Banting Macaroni Cheese (Without the Macaroni)

I made this dish and it fed my husband and I twice. It so reminded me of macaroni cheese but without the macaroni – the main ingredient is cauliflower, but you can add a multitude of other veggies if you want to. The magic is in the sauce.

For first time visitors – Banting recipes come up on my blog once a week – on a Saturday. For the rest of the week I ramble about various things including my life, my thoughts, what I learn, my marriage, my lifestyle, my faith, whatever I am thinking about or doing.

This recipe is a winner. I saw it on Facebook on one of those 1 minute videos.

Ingredients I used:

1 large cauliflower head
A few florets of broccoli (you can add as much as you like)
1 onion, roughly chopped
250g bacon
250g tub of plain creamed cheese
A cup of grated cheddar cheese
Half a cup of cream
Half a teaspoon of crushed garlic

Method

I cleaned and steamed the broccoli until soft.
I chopped the onion and bacon and cooked bacon first until almost crisp, then on its own fried the onion in the bacon fat with a bit of butter added until the onion was golden. Mixed those together.
For the sauce, I put the creamed cheese in a bowl, added the grated cheese, cream and garlic and mixed well.
Then I added the bacon and onion to the sauce mixture.
I put the cauli and broccoli in a oven proof pan and broke up the florets. Then I added the sauce mixture and folded it all in.
Grated cheese went on top of that and I baked it for about 20 minutes in an oven preheated until 180C. I probably could have let it go a little longer – as mine is not that golden!
It was great. It fed Mike & I over two nights, so it is great for 4. Yum!
It can be an accompaniment to a meat dish, or on its own. You can take it to a braai. The magic is in the sauce. It is delicious!

The photos are below…

1 head of cauliflower and a few broccoli florets

cauli-and-broccoli