Vegan cheese sauce + cauliflower and broccoli gratin

Yes it's vegan! Yes it's cheesy and delicious!

I grew up having cauliflower cheese at my grandmothers every Christmas, it's just not christmas without it. The creamy cheesy sauce is just so delicious. I first made this cheese sauce for a potato bake, it works fabulously and browns on the top in the oven, it's creamy, it's cheesy, it's everything I desire!
I know people probably hear this a lot, but honestly, you feed this to someone and they will have no idea that there is no dairy in it and they will flat out refuse to believe you that it's vegan, it's just that good!
To make the cheese sauce...


First you need to make a roux, melt a tablespoon of non-dairy margarine (I use nuttelex) in a small heavy bottomed sauce pan, to this add 2 - 3 table spoons of plain flour and mix to form a soft paste. 


Cook for 1-2 minutes over a low heat stirring constantly. 


Then pour in a small amount of soy milk (about a 1/4 of a cup) and whisk the butter and flour into the milk until it's smooth and there is no lumps. 

Over a medium heat continue stirring, as the sauce beings to thicken add more milk gradually stirring it in, I generally end up using about two cups, but you'll need more or less depending on how much you want and what your using it for.


Then take 2/3 of a tub of vegan cream cheese and mix it into the sauce whisking until it has dissolved continue adding milk until the sauce has reached a desired thickness ( like mine about the consistency of custard, it should be thick but easily pourable) add salt and pepper to taste (you may need more or less depending on how sweet the cream cheese you use is).


The result is a creamy cheesy sauce that you can pour over virtually anything. Bake it or place it under a grill and it will brown and bubble on top.

Over christmas I used it to make a cauliflower and broccoli gratin, it was awesome!

because it was xmas and I had limited time I sliced up a head of broccoli and half a head of a large cauliflower into florets and then microwaved them until soft (steaming would be ideal) I then placed them in a baking dish and covered them in the cheesy sauce. I crack extra pepper over the top and then bake in a hot oven for 20 minutes or until the top is brown and bubbly and voila! A delicious cheesy bake! This sauce is also ideal for lasagnes. There is only a picture of half of it because it was pounced on the minute it was removed from the oven and there were large spoon holes in the other end. once you try the sauce you will realise why Xx