Baked cauliflower with garlic butter and mature havarti – an easy side dish.
Baked cauliflower with garlic butter and havarti – an easy and truly delicious way to serve cauliflower. The cauliflower is baked until tender and golden, with plenty of flavour from garlic butter and spices, before it is topped with grated havarti and baked until golden and bubbling. It tastes simply wonderful, and it is a joy when something this simple turns out this good.
I am very fond of oven-baked cauliflower, especially when it gets to bake with a generous amount of garlic butter. It gives the loveliest flavour, and the cauliflower turns tender with lightly golden edges. Together with the melted havarti you get a wonderful combination of soft cauliflower, spiced butter and golden, melted cheese.
I start by cutting the cauliflower into thick slices, almost like small cauliflower steaks, which I break into slightly smaller pieces and spread out on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Then I melt butter and mix it with freshly grated garlic, paprika, onion powder, salt and freshly ground pepper. The butter mixture is brushed generously over the cauliflower so that every piece gets plenty of flavour. You can also happily use ready-made garlic butter if you want to make it even easier.
The cauliflower is first baked for about 15 minutes, so it starts to soften and take on a little colour. Then I take it out of the oven and scatter finely grated havarti over the top. I turn the heat up a little and let the cauliflower bake for a further 10 minutes or so, until the cheese has melted and turned golden on top.
Finally I sprinkle it with fresh parsley and chives, which add a welcome freshness to the butter-baked cauliflower and the creamy cheese.
I think this baked cauliflower is a fantastic side for almost anything. It goes perfectly with roast chicken, a good steak and fish, but it is also lovely served warm on a tapas table alongside other small dishes.
A lovely recipe for oven-baked cauliflower with garlic butter and golden, melted havarti that takes very little work but delivers a great deal of flavour. The kind of vegetable dish that can quickly become a regular favourite at the dinner table.
Baked cauliflower with garlic butter and havarti
Ingredients
- 1 cauliflower
- 50 g butter
- 1 clove garlic, grated or crushed
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 100 g mature havarti, finely grated
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
- Chopped chives and parsley, to finish
Method
- Remove the leaves and the tough bottom part of the stalk from the cauliflower.
- Cut the cauliflower into slices about 1 cm thick and lay them on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
- Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the garlic, paprika and onion powder and warm through for about a minute.
- Brush the cauliflower with the butter, season with salt and freshly ground pepper and bake in a preheated conventional oven (top and bottom heat) at 200°C for about 15 minutes.
- Take the tray out of the oven and turn the heat up to 225°C.
- Scatter the cheese over the cauliflower, return the tray to the oven and bake for a further 10 minutes or so.
- Sprinkle the top with chives and parsley and serve while still warm.
Nutrition
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