Cauliflower With White Sauce

 Not everybody likes cauliflower. Maybe it's the smell, maybe it's the taste, but it is a very underestimated vegetable in my opinion. Since I am a vegetable person and since I like food in the oven, I tend to experiment a lot. Especially by using vegetables, you can make the best pastries, savoury dishes or garnishes. Today's dish is pretty typical dinner party dish in Turkish houses. I made a couple of changes in the original recipe. I made it lighter by not using cream and reducing the amount of butter; also I added garlic because I know that it transforms everything. I also added broccoli stems. Whenever we buy a bunch of broccoli, we like to steam the nice flowery parts but the stems go to waste. Why? Actually, they are very good in taste and they are crunchy. I sometimes chop them very thinly and add in salads, they taste really nice. Plus, in this dish it gives a nice pale green colour, which is very delightful. Cauliflower with white sauce can accompany your grilled meat, meatballs or chicken, or if you are a vegetarian, you can have it like a main course. It is that delicious!

Ingredients:
Serves 4
A bunch of cauliflower
Stems of a bunch of broccoli
1/2 litre of milk
2 table spoons of flour
2 table spoons of butter
2 cloves of garlic (crushed)
1 cup of grated melting cheese
Salt and pepper


How to:
1. Wash the cauliflower and the broccoli stems and boil or steam them for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the white sauce.
2. For the sauce, take a saucepan and add the butter and flour together. Start mixing quickly on medium heat and once they blend together, mix for 2 or 3 minutes more and then start adding the milk. The milk has to be cold, otherwise your flour will clot.
4. Keep on mixing the flour, butter with milk and it will thicken nicely. At this step, add your crushed garlic inside and turn off the heat.
5. In a deep casserole dish, put the cauliflower and broccoli stems, mix with some salt and pepper and pour in the white sauce. Make sure that the sauce goes everywhere, you can stir with a spoon.
6. Cover everything up with your grated cheese and put in the 160 degrees oven for 20 minutes or until the cheese melts and you have a golden crust. Serve when warm. Bon apetite!