Cauliflower Cheese Pie

Crispy hashbrown potato crust filled with a comforting mix of cauliflower, spinach, and warm melted cheese - cauliflower cheese pie is vegetarian comfort food at its finest.

How this cauliflower pie came to be....

When I first went vegetarian at 13, I was given a copy of The Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen - which was the definitive bible of vegetarian cooking at the time. It was a first introduction to vegetarian cooking for both myself, as well my mother who was the cook of the house.

This cauliflower cheese pie is an adaptation of a recipe in that book. It was one of the first vegetarian recipes that my mom learned to cook for my family in support of my vegetarianism, and over 20 years later it is still a staple in both her home and also mine, where it has now become a favourite of my own daughter.

Over the years I have tried adapting it in various different ways, but the way that I like it most lately is with the addition of spinach, and modifying the herbs to include sage and poultry seasoning - to me, this flavour profile is the ultimate in comfort food, reminiscent of Thanksgiving or Christmas leftovers.

How to Make Cauliflower Cheese Pie:

This recipe breaks down into 3 parts: the crust, the filling, and the pie.

For the crust:

Shred the potatoes with either a food processor or a grater then put the grated potato in a colander and rinse with water to remove as much of the potato starch as possible.

After rinsing the potato shreds, sprinkle them with salt and mix throughout. Salting the potatoes will help to draw out any excess moisture from them which is how we get a crispy crust.

Let the potatoes sit for 5 to 10 mins, then squeeze them tightly to remove the water. This can also be done with cheesecloth if you have some. Transfer the potatoes to a medium bowl, add the beaten egg, flour, and season with salt and pepper and mix well.

Heat your oven to 400℉ and grease the bottom and sides of your pie pan with butter. Beginning in the middle of the pan, add a couple of spoonfuls of the potato mixture and begin to spread it out on the bottom of the pan building a thin, even layer building outwards to the edges of the pan and then up the sides to form a 'crust'.

Place the pie pan in the oven and let it bake for 30 minutes. Remove the pie pan from the oven, then cover the top of the pie pan with a pie crust protector to prevent the top edge of the crust from burning as it finishes baking. If you don't have a pie crust protector don't worry (I don't either), you can just use strips of tin foil folded over the edges and around the pie to protect it. Put the pie back in the oven and back for another 15 minutes.

For the filling:

Prepare the cauliflower by cutting it into small bite sized florets, and chop the baby spinach into small bite sized pieces.

Heat a skillet over medium high heat and add the olive oil, cauliflower, onion and garlic to the pan. Cook while stirring frequently to prevent burning for about 10 minutes, or until the onions are translucent and the cauliflower softened. Add the chopped spinach, sage and the poultry seasoning and cook for 5 more minutes, mixing the spinach into the cauliflower to make sure it is all wilted.

For the pie:

Reduce the oven heat to 375℉.

place ⅓ of the shredded cheese into the pie crust and spread across the bottom. Add ½ of the cauliflower mixture on top of the cheese and spread it out evenly and pack it down. Add ⅓ of the cheese and spread across the cauliflower. Top with the rest of the cauliflower mixture then spread it and pat it into the pan, then top with the remaining cheese.

Whisk the eggs with the almond milk and season. Pour the egg mixture slowly over the pie to evenly distribute it across the pie.

Place the pie protector (or tin foil) on the pie.

Bake in the oven for 40 minutes.

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More Vegetarian Comfort Foods You'll Love

If you like this cauliflower cheese pie, you might want to check out some of our other comforting vegetarian recipes:

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