The Cauliflower Cheese Conundrum

[Speckly]

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.

It's got milk and cheese for protein.

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.

I like it with some roast tomatoes.

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.

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.

Feels like something for a toddler or small child.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

That's what you usually think, is it?

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?

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

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.

Yes, in fact that was how I first came across cauliflower cheese, when my dad ordered it in a hotel restaurant when I was about 10. We didn't tend to have cheese-based dishes at home as some in our family didn’t like cheese so I'd never heard of it before. My dad loves it however and would always order this if it turned up on a menu at a pub etc.
I only encountered it as a side when I went to university and it turned up regularly to accompany gammon.

Ah I see! God that sounds so delicious. I’m planning to make cauliflower cheese as a side for Christmas dinner, so might try adding the sourdough 😍

I do half and half with macaroni.

It's not filling enough on its own and don't like having bread for tea as I usually have a sandwich for lunch.

This is probaly why since my ex left - I've lost 3 stone. Cos the girls and I don't have to have a hunk of meat with every meal. Love Cauliflower Cheese - it was a real treat to have it in the 80s as well.

I'm a meat eater but would happily eat cauliflower cheese as a main, just as it is, made with maybe two types of cheese.

Delicious if I'm in the mood for something high fat, filling but undemanding.

Make it with mature cheddar and gorgonzola/stilton, some chopped walnuts mixed in, breadcrumbs on the top, baked until golden and bubbling, serve with green salad and crusty bread. What more could you want. Just keep it away from a roast with gravy, maybe a small portion with gammon and new potatoes. Cheese sauce mixed with gravy is unforgivable.

I have it boxing day with ham and roast potatoes, you are welcome.

I'm going to try this. I'm on a bit of a 'use up all the food that's been hanging round in the freezer for too long' crusade and I know there's some cheese sauce in there somewhere - I'm terrible at judging the amount needed for macaroni and/or cauliflower cheese - we often have a mixture, depending on what we have in and what needs using up.

Pasta, leftover cooked veg, tomatoes, bacon bits, whatever, covered in cheese sauce and baked.

But I've now decided that when I come to use up the cheese sauce, I'm going to take the sourdough, ciabatta or whatever and make it into garlic bread and bake it in the oven so it goes all crispy cheesy. Yum.

60s, had it as a main dish as a child and we're actually having it tonight as one!

I know people seem to love it but I really don't 'get' it as a side with a roast. Ham, fish yes but for me, cheese sauce and gravy is not a happy combination. See also dauphinoise (and I love it) accompanying anything with gravy but each to their own!

Pop it over a baked potato, add more cheese, that my friend is definitely a main meal. I'm vegetarian though.