Horseradish Cheddar Cauliflower Gratin is fluffy and cheesy with a little kick. This light and healthy vegetable side dish can be prepared ahead for a busy weeknight, or would be a delicious veggie for your holiday meal or an elegant dinner. Move over mashed potatoes for this low carb recipes!

Horseradish Cheddar Cauliflower Gratin -> CLICK HERE TO PIN THIS RECIPE

Disclaimer: Samples of Cabot cheese were provided to me at no cost by the Cabot Creamery Cooperative. I was under no obligation to create a recipe or write this post. All opinions are my own.

I think The Hubby and I were clearly fed way too many mashed potatoes when we were kids, because now we just don’t like them. Occasionally I’ll make some sort of smashed potatoes that are jazzed up with something flavorful and left kinda chunky, like these Balsamic Caramelized Onion Smashed Potatoes or Homestyle Bacon Cheddar Mashed Potatoes, and that is fine. But plain, smooth, creamy mashed potatoes never happen in our house. Even on Thanksgiving, he and I will usually pass the bowl in order to save room for more stuffing or sweet potatoes.

So when a pile of white stuff shows up on The Bug’s plate, even he knows it’s cauliflower. And he is cool with that.

I love my kid as much as he loves these.

Now, I’m not gonna try to tell you that these taste like mashed potatoes. Nobody buys that lie anymore. But I like cauliflower. My family likes cauliflower. So when I say that we are having cauliflower with dinner, I don’t get any complaints. If you want to try to fool your kids, that’s on you 🙂

But that doesn’t mean that this Horseradish Cheddar Cauliflower Gratin isn’t delicious.

Nice and fluffy, but because you add Greek yogurt and egg, and then bake it, there is structure to it. It’s not super creamy (though it is smooth), and if you let the cauliflower drain well, it won’t be watery either. Then you get the sharp cheddar cheesiness and the little kick of horseradish, which totally isn’t overwhelming. Evidence – I had an almost four year old and a one year old shoveling this in their mouths.

The first time I made this, we ate it with lemon herb slow cooker roast chicken, and it was wonderful, but I think it would be especially awesome with a nice steak on the grill, and I especially like it with my Easy Slow Cooker Corned Beef. For Easter and Passover, the creamy little kick of horseradish would be amazing with ham or brisket. And around Christmas, you can’t go wrong serving this Horseradish Cheddar Cauliflower Gratin with Cranberry Crusted Prime Rib.

One great thing about this recipe is that you can prepare all of part of it in advance, which makes it idea for busy weeknights OR holiday meals where you have to prepare a lot of dishes. Steam up the cauliflower and let it cool down and dry off (that actually keep it from being too watery), or get the entire casserole prepared and throw it in the fridge, or bake it off completely then reheat it in the over to get the cheese extra toasty (that’s what I did, since I was taking photos at around 3 in the afternoon).

And if you were having a fancy little dinner party, you could put it into individual ramekins, like I did with this Whipped Cauliflower Gratin. Just adjust your baking time a bit.

If you like Horseradish Cheddar Cauliflower Gratin, you will love these…

Browned Butter Whipped Butternut Squash - a gluten free, vegetarian side dish | cupcakesandkalechips.com

Butternut-Squash-Cheddar-Potatoes-au-Gratin-2-title.jpg

Some other great gratins can be found on my friends’ blogs. There’s a fabulous Brussels Sprouts Gratin from The Hungry Couple. Grandbaby Cakes adds some veggies to her taters with Potato and Squash Gratin. Bacon makes everything better, so here’s a Cauliflower Bacon Gratin from The Reluctant Entertainer. And Spaghetti Squash & Kale Gratin from All Roads Lead to the Kitchen is totally creamy and loaded with veggies.

For more yumminess from me and my foodie friends, keep up with me on…

Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram

Or sign up to have Cupcakes & Kale Chips delivered straight to your Inbox!

How do you like your mashed potatoes – whipped and smooth, smashed and chunky, or not at all?

Here’s the Horseradish Cheddar Cauliflower Gratin recipe. Tell me what you think…