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I consider myself pretty luck in love. I’ve experienced first love (and second love), what it truly means to care for someone and someone to care for me and am fortunate to have never had my heart-broken. That is until now.
Don’t worry, C didn’t dump me (he’s smart enough not to do that!) but rather I am talking about my second true love, cheese. Cheese and I have always had a tumultuous relationship. By this I mean it hates me and no matter how many times it takes advantage of my tummy I never seem to learn my lesson. We go back and forth and just when I think I’m over it I find myself staring at a container of ricotta wanting to dive in spoon first. What can I say, cheese? You’re a hard block of guyere to get over.
Lately I have been trying to avoid going overboard with the dairy. As much as I love cheese and yogurt (the only kinds of dairy I eat), I’m not into looking and feeling like a heifer, which seems to be my body’s natural reaction to all things cow. But you know I’m not one for restriction so I’m trying to find ways to sub out dairy where I see fit. Like mac n’ cheese (or baked “cheesy” cauliflower…whatevs) which I eat just about never.
Actually I’m pretty sure the last time I ate mac n’ cheese was in college, drunk, with enough frank’s red hot to start a fire in my mouth. Truth-be-told I think the cheese they use in the boxed stuff is questionable so perhaps I wouldn’t have a bad reaction to it after all.
But since I’m not about to go throwing nutritional yeast onto my pizza or inside my zavioli, I figured I could probably live with creating a fake-out mac n’ cheese. Now folks, don’t come yelling at me when this doesn’t taste like the real stuff! That would require me to somehow develop a dairy-free cheese chemical and since I know nothing about chemistry, you’re out of luck.
I’ve yet to find a cheese substitute that actually tastes like cheese. I’ve heard good things about daiya, but since I’m new to the cheese single-life I thought I would take things slow and stick to nutritional yeast. It’s actually pretty good and I’ll suck up my cheese snobbery to save myself the tummy ache. Will I be coming home at 2:00 AM craving this Baked “Cheesy” Cauliflower? Probably not. But that’s because my drunk food of choice is always poutine, hold the cheese curds.
PrintBaked “Cheesy” Cauliflower {Dairy-Free}
- Total Time: 40 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 large head of cauliflower, chopped into florets
- 1/2 large onion, diced
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 1/2 cups unsweetened almond milk*
- 3 T tapioca starch**
- 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
- 1 egg
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
- In a large pot heat up olive oil over medium-high heat.
- Add in onion and sauté for 5 mins or until translucent.
- Heat up almond milk in microwave for 1 minute or on stove top (in a separate pot) until warm.
- Stir tapioca starch in with almond milk until well-combined.
- Reduce heat on pot with onions to low and add in almond milk-tapioca mixture. Continue stirring until mix has thickened (about 1 minute). Remove from heat.
- Add in nutritional yeast and salt and pepper. Let mixture cool for 5-10 mins.
- Stir in egg until well-combined.
- Add in chopped cauliflower and coat with mixture.
- Spray 4 small ramekins or a larger ovenproof baking dish with non-stick spray or coconut oil.
- Divide mixture between ramekins or add to baking dish.
- Cook for 30 minutes.
- Increase oven to broil and cook for another 2 minutes.
- Remove from oven and serve.
Notes
*Can use any dairy-free milk. **Can use any starch such as corn but use tapioca if paleo.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 4
I love cheese (it’s pretty much its own food group for me lately), but I also really like nutritional yeast. I don’t think it really is a replacement for cheese, but it tastes good in its own unique way!
I love faux easy dishes! And I’m sure I would eat this all up. In the last year I’ve made a bunch of new recipes that are cheesy, but dairy free. One Mac and cheese recipe uses sunflower seeds, a nacho chips dip uses cashews, and another dish uses tofu and nutritional yeast. They all are cheesy and amazing. I too try to stay away from dairy to feel better!
I am so sorry to hear about your rocky relationship with cheese. That’s really rough. Because what is poutine without the cheese curds?
I’ve yet to try nutritional yeast, mostly because I can’t find it, but partly because I wouldn’t want a cheese substitute if I can have the real thing. But I might get it one day and make this because I want to experience the vegan side o’ life.
Never had nutritional yeast…. I’m probably 5 years behind on that. As for dairy…I’ve kind of been thinking that my stomach might not love it, but I love it and nothing too extreme happens so, until it does, I will continue to adore my dairy 🙂
I’ve never used nutritional yeast and had no idea that you could make fake cheese with it!!!
Well at least you put the “cheesy” part in quotes. 😉 I’m sure the lactose intolerant folks are loving you right about now.
Tell ya what: I’d be happy to take all your cheese. I promise to treat it well.
Oooo… this sounds delicious! Although I’d probably cave and put some real cheese on there, too! haha
I’m -so- thankful that my stomach doesn’t seem to have a problem with yogurt since that probably makes up at least 40% of my diet… And it’s usually okay with cheese too, except for the rare occasion where I’ll still be feeling a pizza 2 days after I ate it 😯
This sounds awesome! I also hear the siren song of cheese and it never ends well. I have really warmed up to nutritional yeast, cashew cheese, etc. It will never be the same, but it’s worth it to not feel like crap after eating it. And the fake-out cheese recipes are still really good!
Ha! You are always so funny! I am so sorry you have a bad relationship with cheese. I love cheese. We get along too well!