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Original poster

Do you put garlic in cauliflower cheese (when served with a roast)

62 replies

Calgarycat · 12/12/2025 11:08

Just that. Caved in and doing a brocolli and cauliflower cheese for my new BIL. We normally do not do anything creamy. Just seen a few people on TikTok say things like “you ruined it with the garlic”. Guessing it’s too overpowering for a roast?

Do you add garlic when you do it?

(boring question I know!). I would add it if I was doing it as a stand alone dish with salad.

OP posts:
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FollowSpot · 14/12/2025 00:00

A big No to garlic in CC.

Or to CC with any meats except gammon, bacon or sausages.

AmateurDad · 13/12/2025 23:51

theunbreakablecleopatrajones · 12/12/2025 11:49

The gravy! EXACTLY!!!!

You are v tolerant OP, v tolerant.

Show quote history

Or you could just leave out the gravy?

TimSamandLulu · 13/12/2025 22:22

Posithor · 12/12/2025 11:17

Never heard of garlic in it to be bonest.

I made cauliflower cheese in an effort to get my kids to eat a vegetable (albeit covered in cheesy deliciousness) on Tuesday. It's been about ten years since I made it and I remember why...I stood and stirred the roux, while trying to make the rest of the tea, melted the cheese, made the breadcrumbs, ovened it lovingly. It's an absolute pain in the arse to make and get out on time, my kids hated it - my husband and I did love it 🤣 - but if you're thinking of making it from scratch for one person please just go buy a pre done one lol

Microwave cheese sauce is the way forward. There’s a mumsnet video if you google it. So much easier than making a roux etc.

I add a little mustard and cayenne pepper to enhance the flavour. I’ve also started roasting the cauliflower in the dish rather than boiling.

thenightsky · 13/12/2025 22:10

NoisyViewer · 12/12/2025 19:35

No. Cauliflower cheese is a tbs butter melted in a pain, then add a tbs of flour, make a paste & slowly add milk until you have a consistency you like. I add Dijon mustard & grate some nutmeg. I add cheese & keep tasting till it’s cheesy to my liking, season with salt & pepper. Then pour over part cooked cauliflower add grated cheese & bake until cheese is lovely melted

That is exactly my method too.

StrikeForever · 12/12/2025 19:37

My husband is the cook. He puts cayenne pepper in and it 👌

NoisyViewer · 12/12/2025 19:35

No. Cauliflower cheese is a tbs butter melted in a pain, then add a tbs of flour, make a paste & slowly add milk until you have a consistency you like. I add Dijon mustard & grate some nutmeg. I add cheese & keep tasting till it’s cheesy to my liking, season with salt & pepper. Then pour over part cooked cauliflower add grated cheese & bake until cheese is lovely melted

LadyMonicaBaddingham · 12/12/2025 19:29

No, that's an abomination...

unsync · 12/12/2025 19:07

No, grate a bit of nutmeg for cauliflower cheese.

Livpool · 12/12/2025 18:33

TruffleShuffles · 12/12/2025 12:03

Genuinely curious, do the people who have an issue with the gravy touching the cheese sauce also not have bread sauce with their Christmas dinner or is it that ok?

I wouldn’t touch bread sauce with a barge pole so no problem here. My MiL does cauliflower cheese with a roast but I don’t pour gravy anywhere near it and eat it first so it doesn’t get gravy on it.

Gravy + cheese = 🤢

friggingnora · 12/12/2025 13:36

No garlic. And I always roast the cauliflower.

FairyBatman · 12/12/2025 13:20

No garlic, for me it’s a cheese sauce with a teaspoon of mustard powder, one of paprika and a couple of teaspoons of onion powder, salt and white pepper.

Notonthestairs · 12/12/2025 13:11

I don’t but I did notice that the delicious Cook cauliflower cheese has garlic salt in it. So I might try adding a bit of that next time I make it.
Nutmeg is critical IMO.

TheCurious0range · 12/12/2025 13:06

I love garlic but wouldn't put it in cauliflower cheese, just a shit tonne of vintage cheddar and half a spoon of wholegrain mustard to bring the flavour out.

justjuggling · 12/12/2025 13:02

I do but I love love garlic so use it liberally on lots of stuff!

EnjoythemoneyJane · 12/12/2025 12:56

Never! Some mustard sometimes, panko breadcrumbs on top for a bit of crunch maybe, but not garlic - it would overwhelm the other creamy, comforting flavours. Love a bulb or two roasted whole with the chicken or chucked in with the potatoes, though.

Muffinme · 12/12/2025 12:47

I add nutmeg to Cauliflower cheese it really lifts it and makes it less all about the dairy. Not sure about garlic though. Great in creamy potato dishes but not sure about cauliflower

BroccoliCheeseManiac · 12/12/2025 12:40

I do. And chives. And I only use broccoli. And I let the cheese sauce and gravy mix when I eat it.

This is apparently the hill I'm choosing to die on.

SpaceOP · 12/12/2025 12:39

No to garlic in cauliflower cheese. Mustard, nutmeg, maybe paprika - yes.

Personally, I have no problem with a bit of cheese sauce and gravy mixing! :) But then, in our family, we make a creamy onion sauce with a roast dinner and NOTHING is more delicious than a big slab of roast beef, a bite of yorkshire pudding, onion sauce and gravy on top. NOTHING. Grin

To the person worrying about timings - one of the reasons that I DO like to do a cauliflower cheese with a roast dinner, especially at Christmas, is becuase you can do it in advance. I make the sauce etc and put it all in the baking dish the day before, then it just has to go into the oven on the day. Large side dish, mostly prepared in advnace. Win.

TwoLeftSocksWithHoles · 12/12/2025 12:37

springintoaction2 · 12/12/2025 11:10

Noooooo

I'm guessing you're a vampire?

DancingFerret · 12/12/2025 12:34

thenightsky · 12/12/2025 12:08

I've never put cauliflower cheese onto a roast dinner, but I'm thinking about it this Xmas. My dilemma is the gravy issue. Would it be ok to keep the CC to one side of the plate, meat on the other side, then veg/tatties down the middle to keep them separate? Like a veg version of the Pennines, separating Yorkshire and Lancashire. Grin

I solve that problem by putting everything in serving dishes.😙

onceagainforrose · 12/12/2025 12:34

Nutmeg and mustard. Not garlic.

canklesmctacotits · 12/12/2025 12:34

Garlic, and paprika, and cheese with jalapeño in it! Cauliflower doesn’t taste of anything anyway, it’s just a vehicle for the “bechamel”.

Nothing better than slices of roast lamb, cauliflower cheese (my way), gravy, roast potato, mint sauce - all in the same bite!!

CraftyNavySeal · 12/12/2025 12:29

Garlic powder? A little bit improves most things

stealthninjamum · 12/12/2025 12:28

The problem isn’t the garlic, it’s the cheese. I could never have cauliflower cheese with a roast but I will add garlic and herbs to a join of meat, perhaps lemon, thyme and garlic with chicken or rosemary and garlic with lamb

TwinklyBird · 12/12/2025 12:24

I love cheese and gravy together.

I always make a cauliflower cheese with any roast. Never garlic.
I do add garlic to my roast potatoes, but I think that’s different because it’s much more subtle than actually putting garlic in the dish, if that makes sense.

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