourguignon, fougasse, and molten chocolate cake this weekend. Who knows how long it will take me to get to writing about those?!
Thanks for sharing this recipe! It looks wonderful. I can’t wait to try it!
Thank god, lady. I was beginning to get an inferiority complex. :)
Wow, I have never heard of purple cauliflower- so cool! It is a pretty freaky color. I wonder if they have it in my local grocery store. I would love to see the look on my husband’s face when I come home with a purple cauliflower!
oh for the love of foods that taste so good and render me gassy as all heck! tmi? umm, i’m gonna need to see that cake you spoke of. stat.
You could sub green beans for the cauliflower and make it a green bean casserole!
Oh pray tell… where did you find purple cauliflower? I’ve had readers asking me on my blog where they can get technicolor cauliflower like Smitten Kitchen posted.
I assure you that you can buy purple and orange organic cauliflower – I grew them in my garden this year and was amazed at the hues. Beautiful.
I’ve found them at natural food stores – wholefoods..
I have never seen purple cauliflower!!!!
How strange, I made this exact same thing with yellow and purple cauliflower too last week! I found my rainbow hued cauliflower at a local Asian market.
That looks so tasty. I love cauliflower, the boyfriend does not (sigh). I’m already trying to come up with a way of forcing it into his mouth – cheese might help. The purple one looks amazing. I’ve never seen purple cauliflower before.
Seriously, when I first saw the photo of purple stuff with a crunchy looking topping I thought it was a blueberry cobbler!
I love that you made your bread crumbs from what appear to be pieces of left-over bagels.
No, but I should try that! It was a small sourdough roll. I always try pick one that looks like it would be the right size for what I need.
That is INSANE!! Talk about crazy cauliflower… my family would probably refuse to eat it as no-one here has ever seen anything by WHITE cauliflower. Wonder if we can grow it here (Australia)?? I WANT SOME!!!
:-)
BB
I’ve never had cauliflower before actually (I know, the shame) but the idea of it being in a mac ‘n’ cheese setting makes it sound more appetizing. And I do like freakishly colored natural foods….hmm.
Oh how fun! I’ve always wondered how I could use those crazy colored cauliflowers in the store without making a pile of brightly colored steamed mush. I bet you could even get kids to eat this!
Those cauliflower are beautiful!! I’m going to have to look for them next time I’m out and about shopping. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to find them in rural Ohio, but it’s worth a shot!
Don’t know what I’d do without my daily “Smitten” fix. You never disappoint. The cauliflower looks spectacular.
I’m truly thankful for you and your wonderful creations. Happy Thanksgiving!
Wow, colored cauliflower. I’m not sure if I should head for the hills running and screaming. Or throw a party to see it people will actually eat it. I really like Ina’s cauliflower gratin recipe, so I have no doubt yours were delish.
Ok, I’d be lying if I didn’t say the first thing that came to my mind was LSU cauliflower! ;) But seriously, I was trying to figure out one more veggie dish that I could make for Thanksgiving that I can lighten up a little bit. This looks AMAZING. I must head to whole paycheck to get some colored cauliflower to try this!
Plus, anything with cheese on it, is good in my eyes.
I love this recipe. I also make it with asiago cheese.
Wow. I have never seen purple and orange cauliflower. When I first looked at the picture, I though there were blueberries in there.
Boy, oh boy, am I thankful for you and this site this Thanksgiving! My gratin is in the oven and I know already this will be the start of a new tradition at our family table. The sauce alone was amazing. Totally worth the search for the blue cauliflower! Many thanks to you for this and all your other awesome recipes!
I made this wonderful dish for Thanksgiving. It was the only dish we ran out of! Everyone loved it. Since there were no leftovers, I’ll have to make it again soon. This year, Smitten Kitchen is one of the things I’m thankful for.
I made some steamed green cauliflower (apparently a cross between broccoli and cauliflower) with a white cheddar chesse sauce a couple of weeks ago. I loved it! It had such a nice mild flavor. This gratin would be great with the green stuff.
I was at the 99 cent store in Hollywood today and they had both the purple and orange cauliflowers. I could do a big tray of this for just a few bucks.
I just popped a pan of this in the oven–can’t wait to try it in about 20 minutes. Will have for dinner tonight with broiled or baked tilapia, and maybe a salad. Will post a review after I taste it–looking forward to it!
I made something similar to this earlier in the week with white and green cauliflower. My boyfirend E said “if its green cauliflower isn’t it broccoli?”. I then showed him your pretty pictures.
WOW! I also live near a 99 cent store in Pasadena, and these brilliant cauliflowers are just 99 cents a HUGE FRESH HEAD. So I made this tonight. I only had heavy cream to work with and Trader Joe’s swiss cheese, but it turned out great. Use panko bread crumbs if you can. This recipe is SUPER FABULOUS, thank you SK again!
really interesting. with the purple cauliflower, it looks like dessert at first glance. yum.
Yay! Cauliflower is back in season, and this is just what I needed! (BTW, we grow our own purple cauliflower, and have done so with orange in past seasons. And yes, it turns those funky colors all by its own natural self.)
My mother-in-law has not gotten the hang of “succession planting” so we’ve got three heads of purple cauli sitting on the counter right now. If you should feel inspired to make more purple-cauli recipes and blog about them, I’ll be ready to read them (-:!
Thank you for the recipe.
I’ve made this twice already, which a few variations. Each time on an impulse buy from the supermarket to the colorful cauliflower. I added some rice on the bottom one time and finely chopped onions another time. Either way, it tasted great.
Thank you again.
Hi Deb, I really love your recipes and the effort you put into each of them.
Just stumbled onto your site; good god! Everything looks so beautiful and sounds so tasty, it really makes you want to try them, not just read about or look at them. You remind me of my daughter, also a foodie who lives in the East Village, who cooks and bakes in an impossibly small kitchen. That you take the time to share your recipes and insight with the public, that’s our windfall. I will no longer go to the Food Network site for recipes. Yours seem vastly more interesting and sophisticated (without being impractical for a home cook). Thank you!
Made this tonight to go with the Romanesco cauli I bought at the farmers’ market on Saturday. And OMG yum! This may be the first time I’ve made bechemel sauce, but it sure as shootin’ won’t be the last.
Made this for the first time last night to go with Thanksgiving dinner. It was a tremendous, hands-down hit! YUMMMMM!
I also made this for the first time yesterday for my first london thanksgiving with my new blondeboy…and I can see this becoming a holt-piany tradition!! It was so yummy even though I had to substitute for Gruyere with the med. cheddar in the fridge. Thanks for sharing – am sending my cooking dad this link for his collection. xxx