Recipe: Cauliflower and Leek Auflauf

The 3rd day in a row, in which I've uploaded a recipe. I'm going to have to seriously work on my discussion pieces, the column is looking pretty small.

Anyway, this recipe is a German one and one that I discovered during my year spent studying at Heidelberg. It's an oven bake, in which you can put anything you want. The key thing all Auflauf recipes have in common, is that either potato or pasta is utilised as the core ingredient, while you're also almost always (alliteration!!!) using cheese. That's right, I'm using my loophole again. That's the problem with traditional non-meat European recipes, they almost always demand the use of some product derived from milk. In theory, you can make the recipe I'm about to share suitable for vegans by using soy cheese, but I don't know where/how to get any in the Czech Republic. I'm also uncertain if that would work (does soy cheese even taste nice?).

INGREDIENTS

Pasta (any kind)

Cauliflower and/or Broccoli

Leek

slices of Edam Cheese

Parsley

Step 1: Take the glass oven/roasting dish that you will be using and pour out the pasta. You don't want to fill the dish with pasta, just pour out enough pasta so that it covers the bottom. Once you have measured out the amount of pasta you will need, pour all of it into the saucepan.

Step 2: As much as you can, slice the cauliflower and/or broccoli but only cut the amount you will need. Once that is done, add the vegetable 'slices' to the same saucepan as the pasta. Fill with water and set to boil.

Step 3: Chop up the leek, add the pieces to a steamer and place on top of the saucepan. All contents should need roughly 10 minutes to boil but stir frequently in the meantime to make sure. Just before you're ready to add these ingredients to the roasting dish, pour the leeks into the boiling water to make sure they're soft enough.

Step 4: While the pasta and veggies are boiling, grease the roasting dish. Once the roasting dish is prepared and the ingredients are nearly ready, pre-heat the oven to 175˚C or gas mark 5 (I think).

Step 5: Once the boiled ingredients are ready, drain the water away. Put all of them into the roasting dish, spreading them so that the oven bake will be (mostly) even.

Step 6: Cover the ingredients with sheets of Edam cheese. Over the cheese, sprinkle with parsley. Place the dish in the oven and leave to cook for roughly 15 minutes. You know it is done when the cheese has completely molded onto its contents.