Cauliflower and Broccoli Cheese is the ultimate comforting and warming meal. I’ve always loved it even when I used a sauce made from real cheese. So I thought I would have a go at a vegan version. You could also swap the cauliflower and broccoli for macaroni pasta too. I have done this before and it’s great, but in the interest of more vitamins and less carbs, I chose to use non starchy vegetables in place of pasta for this recipe.

Jaime Oliver’s Cauliflower and Broccoli Cheese gave me the first bit of inspiration for this recipe as I used to often make his recipe when I ate dairy. The rest just sort of came from making lots of cashew sauces and cream cheeses and creams over the past couple of years. I added a few more ingredients and changed the sauce up a bit from what I usually put in my cashew cream cheese.  This sauce includes ingredients such as dijon and garlic for a bit of an extra kick of flavour.

You could also add a tiny bit of ground turmeric to give it more of a yellow colour. I don’t really think it needs it, but it’s not going to hurt either, just use a small amount. My recipe calls for roasted cashews. So don’t go using raw. They honestly have a much stronger and better flavour and it’ll taste quite different with raw cashews. You can either buy them already roasted, or you can buy them raw and roast them in the oven for about 10mins first. 

The great thing about this meal is that it’s actually quicker than it’s non-vegan counterpart. No mucking around for ages making a roux and then making the sauce over the stove stop, waiting for it to thicken etc. You literally just chuck all the cheese sauce ingredients into a blender, blend it up, season and it’s good to go. Cooking the cauliflower and broccoli at the start until they’re just starting to soften takes no more than 5mins and because they’re already partly cooked, the dish at the end needs less time in the oven.

This meal is deceivingly filling and will give you around 5 main serves or 8-10 side serves.