Smokey speck and sharp cheddar cheese give this Speck Ham Cheesy Cauliflower dish a wonderfully complex flavor. Serve as a side dish or as an entrée with a green vegetable or a salad. Can also leave out the speck for a delicious vegetarian option.
Guess what I started on Monday? A 10 day whole food detox plan and it doesn’t include anything that is in this recipe! Actually, it does include fresh cauliflower but doesn’t include anything fun, like sugar, potato chips, dairy, or alcohol. Oh yeah and you have to sit down for this one…no caffeine for 10 days. No joke. Not having my daily caffeine is literally enough to drive me over the edge. I like my 2-3 cups of coffee per day and especially love that large mug of it first thing in the morning. Not gonna get it on this detox. Although, I guess that’s the point of a detox, right? Purging the system of the daily nonsense that we put into it so that it works better. Well, I’m already struggling with the no caffeine big time, so here’s a tip: don’t have anything to do with me until this detox is over because I’m gonna be a little grumpy ?
Enough about the detox diet, let’s celebrate this delicious Speck Ham Cheesy Cauliflower recipe. Quick and easy, it’s on the table in 30 minutes. Oven roasted until it’s all hot and bubbling and is just like creamy mac and cheese but using healthy fresh cauliflower instead of pasta. There’s also a huge dose of speck ham (a whole cup!) because nothing’s better than a bunch of salty pork in a cheesy veggie mixture. The speck gives the dish a wonderful smokey flavor and also pairs well with the sharp cheese. Feel free to substitute regular ham, bacon, pancetta, or prosciutto for the Speck, or even leave out the meat entirely for a completely vegetarian dish. By the way, this is the same Speck Alto Adige PGI that I received as a sample and made these yummy Speck Ham Tater Tots. This speck is so superior in quality and taste and I’m absolutely in love with it!
Speck Ham Cheesy Cauliflower is the perfect kinda healthy comfort food and a great addition to any meal…unless of course you’re on a detox diet. ?
- 1 large head of fresh cauliflower, cut into bite-sized florets
- 1 cup Speck, diced (can substitute bacon, ham, pancetta, or prosciutto)
- 3 Tb unsalted butter
- 3 Tb all-purpose flour
- 1¼ cup milk, whole or low fat
- 2 cups fresh shredded sharp cheese
- 1 Tb Dijon mustard
- salt and fresh ground white pepper to taste
- Preheat oven to 400F degrees. Butter a 2½ quart baking dish and set aside.
- In a large heavy bottomed pot, steam cauliflower florets for 5 minutes, or until fork tender. Remove from pot and set aside.
- Leave the pot on the stove and reduce the heat to medium. Sauté Speck until lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Remove and set aside.
- Using the same pot over medium heat, melt butter. Once melted, whisk in the flour and cook for 1 minute. Gradually whisk in the milk and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until mixture thickens. Whisk in the cheese and mustard, whisking until the cheese is fully incorporated and the sauce is smooth. Taste the sauce and add salt and white pepper as needed.
- Stir the cooked cauliflower and speck into the cheese sauce and place the mixture in a buttered baking dish. Bake at 400F for 20 minutes or until bubbling hot.
- Serve hot as a side dish or as a main dish with a salad or green vegetable. Enjoy!
Now this is how you eat cauliflower! Seriously, I would have totally been begging Mom to make cauliflower back in the day if it had come out of the oven looking like this! Brilliant!
P.S. that diet plan sounds like…really hard! No caffeine!? *cries*
Oh my gosh Karrie, this detox plan sounds tough!! You brave woman!! I sometimes consider cutting caffeine out for a week, because I get such raging headaches if I don’t have my coffee first thing in the morning… but then I think I would need to lock myself in a dark room and talk to no one for that whole week or I would lose all of my friends 😛
Keep us posted on how it goes!!
Karrie, more power to ya, girl! What I can’t imagine is no caffeine. That be cray, girl 😀 ! Anyway, this recipe looks da bomb. Totally Pinning to make soon. I just professed my love for cauliflower and the speck and cheese just puts this over the top. Good luck with your detox!!! Love to hear how you do with it very soon!
Wow, I started drooling over these cheesy photos, and then I read about your detox….and then I felt bad that I could eat this while you could not….buuuuut I still plan on eating this asap! Good for you on sticking to your plan – 10 days without caffeine?! For the safety of everyone around me, I’ll stick to drinking coffee and eating cheese 🙂
I love cauliflower and am always looking for new ways to prepare it and interesting recipes. This looks amazing! Can’t wait to try.
Good luck on your detox! I’ll be eating this while you are depriving yourself of yummy dishes 🙂 My family isn’t a huge fan of cauliflower but I bet I can get them to love it in this dish!
I’m not even on your detox and I’m not a big fan of it! I give you mad props for sticking to your guns and doing it, Karrie! Especially with no coffee!! To me that’s just ludacris… which is probably why I’m fat. Lol! 😉 Cauliflower is one of my favorite veggies, so this cheesy dish is toe-ts screaming my name.. with bacon instead of speck ham of course. 😉 I could swim in a vat of this deliciousness! Cheers, sweets! Xoxo
No caffeine?!?!?!?!? OMG. I can’t even. Wow. Well, shoot. Go Karrie!! I’m crossing my fingers that it gets waaaay easier as you go along. Hey, afterward, coffee will be that much more rejuvenating, right? 🙂 Meanwhile, I totally laughed when you mentioned that pretty nothing from this dish could be included in your detox. Except for the cauliflower, of course. 😉 As always, you made the most droolworthy dishes. So… when are you gonna send some over? 😉 Have a great weekend (sans coffee + every-thang). Pinning!
I can’t even think about no caffeine life. Hats off to you! And all the very on your DETOX. I love cauliflower and I love cheese too. And this sounds like the best idea to eat cauliflower. AWESOME!
Karrie I can’t believe you are on a detox! No caffeine for10 days?!! I don’t think I could do it girlfriend so more power to you. On another note, this recipe looks delicious! I love cauliflower and am so glad I have a new way to utilize it. What could be better than bubbly cheese and ham! Great job and good luck on the detox. You are a better woman than I am!
Whoa! No caffeine for 10 days is too much detox for me! I need my poison in order to function! I also need some of this cheesy ham cauliflower happiness in my belly right now! You certainly have more willpower than I do to avoid all things delicious. Which is more difficult to stay away from for you? The caffeine or the potato chips?!?!?! 🙂
This looks AMAZING Karrie!! I`m a total cauliflower fan not to mention all about cheese & anything pig related! Love this recipe & can`t wait to give it a try!!
Boo to detox diets! Hope it goes by quickly so you can get back to amazing dishes like this! I adore cauliflower in pretty much all forms, but covered in cheese and that salty speck ham? Swoon! Looks so super comforting 🙂 Good luck surviving the weekend. I’ll drink an extra bourbon cocktail for you, cause that’s what friends are for, right? 😉
ohh now this is cauliflower all dressed up and ready to party! Good luck with your detox… almost halfway there! I’m rooting for you 🙂
Okay – my mouth is completely watering over this one! Those golden crispy bits around the edge are absolutely killing me! So happy I’m not currently doing a detox! This is my kinda cooking!
I love cauliflower and always love trying new ways to prepare it and this one is just amazingly delicious. Can’t wait to try this out. Bookmarked!
A “healthier” take on a ham & cheese sandwich. This is like a deconstructed ham and cheese sandwich!! Love it! 🙂 Wish I could eat CHEEEEEESEEEE!
Wow, this dish is not only yummy but also incredibly good looking ❤ I quit coffee for three weeks now and it’s been quite hard only for the first three or four days. Now I am OK and happy that I am not addicted anymore 🙂