Broccoli and Cauliflower gratin

This dish, with a crunchy, nutty cheese topping is very quick to assemble and bake. When walnuts are in season this is especially good . Walnuts will benefit from toasting to bring out their earthy flavour. Simply drop into in a hot dry frying pan and stir frequntly for a few minutes until they start to brown and there's a toasty smell. Be careful, they can easily burn.

A variation on this recipe is to make a cheese sauce and stir the broccoli and caulifower through this before adding the nutty topping and baking as before.

Ingredients:

1 large head of broccoli
1/2  cauliflower
2 slices of white bread
1/2 cup of  grated cheddar cheese
1/2 cup of walnut pieces
3 tablespoons of butter
Pepper and salt

Method:

Heat the oven to 200 degrees C
Cut off the stalks and divide the broccoli and cauliflower into florets.
Blanch the broccoli and cauliflower florets separately  for 4 minutes  in boiling salted water until just tender.
Drain and put together in bowl.Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Stir in 1 tablespoon of butter and let it melt in.
Put the vegetables in a greased shallow dish. There should only be one layer of vegetables.
Leave them to cool slightly while you make the toppong.

In a food processor make 2 slices of white bread into crumbs.
Remove. Put walnuts in and whizz briefly until coarsely chopped
Mix the cheese, walnuts and bread together and stir through  2 tablespoons of melted butter.
Sprinkle the topping over the vegetables.
Bake at 200C degrees  for about 8-10 minutes until the cheese has melted and the topping is crunchy and brown.
Serve hot