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Original poster

The Cauliflower Cheese Conundrum

390 replies

Speckly · 27/10/2025 22:09

Earlier a friend I was out with asked me what we were having for dinner tonight. When I replied “Cauliflower cheese and crusty bread”, she said “With what?” When I told her that was our dinner she looked horrified and told me cauliflower cheese is a side dish. As kids we often had cauliflower cheese for our dinner (I’m early 50s) but I’m interested to know, is that weird? Husband and I usually have this as a main about once a month (not vegetarian btw). When I asked DH his views on the subject tonight, he said he enjoys it but that his family never really had it when he was young so he couldn’t comment. If it’s relevant at all, we live in Kent. So is it ok to eat cauliflower cheese as a main or should it only ever be served as a side dish?

YABU - Cauliflower cheese is a side dish. You need to jazz it up with some other stuff!

YANBU - Cauliflower cheese is a decent main course - ignore the haters.

OP posts:
PastaAllaNorma · 28/10/2025 09:23

I used to do it as a meal for my toddler, but with boiled eggs chopped up into the sauce to try more protein in him as he wouldn't eat meat, fish or beans.

Without added ingredients it's a side. If you pimp it up with additional stuff (other veg, or pasta, or spuds, or bacon) I think it works as main.

peekaboopumpkin12 · 28/10/2025 09:22

Always have it with a jacket potato here, exactly how my mum used to do it when I was little.

HeddaGarbled · 28/10/2025 09:19

All of you saying it’s a main meal but then saying “with bacon” etc 😃

If you need to have it with meat or eggs or whatever to it, it’s not a main, is it?

MasterBeth · 28/10/2025 09:16

Twinkylightsg · 28/10/2025 09:09

I think it is a side tbh. If it is served as a main I usually think it is a vegetarian main. But if you were serving it as a main I'd expect a salad as well to go with it. Cause cauliflower and bread doesn't strike me as a main unfortunately.

If it is served as a main I usually think it is a vegetarian main.

That's what you usually think, is it?

Honeypizza · 28/10/2025 09:15

I would find it odd to see a bowl of cauliflower cheese as a main meal.

On a roast however, with the potatoes scooping up the cheese sauce - heaven.

AnchorWHAT · 28/10/2025 09:13

Its both in this house, sometimes have it with halved boiled eggs in it and toasted sunflower seeds on top served with garlic bread, yum.

PrizedPickledPopcorn · 28/10/2025 09:11

Oh, and topped and roasted with sliced tomatoes is good too.

PrizedPickledPopcorn · 28/10/2025 09:10

Controversial, we have it as both.
As a main with roast potatoes and veg. As a main with garlic bread.
As a side at Christmas or other indulgent roast meal.

And a macaroni/cauliflower cheese hybrid as a main with nothing else. Maybe salad.

Twinkylightsg · 28/10/2025 09:09

I think it is a side tbh. If it is served as a main I usually think it is a vegetarian main. But if you were serving it as a main I'd expect a salad as well to go with it. Cause cauliflower and bread doesn't strike me as a main unfortunately.

MondaysChildisFairofFace · 28/10/2025 09:08

Bladderpool · 27/10/2025 22:13

It’s a side, I would be seriously disappointed if someone gave me that for my dinner, it falls into the category of “shit tea”.

Feels like something for a toddler or small child.

Salvadoridory · 28/10/2025 09:05

I just eat what I want, the thought of agonising over protein and carbs is so sad. I feel so sorry for the children of the twitchy skinny mumsnet mums. They will grow up even more screwed up about food than their mothers.

soupyspoon · 28/10/2025 09:01

Bjorkdidit · 28/10/2025 08:24

This. Extreme poverty and eating disorders aside, there's probably not a single person that's anywhere near deficient in protein. MN is ridiculous with it's cry of 'but where's the protein'. A meal doesn't need a great lump of meat to have sufficient protein FFS.

Show quote history

Yes, the biggest problem we have with our food intake in general in this country is not enough fibre and too many calories.

As a nation we are not low in protein in our diets

Threads like these really shine a light on why we have such poor nutrition and understanding of how to put a meal together and what is 'healthy'.

I think another poster used the phrase, its just cauliflower.

LillyPJ · 28/10/2025 09:01

knitnerd90 · 28/10/2025 01:20

Fine as a main but I feel like it needs a bit more than just bread.

I like it with some roast tomatoes.

LillyPJ · 28/10/2025 09:00

It can be a main meal - protein and vegetable. We'd have it as a light meal, like an omelette, or jacket potato with cheese and salad. I'd never encountered it as a side dish until relatively recently.

countrygirl99 · 28/10/2025 08:59

Terriblytwee · 28/10/2025 08:52

Not much proteim so a side dish for us. Still delicious though

It's got milk and cheese for protein.

MasterBeth · 28/10/2025 08:55

MouseCheese87 · 28/10/2025 05:03

Side dish. It's not a well rounded meal, no protein. It's just cauliflower.

No, cauliflower is just cauliflower.

Cauliflower cheese is cauliflower and... cheese!

eqpi4t2hbsnktd · 28/10/2025 08:53

Main dish in the week. No bread with it that's too carby.
Side dish with a roast. Keep the gravy away though.

We also make broccaflowercheese. Which is broccoli and cauliflower cheese.

Terriblytwee · 28/10/2025 08:52

Not much proteim so a side dish for us. Still delicious though

MasterBeth · 28/10/2025 08:51

EleanorReally · 27/10/2025 23:47

i used to do it with curly chips or some sort of fried potato
but have now discovered a recipe which adds 100 gm of macaroni and do this.

"Discovered a recipe"?

It's cauliflower cheese with some pasta in it! Who needs a recipe for that?

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 28/10/2025 08:50

MasterBeth · 28/10/2025 08:47

Surely how filling it is depends entirely on how much of it you eat.

Show quote history

Personally I need some carbs with what is almost always my one main meal of the day.

Brightermornings · 28/10/2025 08:50

It’s a side for me. I like to fill my Yorkshire pudding with it. Anybody got any good recipes?

MasterBeth · 28/10/2025 08:47

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 28/10/2025 08:35

We usually have it with a jacket potato. We have a lot of cauliflower with plenty of sauce, but I wouldn’t consider it filling enough for a main meal otherwise.

I hardly ever make it as a side.

Surely how filling it is depends entirely on how much of it you eat.

MasterBeth · 28/10/2025 08:46

Perfectly fine either way. It's just food.

Main dish / side dish is entirely up to you.

Silly thread. Eat what you like when you like.

Coffeeishot · 28/10/2025 08:46

Cauliflower cheese and chips my god that sounds amazing!

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 28/10/2025 08:40

StripyHorse · 27/10/2025 22:30

I grew up with it as a meal too.

There is one pub we sometimes go to for lunch, and DD1 and I often order cauliflower cheese (admittedly on the sides) and just have a few chips with it.

My DM used to give us cauliflower cheese and chips.🙂

Now and then I make a cauliflower/macaroni combo, plenty of cheese sauce, extra cheese and breadcrumbs on top, brown under the grill. I’ve made this for unexpected guests when I had the wherewithal and not much else. Not a scrap left.