Cauliflower and broccoli cheese bake

I have been wanting to make cauliflower cheese for weeks now and finally got around to it this week. I haven’t eaten it for years, probably since before I moved to Indonesia, so cooking this delicious comfort food was long overdue.

You can make it with just cauliflower or mix it with broccoli like I did and add a few other simple ingredients to make a meal out of it.

Bubbling cauliflower and broccoli bake.

I love a creamy cheesy white sauce (who doesn’t hey?) and this is super easy and quick to make. I decided to have it as the main dish rather than a side dish so thought it would be fun to cook in gorgeous individual baking dishes (my ones are lime green like most of my favorite cooking gadgets are). You can of course cook it in one larger dish and serve it at the table straight from the oven. I enjoyed it with crusty bread for mopping up the cheese sauce and also a leafy green salad. It was heavenly, but would be just a lovely as a side dish served with roast chicken or pork chops for all you carnivores.

Ingredients

1 medium head of cauliflower chopped up into pieces

1 medium head of broccoli chopped into pieces

Seasoning

20 g of butter

2 tbsp of flour

1 ½ cups of milk

1 cup of grated cheese (cheddar is perfect for this)

¼ onion sliced as thinly as you can

1 clove of minced garlic

3 or 4 tbsp bread crumbs

Enough grated cheese to sprinkle on the top ( I used a mix of cheddar and Parmesan approx 3 tbsp)

Partly cooked cauliflower and broccoli

Grated cheddar.

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180.

Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and add the cauliflower and broccoli. Bring back to the boil and once boiling cook for 2-3 mins just (don’t overcook as the veggies will continue to cook in the oven). Drain and place in whatever baking dish you are using with the onion and garlic mixed through too (no need to cook these).

Melt the butter in a saucepan and stir in the flour and cook, stirring continuously for another minute. Add the milk and over a medium heat keep stirring until the sauce is thickened and smooth. Remove the sauce from the heat, season and add the cup of grated cheese and keep stirring until the cheese has melted.

Pour the sauce over the vegetables, sprinkle with breadcrumbs, the extra cheese and seasoning. Place in the oven for 15-20 minutes until it is golden on top and bubbling. 

White sauce

Cheese added to the white sauce

Broccoli and cauliflower in the baking dishes

Breadcrumbs added on top of the veggies and cheese sauce

An extra sprinkling of cheese on top and ready for the oven

Serve as a side or main dish with crusty bread for mopping up the delicious cheesy sauce. I love a few splashes of Worcester sauce on my cauliflower and broccoli cheese bake, it goes beautifully with the cheese sauce (just as it does with mac ‘n cheese too).

Golden and still bubbling from the oven

Ready to eat

Enjoy this tasty old classic revamped with a few extras!

Cheese and jalapeno scoffins

I hadn’t made any scones since living in the UK so I decided to look up a cheese scone recipe to make last week. It turns out I picked a not very good recipe and so this recipe evolved from me adapting it to make it better. The mix was far too wet to flatten out and cut scones from as one normally does, so instead of adding more flour to dry the mix out I added more milk and treated it more like a muffin mix. It was at this point that I was inspired to add some chopped jalapenos to the mix too (I always enjoy a bit of spice) so I am kind of glad the original recipe went wrong! Leave out the jalapenos if spice isn’t your thing or substitute them for chopped sun-dried tomatoes or olives. The result is a light fluffy tasty cross between a scone and a muffin- “the scoffin”.

Meet the "Scoffin".

I love bread and can’t imagine life without it but it is nice to have a change from my regular sourdough or granary bread at breakfast time. These scoffins were a delightful alternative and lovely warmed just with a little butter spread on them by themselves or with poached eggs and spinach as I had them, or with eggs and bacon as my husband enjoyed them.

Ingredients

2 cups self raising flour

2 tsp baking powder

Pinch of paprika

Pinch of salt

Pinch of black pepper

150g grated cheese (I used 120g cheddar and 30g Parmesan)

1 beaten egg

150ml milk

3 tsp of vegetable oil

2 tbsp of pickled jalapenos, de-seeded and diced

The cheesy mix ready to go in the oven.

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180.

Sift flour, baking powder, paprika, salt and pepper into a bowl. Whisk the egg and milk together in another bowl and add the oil and mix again. Add the liquid mix to the flour mix and combine with a metal spoon. Then fold through the cheese and jalapenos.

Spoon the mix into muffin molds until ¾ full. Place in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes. This mix made 12 medium muffins.

Fresh out the oven.

Scoffins cooling.

Yummy cheese and jalapeno scoffin.

 Enjoy with your breakfast or brunch!

Lychee, lime and yogurt muffins

This recipe was the result of a real experimental baking session in the kitchen and I am very pleased with the final result. Originally I had the idea to cook lychee muffins as I had picked up a tin of lychees randomly (something I’ve never bought before in a tin) in the supermarket the other day and wasn’t sure what I would make with them and figured my husband had enjoyed the pear muffins I made last week so why not make some more.

Fresh from the oven!

I remembered once seeing on a cooking show plain yogurt being used in a cup-cake or muffin recipe, so thought I’d throw that in the mix too. In my first batch I didn’t use any lime juice or zest and on tasting I felt the muffins were missing something as lychee is quite a delicate flavor, so I ended up making the lime sugar drizzle to put on the top and this really improved the flavor. So for my second batch I thought I would incorporate lime in the recipe in the form of zest and juice and it really works. This makes complete sense as the lychee martinis I enjoy at one of my favourite restaurants are good with lime in too! 

Tinned lychees in syrup

I’m sure any citrus fruit would work well such as orange, lemon or grapefruit. If I could buy blood oranges here in Bali I’d love to try those in this recipe and the juice would color the mix too! Anyway I hope you give them a try.

Ingredients

1 cup of chopped lychees (from a tin)

1 cup of lychee syrup (from the tinned lychees)

1 beaten egg

1 cup of natural yogurt

1 tbsp baking powder

4 tbsp sugar

250g plain flour

100g melted butter

Zest of one lime

Juice of one lime

Extra 2 tsp of sugar for on top on cooked muffins

Plain yogurt

One cup of chopped lychees and one cup of lychee syrup

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180. In a bowl mix the syrup, egg, natural yogurt and half the lime juice. Melt the butter and mix into the other liquids. Stir in the 4 tbsp of sugar. Sift the flour and baking powder on top of the bowl of liquids and then fold in. Then fold in the lychee pieces and lime zest.

Lychees just added to the muffin mix about to be folded in

Spoon the mixture into muffin mould or cases (filling close but not all the way to the top). This yields 12 medium or 6 large muffins. Bake in the oven for approximately 2—25 minutes until golden brown. You can insert a metal skewer into one of the muffins to test if it is cooked and if it comes out clean they are done. If not quite cooked pop back in the oven for another minute or two. 

Freshly baked muffins

Muffins cooling

Ginger and spinach zinger and lychee, lime and yogurt muffin for breakfast :)

 

 Eat, smile, enjoy!

Pepper and zucchini lasagna

I love that there are so many different versions of lasagna. I often cook a traditional lasagna and substitute the minced meat for minced soy protein, it is a real comfort food. Sometimes though I want something much lighter and this recipe is just that. It is not at all stodgy and celebrates fresh vegetables.

I don’t know why some people are afraid of making home-made lasagna, it is really easy to make and I had the whole thing assembled from scratch in 20 minutes or less (and you can save time by using a store bought tomato pasta sauce rather than make your own if your prefer). Give it a try.

Bubbling lasagna fresh from the oven

Ingredients and method (serves 4)

Lasagna pasta sheets

1 medium zucchini sliced lengthways into thin slices (I use a palm peeler to do this quickly)

1 bell pepper sliced lengthways into thin slices

1 onion thinly sliced and stir-fried until lightly browned

Some grated cheese (cheddar or parmesan) to sprinkle on the top

Delicious veggies

Thin slices of zucchini

Thin slices of bell pepper

Onion being stir-fried in the pan

Vegetables prepared and ready for assembly

Tomato sauce 

(you could use a store bought jar of pasta sauce for speed)

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

1 tbsp of olive oil

½ onion finely diced

1-2 cloves of garlic minced

Seasoning

1tsp dried thyme

1tsp dried oregano

A few leaves of fresh basil

Method

Heat the oil in a saucepan and cook the onion until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for one minute more before adding the tomatoes. Add the herbs and stir continuously until simmering. Allow to simmer for 10 minutes on a low-medium heat, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

Easy tomato sauce

Cheese sauce

3 tbsp butter

3 tbsp flour (sifted)

3 cups of milk

Seasoning

180-200g of grated cheese (mature cheddar is good)

Melt the butter in a saucepan and stir in the flour until combined. Keep stirring on the heat for one more minute and then add the milk. Keep stirring on a low heat until the milk has thickened and you have a smooth white sauce. Season. Remove from the heat and add the grated cheese. Stir until the cheese has melted. Return to the heat for one more minute, stirring continuously, then remove from heat and set aside.

How to assemble the lasagna

I use a square pyrex dish that is slightly larger than 2 sheets of lasagna lying side-by-side. Lightly oil the dish. Pre-heat the oven to 180.

Put a thin layer of the tomato sauce on the base followed by a layer of lasagna. On top of this put another thin coating of tomato sauce followed by a layer of peppers, cooked onion and a layer of zucchini slices then cheese sauce. Repeat with lasagna, tomato sauce, vegetables then cheese sauce. Keep going until you have used up all your tomato sauce and veggies, making sure you finish with a layer of cheese sauce. Normally I have enough to do about 3-4 layers. 

A layer of peppers and onions on top of tomato sauce

A layer of zucchini

Sprinkle a generous helping of cheddar or parmesan on the top of the cheese sauce and season. This will form a golden topping in the oven. Place in the oven for 30-35 minutes. You should see all the layers bubbling when you remove it from the oven.

I serve this with a nice salad. Arugula, romaine and radicchio with some cherry tomatoes and celery works well. A simple squeeze of lime and some cracked black pepper is enough to dress the salad and contrasts well with the creaminess of the lasagna. Garlic bread is a favorite accompaniment too with lasagna in my house!

Cheese sauce spread over the zucchini layer

The top of the lasagna, seasoned and sprinkled with parmesan

Straight out of the oven, golden and delicious!

Served with a lovely salad you'll be going back for seconds!

Enjoy your light, tasty, nutritious lasagna!