The Cauliflower Cheese Conundrum

@Speckly I grew up in Kent too and recall fields of bloody cauliflowers. Some people had cauliflower cheese as a main. We didn't.

My favourite dinner is: pork chop (a proper one with a bone and bit of kidney), grilled with a smear of mustard and dash of worcester sauce, mushrooms, cauli cheese and proper chips made in the chip pan. I sometimes have it when dh is away (with oven chips .

I don't serve it with gravy on the plate and can't compute that it goes with a roast but In feel much the same about meat and fruit. (Duck a l'orange or with cherries, ham and pineapple for instance). I also don't much care for bread being a part of my main meals. But people like what people like.

I have it as a main with a jacket potato 🥔.

I just slice it into triangles and arrange around the side of the dish making sure at least half is dunked in the cheese sauce 😊

It’s either! Small for a side, large for a main.

When I buy a cauliflower to accompany say a roast I usually only use half, the rest I use for cauliflower cheese as a main course. I add in some bacon bits, mushrooms if I have any. It’s a perfectly good main course.

It can be either. We used to have it as a main, but it’s used as a side surprisingly often now.

My older DC had it as a main when they were kids. I can’t stand the stuff… 🤢 It wasn’t till I went to a Toby carvery about 10/12 years ago and saw it sat with the rest of the veg I discovered it’s also considered a side with a roast dinner. ExH used to make cauliflower and broccoli cheese to go with Christmas dinner. 🤢

I have only ever known it and eaten it as a side.

But where I live, very often macaroni cheese is a side dish as well.

Have it as a main if you fancy or as a side, there are no laws in place.

I quite often have home-made cream of cauliflower soup as a main course.

I actually do have to eat a higher protein diet (diabetic on a GLP-1) but that isn’t necessarily an obstacle. Make sure it’s properly cheesy (not just a few tablespoons only for flavour) and add some nuts to the side salad. Plus the carb of your choice to bulk it out as needed (which would be not too much for me but more for a hungry teenager).

Main. With chips if I'm very hungry. Wasted as a side.

Cheese is literally protein and fat.

Do you have high cholesterol?!

I never came across cauli cheese until I was an adult. So consequently I've never cooked it, though it is sometimes offered as a side dish at the school cafeteria that I work in. I take a couple of florets but try to get bits without too much cheese!!

i bake it in the oven, til the cheese is brown

How could it be a faff? Funnily enough I decided to have some the other night, chucked cauliflower in water, dumped a teaspoon of butter in pan, sprinkled on flour, stored in milk, added block of cheese, mixed it with cauliflower, whole thing took less than 10 minutes. My mum taught me to make a cheese sauce when I was about 7. No recipie needed, just use your eyes. I added chopped parsley this time, it was lush

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

I usually have it as a side dish but have had a whole cauliflower cheese as a main with jacket potatoes and some salad.

It's always nice as is cauliflower and broccoli cheese - the only way I eat broccoli is in cheese sauce (apart from in soup). The purple sprouting kind is particularly good.

I have always eaten it as a side, but you’ve given me an idea so now I’m going to start having this as a main! :)

It's fine to have as a main dinner, but I would put some other veg with it. I have been known to add chickpeas for a bit more protein <parp>.

Exactly. But who's to say that food eaten in the evening is the 'main meal'? The OP hasn't said anything about what else they've eaten that day.

As long as you're having enough food to not be hungry, you enjoy what you eat and your overall diet (not necessarily any individual meal) is balanced and healthy than what does it matter?

The OP and her DH are happy with their regular cauliflower cheese dinner, which sounds absolutely fine to me. It contains all the food groups including multiple veg portions so what's the issue?

Although I see we have the predictable protein obsessives who can't see past protein = meat and its telling that the vote is split 48% YANBU vs 52% YABU, so it seems that again a slight edge for the limited imagination, restricted thinking majority who can't see past their own prejudices to view the situation rationally. Now where have we seen that before?

I do it as a main with leeks and bacon. Its very filling!

Either as a side dish or as a main, I do both.

If I do it as a main I might add some bacon to it.

Either as a side dish or as a main, I do both.

I don’t really understand the issue, if you plate up a small portion of any food it can be a side dish. If you plate up a large portion, the same type of food can become a main meal.

To me it's always been a side dish, but cauliflower is getting popular as a main on its own with dishes like roast cauliflower and sweet and sour cauliflower. I see it is even being grated and used as a substitute for rice now for those wanting less starch in their diets. Each to their own I suppose. I doubt I would serve it as a main to guests though, unless they were vegetarians.