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 usually a side dish but I think it would be delicious and sufficient as a main. Really good for you.

I wish it was good for you, but I think if I'm being brutally honest with myself, that much cheese probably isn't ideal in one sitting - and a white flour based sauce is not exactly top drawer nutrition BUT not so bad that I'm not going to make it fairly soon after this thread has revived my hankerings!

Adding leeks is a good nutritional tweak.

Definitely a side dish here. My veggie parents used to cook a pasta and cauliflower cheese bake, sometimes with carrots in too, when we were kids but we’d have a green veg on the side as well

I really want it as a main now!

It's an excellent main. I've bought my cauliflower and have a left-over summer leek in the garden that I can dig up.

I brought back 2 blocks of vintage cheddar with me (they don’t sell it locally) so I can enjoy it a few times now cauliflower is in season.

I'm in my 30s and we always had it as a main meal growing up.

I think what makes it more "main meal" is that my mum would put hard boiled eggs in it.

Really nice dinner, had it last week!

I like vintage cheddar preferably with lactic crystals and a crumbly texture, but somebody told me it is wasted if you use it for cooking and melt away the best points. So I keep a large block of Mature for cooking. I don't know if there's any downside.

I think it's a preference really. I would happily have it as a main meal with nothing else but I am sure there are plenty of those who think it's a side dish and needs something to go with it.

I love Cornish Cruncher or properly natured Hegarty’s for eating on crackers..lovely and crumbly.

But I agree, that’s wasted on cheese sauce - Kilmeadan do both a mature and a fully mature version which both work well for melting/sauces (I prefer the fully mature and use less of it) and it was 2 blocks of fully mature in my suitcase this morning….

Belgium has good cheese and access to lots of good French and Italian cheese - but doesn’t tend to have much cheddar at all 😭

My next trip home - I plan on getting a proper crumbly one as I’m all out of that since July. At the end of November, I hope.

Gruyère and/or Parmesan are good in cheese sauces and for grating on top if you don’t have decent cheddar

I was gratified and a bit surprised to find that if you trim the rind off, for example, stilton or brie, you can stir it into a cheese sauce or a soup and it will just melt in and deepen the flavour.

Have not read the full thread, just the first page but I absolutely LOVE cauliflower cheese and have never thought to have it as a main dish - this is a total game changer for me! Thank you to for bringing an new (yet simple) meal to my table! 🤣

Wow 50/50 I'm shocked! One vegetable does not a meal make.

Not even one vegetable in a cheese sauce? What about if you serve it with mashed or sautéed potato? How many vegetables do you need?

Is a tomato omelette a meal? If not why not?

Why not?

Lots of protein and fat in the cheese. Serve with a carb and what's the issue?

Thank you @ErrolTheDragon- I never thought of Gruyère for it!

Is the Annabel Karmel courgette gratin I cook for dinner from time to time escape the 'one vegetable not a meal' rule because it has parsley in it?

For both it and cauliflower cheese I butter the baking dish and dust it with parmesan before putting the stuff to be baked into it, and then include more in the gratin topping.

Sausage and mash is one vegetable That is a meal.

I agree but MN would serve it with cabbage, broccoli, sweetcorn and cucumber.

It's amazing. Particularly with a slosh of white wine in the sauce.

Sure, and most of those who have ‘cauliflower cheese’ as a main are having other veg either with (maybe salad) or in it (leeks, broccoli, tomatoes).

Mmm…sounds intriguing…might try that tonight after all and save my cheddar for another time 😁

Cauliflower water and a dash of (cooked down) white wine diluting the milk to give a velouté rather than a bechamel as your cheese sauce base is very good.

Team Side Dish!