Yummy Lummy’s sous vide cauliflower cheese
This is a Yummy Lummy original recipe.
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Sous vide isn’t just for meat. It can be used for vegetables too. I thought I’d focus on a vegetable this weekend and the target of my attention was cauliflower. I grew up loving cauliflower cheese. Mum made great cauliflower cheese. We’d have it with roast beef and gravy made from the pan juices. I loved the combination of roast meat, gravy and cheesy soft cauliflower on my fork. A traditional cauliflower cheese is made with a cheesy white sauce so that means flour. Given I’ve already indulged today on a Grand Big Mac I needed to make my cauliflower cheese sans flour.
Timing is an important element when cooking different foods in a sous vide water bath. I wanted to cook the cauliflower and the meat at the same time and ensure both would be ready together after browning some cheese on the cauliflower and searing the meat.
I bought all the ingredients from Coles. I cooked with an Anova Culinary precision cooker. No, Yummy Lummy is not sponsored by anyone.
Recipe
- Cauliflower florets
- Cauliflower rice
- Iodised salt
- Freshly cracked black pepper
- 1 Chicken stock cube
- 1 teaspoon Curry powder
- 1 teaspoon Chilli flakes
- 1 handful Grated Coon cheese
- ½ cup pouring cream
- Finely sliced chives
- Sesame oil
- Lamb rump steaks
- Iodised salt flakes
- Freshly cracked black pepper
- Garlic powder
- Olive oil
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Roughly cut a head of cauliflower into florets and put into a freezer-safe zip lock bag. Keep all the 'crumbs' of the cauliflower that are leftover and quickly convert them into "cauliflower rice" using a food processor. Put the cauliflower rice into a separate container.
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Crush the chicken stock cube and mix it with the curry powder, iodised salt and freshly cracked black pepper and mix this through with the cauliflower rice. Whisk in the pouring cream to make sure everything is mixed through. For the cream, you want to use about half the volume of the cauliflower. Mix in the grated Coon cheese and make sure the cheese is well coated. The idea is to not have too much liquid in the bag.
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Pour the wet ingredients into the zip lock bag of cauliflower florets and mix it all together by gently massaging the outside of the bag being careful not to get any of the contents coating the mouth of the bag.
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Gently place the bag into water and submerge it slowly so all the air is displaced. When all the air is displaced, fastened the zip lock seal.
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Cook the cauliflower cheese in the sous vide water bath at the temperature and for the duration of the meat.
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When the cooking time is finished, remove the bag from the water bath and gently dry the outside of the bag. Gently massage the bag and mash the the contents to make sure everything is mixed and softened.
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Remove the contents from the bag and put it into an oven-proof bowl. Add some more cheese on top and grill the cheese until it takes on a bowl colour.
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Keep the cauliflower cheese warm until the meat is ready.
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Allow the lamb rump steaks to equilibrate to room temperature and then season each side of the steaks with some iodised salt flakes, freshly cracked black pepper and garlic powder.
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Place the steaks into a zip lock bag and then add some olive oil. using the displacement method, remove the air from the bag and seal the zip lock bag.
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Weigh down the bag in the water bath and cook for two hours at 57 °C/135 °F.
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When the cooking time has ended, remove the meat bag from the water bath. Remove the steaks from the bag and pat them dry with paper towel. Place the meat onto a plate and then into a refrigerator for 10 minutes. too cool down to help increase the searing time.
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After the meat has cooled, remove it from the refrigerator and then in a hot frying pan with a little avocado oil (or any other high smoking point oil) sear the steaks to the desired colour.
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Allow the meat to rest for a few minutes and then slice.
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Spoon out some cauliflower cheese and put it onto a plate. Place the slices of lamb steak on top of the cauliflower cheese.
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Garnish with some torn up parsley.
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Shoot a photograph (or two or more).
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Enjoy the meal.
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Wash the dishes.
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Write the recipe.
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Write the blog post and hope friends and readers will share the blog post on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.
Disclaimer
I have no culinary training nor qualifications.
This post is not intended to convey any health or medical advice. If you have any health concerns about anything you read, please contact your registered medical practitioner.
The quantities are indicative. Feel free to vary the quantities to suit your taste.
I deliberately do not calculate energy for dishes. I deliberately default to 500 Calories or 500,000 calories because I do not make these calculations.
Photographs
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Questions and answers
How did the cauliflower cheese taste?
It was good. It was easy to make. I’d do this again. If I wasn’t low carb living, I’d probably make a cheesy white sauce, but hey, I’m not missing the flour.
What were the lamb rump steaks like?
I was pleasantly surprised. I like lamb, but normally when there is bone cooked with it for flavour. Lamb rump steaks are good. The flesh was tender and the taste was mild. It wasn’t a strong lamb taste like a rack or shoulder or leg of lamb.
Why didn’t you add Vegemite to the cauliflower cheese? You add it to almost everything else.
Because that would be wrong. I’m not crazy!
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Final thoughts
Do you like cauliflower cheese?
Do you ever add curry powder to your cauliflower cheese?
What’s your favourite recipe for cauliflower cheese?
Thank you, Lorraine, for the lovely comment last week.
I think the value add of spices would really be. delicious!
I like how good cauliflower is at absorbing flavours Michele.
Hehe I think Vegemite would be good with this! Just a smidge really 😉
I’ll try it next time. I’m open minded about adding Vegemite to anything 😃
I love cauliflower and cauliflower cheese. This is a great recipe. I’ve never added curry powder to mine, but that’s a great idea.
The curry powder and chilli flakes really made this more enjoyable.
I love cauliflower cheese, too, especially with a good lamb roast. Loved the fact that you didn’t add vegmite – and enjoying your sous vide experiments.
Thanks Serina. As much as I love Vegemite, I don’t add it to everything. For example, tonight, rather than add Vegemite to my quinoa, I’m adding anchovies.
I love cauliflower Gary. I love it baked in the oven. Such a good vegetable but I never liked it as a child.
I agree Sue, cauliflower is much better baked. It has a richer flavour when cooked in the oven.
I’ve never heard of cauliflower cheese! But I love your seasoning! The dish sounds wonderful, sous vide’d or not.
Thank you very much Chef Mimi. It’s worth having a go. It tastes better with a cheesy white sauce and goes well with roasted beef or lamb.
We do have a sous vide but have never used it with veggies. I’ll have to experiment the next time we are having steaks.
I hope you do Karen. It’s worth the experimenting. If I wasn’t low carb living, potatoes would be high on my list of starchy vegetables to do. I will try pumpkin next.
Veggies are probably my favorite thing in the sous vide, in terms of taste. I think they really absorb all the flavors perfectly.
I’ll be doing a lot more I reckon.
That looks delicious!
Thank you very much. It was.
That cauliflower cheese sounds delicious. I can’t remember if I’ve ever had it…I’d say I don’t think so.
Grand Big Mac sounded like a good treat. How about another lunch treat tomorrow 😀
You’ve got to stop tempting me Mabel 😂
I will be eating cake today. You’ll need to check my IG feed to see what I get 😃