Cauliflower cheese

Always a side dish here. Not often though, I love it, but OH doesn’t

Favourite meal as a child. Loved it when my mother served it with homemade chips. Used to be a staple for my husband and I but I am not so good with many vegetables these days ☹️

We have it with well browned tasty sausages

Add left over cubed meat from joint love it . My mum would put a layer of sliced pots in bottom to turn it into a meal for 4 hungry kids

I was a child in Sussex and cauliflower cheese on its own was one of my favourites. I wonder if it was made during rationing to make food go further?
These days it can also be a side dish for DH and main course for me, maybe with the addition of onion for extra flavour. I love a good thick cheese sauce as well. A comfort food for me.

I don't like cauliflower cheese with a roast dinner as I like lots of gravy and for me the two don't mix well.

Here in London I have as a meal on its own but the trend now is as a side dish .
Things have evolved have you noticed macaroni cheese has also become a side dish

Love the idea of crispy onions on it

A main for me, with crumbled crispy bacon on the top.

It's too filling and fattening as a side dish.

I love that a thread about cauliflower cheese has attracted over 80 posters!

As a child we had it as a main with bread and butter - it was frugal. Now it has become a side dish but I like my cauliflower and marrow with a white sauce when they are side dishes.

Main dish here too (in Scotland) Funnily enough I have been noticing macaroni and cheese as a side in family restaurants - I always think of that as a main dish too. Don't you think people eat more than we did (in our youth)?

Sorry Marycat2. We must have been typing simultaneously!!

It's a main dish for us- as others have said with some nice bread. DH likes bacon in it. I really fancy some now- maybe tomorrow night!

Ingrid, yes that's what I was getting at in my post! DD is trying to lose weight and was shocked at 1950's, 1960's portion sizes such as 2 slices of roast meat. Cauliflower cheese was a main because it had cheese and that was your protein source for that meal - now people just pile up their plates - I like a nice small meal, mounds of food make me lose my appetite so I think I'm still in the old mindset. ?

I was always told that cauliflower cheese should not be served a side dish, that it should be caulk in a white sauce as a side dish and cauli Cheese is a dish in the own right.

That said we have it as both!!

defo on its own , might have that for tea tonight

We have broccoli cheese, with jacket potato, or with fresh bread and salad, sometimes made into a quiche and served warm, yum yum?

My youngest loves my cauliflower cheese - served with roast potatoes! It goes very well

We have always had it as the main dish, maybe with crusty bread or carroty mashed potatoes.
Can I just ask - does anyone cook the cauli whole? I have been served it like this and thought it was odd.

My mum regularly made cauliflower cheese as a main course on its own. Also Macaroni cheese. My husband isn't keen so we don't tend to have it.

My niece makes broccoli/cauliflower cheese as a side dish with various meats, plus potatoes and other vegs. Too much for me!

Sounds fab - on it’s own - May I come? ??

Don't like cauli cheese but my hubby does, always serve as a side dish

I would have it as a side, not being a veg lover, and I wouldn't serve it to guests as a main dish, unless they were vegetarian. It is common here, in NE Scotland, as a main dish. My mother often had it as a meal in itself.

Usually as part of a meal a Jacket potato or ham for those that eat meat or as part of a roast I can happily eat it on its own but would have a roll or some crusty bread to mop it up with

Cauliflower cheese yum! Have been making it for nearly 50 years and still love it. Don't cut cauli too small and make a proper roux and use strong cheddar and these days semi skimmed milk. We like to have sliced fresh tomatoes put in circle round edge of dish and sprinkling of extra cheese and black pepper on top. Put under grill to brown after cooking. Yum again! Main meal with crusty wholemeal bread.
Re Macaroni cheese, favourite with husband and one grand daughter, it is so cheap and easy to make. I am recently back from the States and am amazed how they make such a big deal of Mac-n-cheese as if it is the holy grail, even served it as meal on British Airways. Don't get me wrong it is still very tasty and would serve it as above for Cauliflower but always saw it as a cheap, nutritious meal to fill up a growing family back in the day