Potato casserole with cauliflower and meatballs with béchamel sauce

A beautiful, hearty and delicious casserole of mashed potatoes with ground beef balls and cauliflower with béchamel sauce. It turns out a full-fledged second course from the "two in one" category, because both the main dish (meatballs) and the side dish (potatoes with cabbage) are cooked at the same time. You have to tinker a little, but it's worth it - the casserole turns out to be delicious!

Ingredients

• Potatoes (peeled) - 600 g (unpeeled - 850 g; 5 pcs.)
• Minced meat (I have beef) - 300 g
• Cauliflower - 300 g (small head of cabbage)
• Onions - 80 g (1 medium-sized)
• Egg - 1 pc.
• Bread crumbs - 40 g
• Milk - 80 ml
• Salt to taste
• Ground black pepper - to taste
• Sunflower oil - 45 ml (3 tablespoons)
• For the sauce:
• Milk - 350 ml
• Flour - 50 g
• Butter - 50 g
• Freshly grated (or ground) nutmeg - 2 pinches
• Salt - 2 pinches

Directions

1. Prepare the required ingredients. Choose minced meat at your discretion. You can use slices of white bread instead of bread crumbs.
2. Cut the peeled potatoes into medium-sized slices.
3. Place the potato slices in a saucepan, cover with water (1 L) and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and cook until tender (tender when pierced). It took me 30 minutes, you focus on the variety of your potatoes and the size of the pieces.
4. While the potatoes are boiling, let's take care of the rest of the products. Disassemble the cauliflower into inflorescences.
5. In a saucepan, bring 800 ml of water to a boil. Dip cauliflower inflorescences in boiling water. Lightly salt the water (a pinch). Cook the cabbage over medium heat, covered, for 5 minutes. The cabbage should not become very soft, it will reach readiness already during baking in the oven.
6. Put the boiled cabbage on a plate.
7. To prepare meatballs, place the ground beef (or another of your choice) in a bowl.
8. Combine breadcrumbs with milk in a separate bowl, stir.
9. Peel the onion and cut into small cubes.
10. In a bowl with minced meat, add onion and soaked crackers, beat in an egg, add salt (0.25 tsp) and black pepper (pinch).
11. Mix the minced meat thoroughly by hand until its components are evenly distributed among themselves.
12. With your hands moistened with water, form round balls from the minced meat (I got 8 meatballs).
13. Heat the sunflower oil in a frying pan, put the meatballs and fry over high heat for 3-4 minutes on each side, until a beautiful crust. Transfer the fried meatballs to a plate.
14. By this time, the potatoes were boiled.
15. Drain the broth from the potatoes, add salt (0.25 tsp) and black pepper (pinch).
16. Mash the potatoes until mashed.
17. Turn on the oven to preheat to 200 degrees.
18. Place the mashed potatoes in an even layer in a baking dish. I used a round glass dish with a diameter of 21 cm and a height of 7 cm.
19. Place meatballs on mashed potatoes.
20. Spread the inflorescences of boiled cauliflower between the meatballs.
21. Spread the inflorescences of boiled cauliflower between the meatballs.
22. Now let's prepare the pouring sauce. To do this, heat the butter in a frying pan.
23. Pour flour into the butter.
24. Heat the flour mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it acquires a beautiful caramel shade and a pleasant nutty flavor (3 minutes).
25. Pour warm milk into the skillet, stir thoroughly so that no lumps remain, and bring the sauce to a boil.
26. Pour salt (2 pinches) and grated nutmeg into the sauce.
27. Stir the sauce again and remove the pan from the stove.
28. Pour the sauce over the contents of the mold.
29. Bake the dish in an oven preheated to 200 degrees for 30 minutes.
30. Potato casserole with cauliflower and meatballs with béchamel sauce is ready.
31. Serve the casserole hot.
32. Bon Appetit!