Broccoli Cauliflower Cheese Pie

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With the holiday season upon us, we, like you, get invited to various parties. Most seem to center around food, and they are often potluck-type affairs, which allows us to taste a bunch of new things and maybe get ideas for future dinners. At the very least, we get some really good food, and we try to bring the same. To the party we attended yesterday, we brought a Broccoli Cauliflower Cheese Pie. We like it because it’s pretty easy, travels well, and it’s a bit different from most casseroles. And it’s really tasty, too.

We’ve modified the recipe from the original Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen. Basically, we changed it to half broccoli and half cauliflower. And please note that all the photos are for a pie that is double this recipe; it was for a potluck.

Broccoli Cauliflower Cheese Pie

Author: Shawn

Ingredients

For the crust

  • Unsalted butter for greasing the pan
  • 2 cups raw potato peeled and grated
  • 1/4 cup onion grated
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 Tbs flour omit to make gluten free
  • Olive oil for brushing the crust

For the filling

  • 1 Tbs olive oil
  • 1 large onion thinly sliced
  • 2 clove garlic finely chopped
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 1/2 tsp dried basil
  • 1/2 tsp dried thyme
  • 1/2 medium cauliflower coarsely chopped
  • 1-2 stalks broccoli coarsely chopped
  • 1 cup Cheddar cheese grated
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 cup milk

Instructions

Make the crust

  • Preheat oven to 400°F.
  • Butter a shallow 9-inch baking dish.
  • n a medium mixing bowl, combine the potato, onion, egg, salt, and flour (if using), and mix well.
  • Use a rubber spatula, or a spoon, or even your hands, to spread the potato mixture evenly in the buttered dish.
  • Bake for 30 minutes, then brush with olive oil and bake 10 minutes more. Remove from oven and set aside.
  • Reduce the oven temperature to 350°F.

Make the filling

  • In a large sauté pan on medium heat, heat the olive oil until it is hot.
  • Add the onion, garlic, salt, pepper, basil, and thyme. Saute for about 8 minutes or until the onions are translucent.
  • Add the cauliflower and broccoli, and cook for about 5 minutes more or until the cauliflower and broccoli are tender.
  • Spread half of the cheese on the potato crust so it’s pretty evenly coated.
  • Add the broccoli and cauliflower mixture and sprinkle with the remaining cheese.
  • Whisk together the eggs and milk in a small bowl, and pour over the top.
  • Bake for 35 minutes, or until the eggs have set, and the top is a nice golden brown.

Ingredient discussion:

Peeling potatoes – you really should if they are non-organic. Potatoes are one of the crops on the “dirty dozen” list, indicating that they are heavily contaminated with pesticides. Choose a cheese you like to eat, and, since you’ll be baking this dish, feel free to select for a stronger-flavored cheese. We used an aged raw-milk Cheddar. Eggs: free range all the way, baby.

Procedure in detail:

Make the crust:

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Butter a shallow 9-inch baking dish. Use about 1/2 Tbs, and use butter, not margarine or shortening. While you might not notice in this dish, butter just tastes better.

mixing up the potato crust
Mix, mix, mix. Mix up the potato crust. You want all the shreds of potato to get a bit of egg.

Combine the crust ingredients. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the potato, onion, egg, salt, and flour (if using), and mix well.

potato crust in the pan.
Press the potato mixture into the pan. Make sure to get it into the corners and up the sides a bit.

Line the baking dish with the potato mixture. Use a rubber spatula, or a spoon, or even your hands, to spread the potato mixture evenly in the buttered dish. Play patty-cake and pat it down, but get the soon-to-be-crust to go up the sides, too.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Brush with olive oil. No, this and the previous instruction are not reversed. You do want to bake the crust, then apply some olive oil, then it’s back in the oven.

potato crust cooling on a rack
It’s starting to look good. The edges are a bit crispy, and the crust has set up. Now let it cool.

Bake an additional 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside. We just put it on a cooling rack.

Reduce the oven temperature to 350°F.

Make the filling:

chopped vegetables
Chop up all the veggies. We like to cut the onion into thin quarter rings, that way no one snags a long whole ring while eating.

Prep the filling vegetables: slice the onion, chop the garlic, cut up the cauliflower and broccoli.

Heat the olive oil. In a large sauté pan on medium heat, heat the olive oil until it is hot. You want the onions to sizzle when you drop them in the pan. We often take a slice of onion and just hold it in the oil to see if it is hot enough.

onions sauteing
There is nothing better than the smell of onions sautéing. Except chocolate, but that goes without saying.

Add the onion, garlic, salt, pepper, basil, and thyme. Saute for about 8 minutes or until the onions are translucent.

You are through cooking the filling mixture when the cauliflower and broccoli are tender.

Add the cauliflower and broccoli, and cook for about 5 minutes more or until the cauliflower and broccoli are tender.

Now assemble the pie.

Cheese, glorious cheese. Make sure to spread it around and not just put it in the corner you are planning to eat.

Cover the crust with cheese. Spread half of the cheese on the potato crust so it’s pretty evenly coated. By letting the crust sit, it’s cool enough that the cheese doesn’t immediately melt.

broccoli and cauliflower in the potato crust
Add the filling, spread it around, and tamp it down. Not too much tamping. Don’t worry, you’ll do fine.

Add the broccoli and cauliflower mixture. Just spoon it in, and tamp it down a bit. Ideally, your vegetables should come up to the top edge of the crust.

adding cheese to the pie
More cheese! Everything is better with more cheese. Well, some things, anyway.

Sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

The pie right before baking
Assembled! And we didn’t even need a wrench or a screwdriver. Now bake!

Add the eggs and milk. Whisk together the eggs and milk in a small bowl, and pour over the top. It should come up to the very top of the veggies. If not, no worries.

Bake for 35 minutes, or until the eggs have set, and the top is a nice golden brown.

Bask in the golden brown loveliness of a Broccoli Cauliflower Cheese Pie. Bask, we say!

Take it out and serve. Looks delish, doesn’t it? (It tastes pretty good, too).

Since this recipe is a bit more involved, we’ll have to give it four stars in the “worth it?” rating. The upside is that it is nearly a complete meal or will be once you add a nice salad, and a small light dessert.

Worth the trouble?

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