Creamy Roasted Cauliflower Mac and Cheese

One of our friends passed along a recipe recently that she loves for Cauliflower Mac and Cheese. We made it last week on a day we had off, and we thought it was pretty darn good. But we knew we wanted to make our own version of it, just for fun.

Today, we did. It was delicious. Creamy, smoky, a bit spicy.

We decided if we were to make a cauliflower mac and cheese dish, we would want roasted cauliflower (which we really like).

Yes, good decision. And the sauce we decided to make was pretty much the one for our favorite Stovetop Sausage Mac and Cheese recipe, just with a few tweaks:

Creamy Roasted Cauliflower Mac and Cheese

1 head cauliflower
1/2 lemon
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 pound gemelli or elbow macaroni
2 1/2 cups milk
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
6 ounces shredded sharp cheddar cheese
2 2/3 ounces shredded monterey jack cheese
4 ounces cream cheese
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1 tablespoon hot sauce
chives to garnish

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Cut the cauliflower head into small florets. Place on an aluminum-foil lined baking sheet and squeeze lemon juice, and add olive oil, garlic, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.

2. Cook gemelli (or elbow mac).

3. In bowl, combine milk and flour; whisk together. In large pan, heat up mixture, stirring constantly.

4. In another bowl, combine cheddar, monterey jack and cream cheese. Add to milk mixture in pan. Add onion powder, garlic salt and hot sauce.

5. Add roasted cauliflower, leaving 1 cup out, and macaroni to cheese mixture.

6. Serve. Top with a few more roasted cauliflower florets and chives.