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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.

Baked "Cheesy" Cauliflower // thehealthymaven.com #dairyfree #paleoLately 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.

Baked "Cheesy" Cauliflower // thehealthymaven.com #dairyfree #paleoBut 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.

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Baked “Cheesy” Cauliflower {Dairy-Free}

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  • Total Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients

Scale
  • 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

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
  2. In a large pot heat up olive oil over medium-high heat.
  3. Add in onion and sauté for 5 mins or until translucent.
  4. Heat up almond milk in microwave for 1 minute or on stove top (in a separate pot) until warm.
  5. Stir tapioca starch in with almond milk until well-combined.
  6. 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.
  7. Add in nutritional yeast and salt and pepper. Let mixture cool for 5-10 mins.
  8. Stir in egg until well-combined.
  9. Add in chopped cauliflower and coat with mixture.
  10. Spray 4 small ramekins or a larger ovenproof baking dish with non-stick spray or coconut oil.
  11. Divide mixture between ramekins or add to baking dish.
  12. Cook for 30 minutes.
  13. Increase oven to broil and cook for another 2 minutes.
  14. 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

Baked Cauliflower Mac n' Cheese-It may not be the real stuff but this #dairyfree and #paleo mac n' cheese is packed full of flavour with the goodness of cauliflower! // thehealthymaven.com Dairy, yay or nay? Have you ever tried nutritional yeast?

Meet the Maven

Hi! I'm Davida and welcome to my corner of the internet. I'm a wellness blogger, yoga teacher, certified herbalist, and green beauty lover.

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42 Comments

  1. I also have trouble with “dairy” including cheese and yogurt. But goat products are ok. Have you tried goat cheddar? It’s to die for! 🙂

  2. DAMN this looks amazing!!!!! I am a little scared of nutritional yeast. Tell me not to be.

  3. I have GOT to try this. Ugh, I know it, my body does crazy (really crazy :/) things when I overload on dairy. Sometimes I just have to have my cheesy fix and thank goodness for nutritional yeast. It is the bomb! 🙂 As is this recipe – Pinning!