If you are seeking suggestions on what goes with cauliflower cheese or what to serve with cauliflower cheese, you are in luck! This guide has everything you need to know about Cauliflower cheese, and you can get all the inspiration you want.
What is Cauliflower Cheese?
A famous dish that can be eaten at any time of the day or during any meal, Cauliflower cheese is known to be a classic British meal.
A matured cheese (like cheddar) is typically favoured for cauliflower cheese, made out of bits of cauliflower that have been softly cooked and topped with a dairy cheese sauce. However, you might alternatively use a more complex white sauce or sharp cheddar sauce flavoured with nutmeg and English mustard.
The meal is finished in the oven after being covered with grated cheese (occasionally combined with bread crumbs).
How to get the right cauliflower?
Here are a few things you must know before buying a cauliflower:
- The cauliflower head should have no dark patches and be a uniform cream colour. It is not fresh if it is in a yellowish shade.
- Make that the buds are all tight and undamaged and that it feels weighty when you lift it up.
- Another useful tool for evaluating the quality of cauliflower is its leaves. It is past its prime if it is beginning to wilt and is not a lovely, healthy, brilliant green.
What to Serve with Cauliflower Cheese?
The beauty of cauliflower cheese is that it is so customizable, making it a quick and simple dish to prepare. While it may be eaten alone, you can pair it with various sides and other main dishes to create a filling and robust dinner.
Dishes that go well with cauliflower cheese
If you are pondering what goes well with cauliflower cheese, you do not have to worry anymore. Here are several dishes you may serve with cauliflower cheese, ranging from flavourful meat cuts to colourful salads:
Gammon Steaks
Cauliflower cheese pairs perfectly with a savoury gammon steak. Simply cut it into slices and serve with some additional garnishes like fresh sliced tomatoes and a green side salad.
This is a great lunch to prepare and bring the next day to the workplace or school if you have any leftovers. You can also cook a gammon joint at home to utilize it for the extra meal times over the next couple of days.
Tomato Salad
Along with some cauliflower cheese, a classic tomato salad adds a good amount of flavour and looks delectable. Assemble your own salad by cutting up some tomatoes and red onion and adding some extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
Word of advice: Before making your salad, take your tomatoes out of the fridge and wait until they come to room temperature. You’ll receive a considerably richer flavour as payment!
Jacket potato
A jacket potato is the quickest and simplest choice for what to serve with cauliflower cheese. So when you are in a hurry and do not know what goes with cauliflower cheese, jacket potato is your saviour!
Your family’s lunch will be balanced, healthy, and ideal for vegetarians if you add some green veggies like peas and broccoli.
Mediterranean-style roasted vegetables
Simple to make, roasted vegetables can add colour, flavour, and texture to any dish. Slice up the vegetables into small chunks and cook till soft after adding a little oil and pepper.
Moreover, for an added flavour, you can also use lemon halves and some garlic cloves.
Sausage and mash
When you’re craving some hearty comfort food, sausage and mash is a delicious option for what to serve with cauliflower cheese. However, some individuals believe that gravy should never be served with a cheese sauce, while others contend that one should always serve gravy with cauliflower cheese.
Making that choice is eventually up to you!
Crunchy green salad
Cauliflower cheese goes perfectly with a crisp, fresh salad consisting of greens, cucumbers, tomatoes, jalapenos, and carrots. This adds some colour to your meal and cuts through the decadence of the cauliflower cheese.
Roast Beef
If you enjoy roast beef along with all the ingredients, you are aware that you must serve cauliflower cheese with it.
It’s the sort of dish you would spend some additional time making when you want to do something special for guests and family. It comes with baked potatoes, carrots, and green veggies.
Roast Chicken
Most individuals have specific preferences for the type of meat they want to offer as a roast supper. The fact that chicken pairs so nicely with cauliflower cheese will make you happy if it is your favourite.
It is really delicious when the chicken skin is properly seasoned and cooked until it is nice and crispy. This dish is a wonderful pleasure in terms of texture, and the creamy cheese and cauliflower florets make for a hearty family feast.
Of course, you should include some green vegetables in your meal, such as green beans or Brussels etc.
What flavours work with Cauliflower Cheese?
Garlic powder
One spice that goes well with almost any savoury food is garlic. Due to its capacity to enhance bland meals either by itself or in combination with other spices, it is a fantastic complement to cauliflower cheese.
If you want to roast a cauliflower head, garlic powder works particularly well since you can easily layer the uneven skin of a cauliflower head. However, chopped cloves also work.
Cauliflower may acquire a concentrated savoury flavour and a strong, earthy nuttiness from garlic powder.
Cumin
Cumin, a slightly bitter spice, is a staple in many Indian recipes. The taste of the different spices used to season the flavourful warmth of the cumin enhances the cauliflower.
Cauliflower is a common vegetable that is used in delicacies in which it is either paired up with potatoes, cheese and some other herbs and spices/
Onion
The inclusion of onions can enhance the savoury qualities of cauliflower cheese. Onions are linked to garlic, and like garlic, they give cauliflower cheese a strong vegetal aspect that can assist in masking its bland flavour.
While onion powder and chopped onion complement cauliflower, onion powder enhances the flavour more evenly. Moreover, one of the key tastes for cauliflower cheese is onion.
Paprika
Paprika not only adds a splash of vivid red to balance the whiteness of the cauliflower cheese, but it may occasionally also give a hint of sweet flavour and even a touch of moderate heat. In addition, paprika is ideal for putting on while making cauliflower cheese since it contains dried and powdered red pepper.
Ginger
Ginger is usually not seen in any of the western food preparations of cauliflower. However, in order to give cauliflower cheese a spicy and nuanced taste profile, the ginger rhizome’s warm, sweet heat will match well with cumin and garlic.
Turmeric
The root of turmeric is related to that of ginger, but it has a distinct flavour and colour character. Turmeric has a slight bitterness and earthiness that you would know as a background flavour in curry powder.
Moreover, it appears in many meals containing cauliflower, especially cauliflower cheese. Even in western-style dishes, one may add turmeric to improve cauliflower’s colour and nutritional content.
Mango Powder
Mango powder is a well-known Indian spice that is frequently used on cauliflower and other vegetables. It is made from dried and powdered green mangos. The sourness is the flavour that stands out the most, although there are hints of sweetness and fruitiness as well.
Freezing the Cauliflower Cheese
One of those foods that practically everyone enjoys is cauliflower cheese! It makes a great side dish or may serve as the meal’s main course because it is warming, comforting, and delicious. What transpires, though, if there are leftovers? How do you behave?
Steps to freeze the cauliflower cheese
You can freeze Cauliflower cheese in only a few easy steps, which are:
- First, cauliflower cheese that has been cooked should be thoroughly cooled. Next, you have to keep it at room temperature, lightly covered. Once it reaches room temperature, you may proceed to the next stage.
- If you’re freezing the cauliflower cheese as a single dish, wrap the dish in a piece of foil.
- If you’re storing your cauliflower cheese in portions, place it in a zip lock bag or sealed container to make defrosting and consuming it later much easier.
- After putting labels on the bags, store them in the freezer.
Cauliflower cheese freezing tips
Now, you have gotten an idea of how to store cauliflower cheese. Here are our top 3 recommendations for getting the greatest results from freezing cauliflower cheese:
Prepare Fresh Cheese Sauce
Make fresh cheese sauce if you can. Cheese sauces should be made fresh and then drizzled over the cauliflower because they do not freeze well.
Prepare from frozen
Cauliflower cheese may turn liquid when defrosted. To prevent this watery mess, boil the food straight from the freezer.
When reheating, add more cheese.
Add an additional cheese grating to the reheated cauliflower cheese to enhance the decadent cheese layer. Some fresh cheese can cover up the fact that frozen cheese won’t melt smoothly.
Best Cauliflower cheese recipe
A mixture is typically prepared using flour, butter, and milk while creating cauliflower cheese. Serving cauliflower cheese as the main course is great, but when you prepare it as part of a relatively bigger meal, it takes time and requires more pan space.
However, you can prepare cauliflower cheese using an easier and quicker method instead of the traditional roux method.
Steps to prepare cauliflower cheese
- The cauliflower is first chopped before being steamed until it turns soft.
- Then we fill a baking dish with cheddar cheese and a small amount of double (heavy) cream. Cauliflower is layered on top, along with cream, salt, any cheese and pepper. Repeat the course.
- Bake in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes at 200°C/400°F or until it turns golden brown and starts bubbling.
- For a fancy touch, sprinkle some parsley along with black pepper on the top.
Why you should give this recipe a shot
Given how many kids (and adults) don’t get the necessary servings of veggies, we want to ensure that vegetables are present in all of our meals. This is precisely what cauliflower cheese does.
It is quite healthy to eat cauliflower. It is rich in fiber, has a lot of minerals, and is a fantastic source of antioxidants. In addition, our kids will feel satiated for longer because of the calcium and protein that the cheese and milk in the sauce provide.
Bottom-Line
Everything has been provided in this guide, from answering what goes well with cauliflower cheese to the easiest way to prepare it. Cauliflower cheese is one of the easiest meals to prepare, and it does not take up much time compared to other dishes.
Moreover, you can serve it up as a regular meal or during occasions as a special dish which makes it a meal loved by hundreds!
What do you enjoy having with cauliflower cheese? How do you transform your favourite side dish into the main course?
Share your thoughts!
FAQs
What is a roux?
A roux is a mixture made from melted butter and flour. This paste is the foundation for the beginning of the process to make the cheese sauce.
Why does the cauliflower cheese turn watery?
If the cauliflower is overly-cooked, the cheese can become liquidy. Also, cauliflower that has been overdone produces water, which mixes with the remaining ingredients. Therefore, although your paste appears concentrated when you place it in the oven, it will become runny if left there unmonitored for a long period due to the liquid released from the cauliflower.
Can cauliflower cheese be reused?
If this dish has been properly preserved, you can reheat it. Any cauliflower cheese leftovers should be first brought to room temperature before being preserved and kept in the refrigerator. When it is time to warm up the cauliflower cheese, reheat in the oven or microwave after taking it out from the fridge.
Andy
Ever since I started cooking I’ve been fascinated by how different people’s techniques are and how they best utilise the ingredients around them. Even the person living next door will have their own unique way of frying an egg or cooking a salmon fillet.
This fascination led me on a journey across the globe to discover the countless practices and traditions the world of cooking has to offer. I thought you’d enjoy and find value in sharing that journey with me so I created Cooked Best!