Cauliflower Cheese is a British dish that is served as a side or even as a main (vegetarian!) It’s a cauliflower bake, smothered in a creamy cheese sauce that’s popped in the oven until bubbly and golden. While perhaps not the lightest dish in my repertoire, it is however hands down the most delicious cauliflower recipe I know!
Cauliflower Cheese
A really great Cauliflower Cheese recipe has been on my radar ever since I experienced a great example at a well-known steakhouse in Sydney some years ago!
There’s plenty of recipes out there that tell you to just boil up some cauliflower, cover it in a béchamel sauce, throw in some cheese, and bake it. While that’s totally fine, you do end up with that distinctly sulphurous, boiled cauliflower flavour (not my favourite taste in the world) and run the risk of patches of watery sauce.
The better way to make Cauliflower Cheese? Roast the cauliflower. It’s got better flavour and avoids the pitfalls of a watery sauce. Second tip: Umm … don’t hold back on the cheese! Be bold and true to the name – Cauliflower CHEESE!!
What goes in Cauliflower Cheese
Here’s what you need to make Cauliflower Cheese:
1. Roasted cauliflower
As mentioned above, I really believe it’s better to roast rather than boil or steam the cauliflower like most recipes do. Roasting coaxes out more flavour instead of boiling it all away!
To roast cauliflower, we just need salt, pepper and a little olive oil. And a cauliflower. 😂 A big one! We need 1kg / 2lb of florets after removing from the main stem. This equates to around a 1.25kg / 2.5lb whole cauliflower head (or 2 small, or 1 1/2 medium).
2. Cheese sauce for Cauliflower Cheese
Here’s what you need for the cheese sauce. This is called a Mornay sauce, and is nothing more than béchamel sauce (white sauce) with cheese added!
Flour and butter – Melted butter cooked with flour is called a roux and this is what thickens the Mornay sauce;
Milk and cream – The liquids for this cheese sauce. Cream is optional. It enriches the sauce for an extra-luxurious finish and I highly recommend it if you’re making this for company. But for everyday purposes, just using milk is fine!
Cheeses – I like to use two different cheeses in the recipe. Specifically:
Red Leicester – A sharp English cheddar-like cheese which packs a good flavour wallop, and adds a distinct orange-y tinge to the sauce. Easy sub for US: Your orange cheddar. It has the same colour and similar flavour. Other subs: Any cheddar cheese;
Gruyère – A semi-hard Swiss cheese with the most gorgeously nutty flavour and superior melting qualities. It is not the cheapest cheese here in Australia, so reserve this for when you want the best of the best. For other times, use Swiss cheese (which is a mass-produced cheese in the style of gruyère and similar Alpine cheeses), Jarlsberg, more cheddar, Colby or other melting cheese of choice;
Nutmeg – A classic inclusion for béchamel-based sauces, which lifts the creamy flavour. But it’s not the end of the world if you don’t have it! Use freshly grated nutmeg if you can. Whole nutmeg for grating are inexpensive and last “forever”, and the flavour really is so much better!
🇦🇺 PRO CHEESE TIP for fellow Australians: Give Tasty cheese a miss for cream sauces like that for Cauliflower Cheese. It has a tendency to split and the melting qualities are not always the best.
How to make Cauliflower Cheese
Here’s how to make Cauliflower Cheese:
Prepare to roast – Break/cut cauliflower into bite-size florets. Toss in oil, salt and pepper then spread on a large tray. Don’t make them too small otherwise they will cook too quickly and become overly soft which can lead to a watery sauce (overcooked cauliflower leaches water);
Roast for just 20 minutes at 220°C / 430°F (200°C). The cauliflower will be mostly cooked but still be a bit firm inside and will have a bit of colour on it. It will finish cooking in the sauce;
Heat milk and cream using your method of choice, either in a saucepan or a jug in the microwave. Heating the milk helps to ensure the sauce is silky smooth with less whisking effort;
Make sauce – Using a large saucepan or small pot (big enough to hold the cauliflower added later), cook melted butter and flour for 3 minutes over medium-low heat. This step is to cook out the rawness from the flour.
Make sure it’s on a low heat so the mixture doesn’t brown. We want a white sauce! Now slowly pour the hot milk in while whisking continuously to ensure your sauce will be lump-free. Keep stirring the sauce over the heat for about 1 minute and you’ll notice it thickens quite quickly;
Add cheese – Stir in the cheese. This thickens the sauce considerably, which is why we don’t need to cook the sauce to thicken it as long as we do in other recipes made with béchamel sauce;
Coat cauliflower – Add cauliflower and mix to coat in the cheesy sauce;
Transfer to baking dish – Pour the mixture in a baking dish and top with shredded cheese; and
Bake 30 minutes until it’s bubbly, golden and fabulous. That moment when you pull it out of the oven … *faints*!!!
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Isn’t the golden colour of the sauce amazing?? That’s the Red Leicester at work. It’s worth hunting down for this dish! As I mentioned above, those of you in the States can just use your everyday cheddar for the same colour effect and very similar flavour. 🙂
What to serve with Cauliflower Cheese
This is a cauliflower side dish that’s unapologetically indulgent, intended to replicate the luxury you’d expect from sides offered at high end steakhouses or a particularly lavish Sunday roast.
So with that in mind, some mains that come to mind that will go exceptionally well with this include:
Steaks – Cooked using a cheffy technique of basting the steak with garlic and thyme-infused butter;
Prime Rib – the creme de la creme of all beef roasts! Got an economical or lean roast beef joint instead? Marinate it!
Roast Chicken – Slathered in herb and garlic butter. Else try a brined one, use your slow cooker, or make Crispy Herb Roasted Chicken pieces instead;
Roast Pork – With a crispy crackling to die for!
Roast Lamb – Either a leg, Slow-roasted Lamb Shoulder, or Lamb Rack (crumbed or rosemary and garlic-marinated).
Or for something a little speedier, try:
Juicy pan-seared marinated Pork Chops;
Quick, crispy Garlic Chicken Thighs;
Crispy Pan-fried Fish Fillets;
Garlic Prawns/Shrimp <–- YES!!
And as I mentioned in the introduction, while most people think of this as a side dish, it’s certainly also main-worthy. Vegetarians in particular have good reason to go bonkers. But no one at all in their right mind would ever turn down a big bowl of this!! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Cauliflower Cheese
Ingredients
Roasted cauliflower:
- 1kg / 2 lb cauliflower florets (1 very large, 1 1/2 medium or 2 small cauliflower heads, Note 1)
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/8 tsp pepper
Cheese sauce (Mornay sauce):
- 60g / 4 tbsp unsalted butter
- 3½ tbsp flour , plain / all-purpose
- 1 cup milk (full fat best)
- 1 cup cream (or more milk)
- 1/2 tsp cooking salt (kosher salt)
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg powder (freshly grated is best)
- 1 cup Red Leicester cheese (or cheddar), grated (Note 2)
- 1/2 cup gruyère cheese , grated (or other melting cheese of choice, Note 2)
Topping:
- 1/2 cup Red Leicester cheese (or cheddar), grated (Note 2)
- 1/2 cup gruyère cheese , grated (or other melting cheese of choice, Note 2)
Instructions
Roasted cauliflower:
- Preheat oven to 220°C / 430°F (200°C fan).
- Toss cauliflower in oil, salt and pepper. Spread on a large tray.
- Roast 20 minutes (don't turn). Cauliflower should still be a bit firm, but with some colour on them. Remove from oven.
- Turn oven down to 180°C/350°F.
Cheese sauce (Mornay sauce):
- Heat milk: Heat milk and cream until hot – either on the stove or in microwave.
- Make roux: Melt butter in a large saucepan or small pot over medium heat. Add flour and cook, stirring regularly, for 3 minutes.
- Add milk: While stirring, pour in half the milk. Once the roux is dissolved into the milk (mixture will thicken), stir in remaining milk. Stir on the heat for 1 minute – mixture should be thick enough to coat a wooden spoon.
- Add cheese: Turn the stove off, but leave the pot on the turned off stove. Stir in salt, nutmeg and both cheeses. The cheese will thicken the mixture so it's like a thick sauce.
- Mix in cauliflower: Add cauliflower and toss to coat in the sauce.
Bake:
- Fill baking dish: Transfer mixture to a 2L / 2qt baking dish (30 x 20 x 5cm / 12 x 8 x 2").
- Top with cheese: Sprinkle over gruyère followed Red Leicester cheese.
- Bake at 180°C/350°F for 30 minutes until the cheese is melted, and cauliflower is bubbly and golden.
Recipe Notes:
- Red Leicester – An orange coloured, sharp English cheddar-like cheese. Used for its excellent flavour and colour. US: Sub with your cheddar, it’s virtually the same. Others: Sub Swiss cheese (which is mass-produced gruyère-like cheese), Jarslberg, Colby, cheddar, or any other cheese. (For Australia, I do not recommend Tasty cheese, it doesn’t melt so well in this type of sauce);
- Gruyère – A type of Swiss cheese with a gorgeous nutty flavour and superior melting qualities. Sub with any of the above listed, or other type of Alpine cheese (emmental, comte).
Nutrition Information:
More baked and roasted vegetable goodness!
Life of Dozer
Action shot of Dozer captured by Kevin from Unleashed Northern Beaches Dog Photography at Bayview beach on the weekend!
This sounds divine. We can get Red Leicester cheese in Canada at one of the large supermarkets so it’s likely available in the US as well. I am definitely going to try this recipe.
The Dozer Christmas calendar – could you imagine??? 😂 N x
A definite ‘yes’ from me ! You have the photos and such would be perfect on more than one level ! Can you imagine . . . 🙂 !!! Just please, he is a very handsome character in the prime of his life . . . no camouflage daisies !
Hi Nagi, thanks for all your amazing recipes. I have Huli Huli chicken marinating at the moment. I make this cauliflower dish often but with one addition. I mix fresh breadcrumbs with grated cheese and melted butter sprinkled generously on top before baking. DELISH!!
Hi Jeani, you could definitely do that (I do love doing that on my Mac & cheese too!!!) – N x
Hi Nagi, I do the same with mac n cheese. You are a girl after my own heart!! And my family too!! We are enjoying Huli Huli chicken with pineapple rice and its the bomb!! I think my family is falling for you!!LOL I met my Aussie husband in Hawaii in 1982. We were married in Canada in 1984 and immediately returned to Adelaide and came back to Canada in 1987 and had three boys, two of which are crazy for vegemite including my husband.. Nick is so grateful for your recipes, especially meat pies, sausage rolls, and now English crumpets!! You know Nagi I think we could be best buddies!! Love to you and Dozer from Canada!!
We have cauliflower cheese once or twice a month. This is the best I’ve eaten. Never heard of roasting cauliflower before. Won’t be able to have it any other way now. Thanks!
Can’t believe I have never thought to roast the cauliflower before hand. This is such a versatile dish, goes as a side with anything from a roast dinner to sausages or just as a standalone meal.
Aldi, Coles and WWs all sell very reasonably priced and good Red Leicester cheese.
Thank you 😀
It takes it to a whole new level Jake – no more watery Cauliflower Cheese! 🙌 N x
Oh My Lordie… when you pulled that bubbling baking dish of Cauliflower Cheese out of the oven, I swear I could smell it…
JAKS yellow cheese is that the American cheese you mentioned? You can get at Costco. For my birthday last week I roasted a small one for myself with a blue cheese sauce still have about half, so maybe I should make a half batch of cheese sauce for it, love your tip of roasting to eliminate liquid. The water sitting on top of leftover can be a little off putting… Love the Dozer’s mid flight capture. Hope that was only sand Dozer is covered with…
Oh yum, blue cheese sauce – I’m drooling at the thought!! N x
I heard a joke where Mary Poppins checked into a hotel late one night and was hungry. Restaurant closed, but they could hustle up some Cauliflower Cheese and Scrambled Eggs. The next morning, when asked about the food, she said,
“Super cauliflower cheese, eggs they were atrocious.” You have to say it out loud. So being a Yank, I’ve always wondered about Cauliflower Cheese, and now I know. Thank you.
😂😂😂 That one cook me a second Patsy! – N x
I fell in love with cauliflower cheese when we lived in London and I tried to recreate when we returned to the US however it was always watery. Now I know the secret!!! Thanks for the recipe Nagi. I also like to add crispy fried onions as a garnish – the kind you put on green bean casserole.
Yum Donna, love that idea for some texture! I hope you try this one, I’d love to know what you think!! N x
Wow! Looks so delicious that my mouth is watering even though I don’t really like cauliflower. Yum. Your website is fantastic, recipes are supreme and Dozer is a doozy.
I’ll convert you Lucy!!! 😂 N x
This is a great recipe ❤
It truly is Judy! N x
In the Cauliflower Cheese, is there additional cheese required for topping the casserole or do you save some from the sauce? Thank you Nagi !
Hi Patricia, the cheese used in the topping is listed separately in the ingredients. I’m just updating the instructions now 🙂 N x
Dear Nagi. I sure hope whomever puts the measurement conversions in your recipes isn’t the person who worked for NASA and screwed up the distance my not knowing the proper measurement conversions from English to metric. The probe crashed. All of your conversations are totally incorrect. For eg. 1/2 cup is not 50g. It’s 125g. This is for the cheese you mention in the ingredients. Or where you say 1 cup / 100.g. since when is 1 cup not 250g.. Flour at 3 1/2 TBSP is at least 52g. ??? not 30g. So I have noticed this screw up in all your recipes. Doesn’t anyone check these figures. Obviously not. Even though I enjoy your recipes I sure wish someone who knows there math would be making sure your converions were correct. Please respond to this. I like to know what you have to say about this. Don’t you even check to see what is going out. It makes you look BAD…
Hi Patrick – thanks for your message, I do appreciate that you took the time to raise your concerns. Actually, I write every recipe myself and I check the conversions myself. 1 cup of flour is 150g. 1 cup = 16 tablespoons. Therefore 3.5 tbsp = 32g which I rounded down to 30g because I can confidently say 2 grams will not affect the recipe. And 1 packed cup of shredded cheese does indeed = 100 grams, so 1/2 a cup – 50g. I can tell you for sure that I know CHEESE and FLOUR weights off by heart! 🙂 The conversions in this recipe are correct. Also, not only do I write the recipes myself, I have a chef and a proof reader, both of whom also check my conversions. Yes, I am that careful with the accuracy of my recipes. I don’t take the best photos. I don’t make the prettiest videos. My creative writing isn’t the best. But my recipes are accurate – and they work!! 🙂 N x
Thanks Nagi. I apologize for coming off rude and sorry to those I offended. I know That Nagi’s recipes rock..
😘 Forgiven and forgotten. Have a lovely weekend Patrick! N x
We forgive you.
Patrick, I’m sorry to say but, in your own words, you look bad. A simple google search will tell you the weight of a certain ingredient especially if you feel there is an error. Using your own example of cheese: 1 cup grated cheese firmly packed is 100g, therefore 1/2c does indeed equal 50g.
Nagi does so much on her site to make her recipes a success for her readers. She is clear, honest, respectful, genuine, and authentic and she deserves to be treated the same way. Please reflect, we all make mistakes; I truly believe a genuine apology is needed here.
And you should check your grammar – it’s not there math; it’s their math.
Your manners could use a little help as well. There’s a way to give constructive criticism, and your way is 180 degrees in the other direction.
Hey Punak your comment does not make Nagi look bad it makes you look bad. You see most people realize the amount of work, skill and talent it takes to make a number 1 recipe blog like Nagi has. Yet you write with such disrespect and then want her to answer to you. I don’t think so. Glad to know you enjoy her recipes though.
Dear Patrick,
With all your superior knowledge, you have failed to realize that the cup measures volume and the gram measures weight. Therefore conversion depends on the ingredient. For instance : 1 cup of all purpose flour equals 125.16 grams while 1 cup of granulated sugar equals 200.86 grams. Perhaps you should stick to something you actually understand.
It is honestly like you read my mind!!! Only a couple of days ago I was roasting cauliflower for the first time ever and said to hubby ‘I just need Nagi to come up with a bake’ and bang here it is. After roasting for the first time ever I will never cook cauliflower any other way except to try this dish, roasted cauliflower is ridiculously delicious 🤤
Great minds Maryanna – now RUN to the kitchen!! N x
This is a family favourite, always top it with grated cheeses, and often add either prawns or crispy bacon bits to it before serving. Delicious
YUM! Great ideas here Lis – and well, everything is better with bacon isn’t it!?! N x
Hi Nagi,
This looks sensational!
I wanted to check with you on step 4 & 5 is the heat still on (when we add cheese & the cauliflower?)
Thankyou Nagi
Cathy x
Thanks for the question Cathy! I leave the pot on the turned off stove. 🙂 I’ve updated the steps. Thank you! N x
Golden Dozer is complemented by golden Cauliflower Cheese!
The cauliflower would be great with roasted portobellos and a balsamic reduction, wouldn’t you think?
I promise I’m not colour coordinating him to the recipes just yet 😂 and mushrooms would be perfect too Hollis! N x
Iammm! Thank you to U & Mr.Dozer 🙂 can this recipe be frozen ?I to like to make ahead ,It is to die for ,❤️Cauliflower &cheese.
🙋🏻♀️👍👏thank you both .
Hi Lou – sorry I have this in the notes, it’s not suitable to freeze unfortunately – N x
Hey Dozer – bet the subsequent bath wasn’t appreciated as much as your wonderful time at the beach! I long ago worked out that dogs and small boys DON’T hate water, it just5 mustn’t have soap in it!
😂 You’re 100% right!!! N x
I’ve never tried roasting the cauliflower, will definitely do that next time (I usually boil it in salted water for about 5 minutes with a few fresh bay leaves (I have my own tree).
I’ve only ever used cheddar but would like to try the Red Leicester and Gruyere mix, it sounds very tasty – have to source the RL first. What I DO do, though, for any cheese sauce is to mix in a teaspoon of hot English mustard, it just does something for the cheese. But I’ll omit it when I get to try the RL & Gr. Sometimes I’ll add chopped egg or sautéed mushrooms to the sauce, anything stronger overpowers the delicate flavour of the cauliflower. My big difference is the “crust”, I mix a cup of grated cheese with 50 grams fresh white breadcrumbs and a Tbsp melted butter and spread this over the top before putting it in the oven, sometimes to make a change, especially if I’m feeding children, I use very thinly sliced mozzarella – they love the strings it makes!
Roasting any vegetable just transforms the flavour – you’ll have to try this way – I’d love to know what you think!!! I love your version though with the add ins – one for me to try!! – N x
Save on the calories(no butter) I made my whitesauce with cold milk and and cornflour, whisk and bring to boil until thickened.
This isn’t one dish to make when your calorie conscious Desiree 😂 N x
What a fabulous picture of Dozer! He stole the show.
He always does Lee! 😂 N x
your beautiful dozer sure does live the good life!
He definitely does Sharon!! N x