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.

Sing it sister…
Their Cauli cheese is better than my nans and mine which I take very seriously.

(Their spiced braised red cabbage is too tbf- but only if you pimp it in a pan with salt, black and white pepper and a dash more stock or water then let is reduce off a bit )

xx

I'm all for it as a main. Sometimes I have it with bacon but I think of the bacon as being on the side. Sometimes, perhaps controversially, I have it with sweetcorn. Sometimes I make it from scratch, other times I get the ready-made M&S version. Sometimes I even have it on the side with a roast, though generally when someone else has cooked it for me as it feels like a faff to make just as a side to me. So many ways, so little time 😅I grew up in Kent too so maybe there is a regional lens here. Am now bringing the joys of cauliflower cheese to London.

YADNBU
We have it often, admittedly just the two of us.
It's a great main dish if the cheese sauce is good, and some poached eggs too if the cauli is small and you're hungry.
Add tomatoes when it's under the grill, and lardons if you're carnivorous.

my mum used to always do jacket potato, cauliflower cheese and peas as a meal.

I love it but I read an article by a pathologist that put me off it!

We're not vegetarian and have this as a main regularly, serve it with mashed potatoes and carrots.
I've never done it as a side dish.

It’s perfectly fine as a main course if you’re happy with it! I often do a combined cauliflower/macaroni cheese (with added mushroom) and serve with crusty bread!

I should have added that I also like it as a side to roast chicken or roast lamb.

Always a main dish growing up. I was amazed when I heard people use it as an accompaniment to roast beef.

I grew up with it as a main. Delicious dish in it's own right. Not to be set in competition with meat.

I eat it as both,we have it with some roast dinners and I'll eat it on it's own it's gorgeous.

What did the pathologist say?
😮

I love it as a main but it’s great as a side too, just without gravy touching it. If we have it as a side to a roast I’ll only take a tiny bit of meat but totally load my plate up with cauliflower cheese.

When I make it for myself as a main I love shredding the leaves and wilting them in a bit of butter to add into the sauce but I love leafy greens of all kinds anyway and I hate seeing them being thrown away when they’re lovely to add in for extra flavour and texture.

I’m a strict lifelong veggie but nope, it’s a side.

Similar to you...I am in my 50's and it was served as a main course when I lived at home.

When, as a teenager, I decided I wanted to become vegetarian, my mum was dead set against it ('You will die without meat' mentality) she served me cauliflower cheese every day for 2 weeks to try to discourage me!
I still don't eat meat 35 years later, but I have never made cauliflower cheese in all those years as it put me right off!!

Definitely not a main meal in my opinion. However, your house, your rules so don’t be dictated to by other people. If you like it then crack on 🤷‍♀️

I don't have it much at home since my husband went vegan and I (sadly) never grew up knowing it but I went to a pub in Cornwall once and I had cauliflower and broccoli cheese as a main. It came with garlic bread and it was the most comforting thing I'd ever had on a rainy day.

People who are saying it's a main dish for me I add loads of other veggies, potatoes etc, that sounds delicious but it's not cauliflower cheese, it's some kind of cheesy veg and potato bake.

I love cauliflower cheese on a crispy jacket potato as a main but not just with bread.

I grew up with it as a main, with potatoes in it and bacon on top (sometimes tomatoes on top too). I still eat it as a main, but DH & DC don’t like it. Sometimes my mum put crisps with it too! (I didn’t live in Kent)

It can be either, sometimes we have it with crispy smoked bacon & crusty bread or with new potatoes or chips . We have it as side with roast chicken, gammon, or lamb, or I quite like it with grilled salmon and broccoli DH says it's wrong with fish but I love it 😋
It might become our Christmas eve supper with pigs in blankets & roast parsnips this year , but we can't decide what we're having yet.

We have it as a main, always with halved hard boiled eggs nestled amongst the cauliflower and sauce as it bakes in the oven. Sometimes add cooked pasta too. Serve with cherry tomatoes roasted in EVOO and balsamic vinegar, the acid cuts through the richness of the cheese. Yum.

In my home it's absolutely both! A lovely compliment to most meal. But its one of my favourite things to make and eat, so often its the main event here! Warm buttery bread to dip in! In fact, I ate it as a main for lunch today as I make extra every time I do a roast on a Sunday! X

It's what ever you want it to be!

Sometimes I have it with other things like green beans, sweetcorn and Yorkshire pudding, other times.es by itself.
I think its funny that she looked 'horrified ' though!
Has she had a sheltered life! 🤔 😆

My main dish always consists of meat or fish and anything else is a ‘side’ I do however have a lovely cauliflower in the fridge and I’m on my own for the week so might dip my toe…

Your husband is oh so very wrong!

I stand with you on how nice it is with fish!!

Midlander here salutes Always a side dish here but now I want it as a main with crusty bread!