This super simple freezable roasted cauliflower cheese will transform your Christmas Dinner or Sunday Roast. Make it, freeze it and cook it straight from frozen whenever you fancy a more-ish vegetable dish dish to level up dinner.
If you’re looking for other side dishes, why not try my Honey Orange Roast Carrots & Parsnips?
The Biggest Tip: Roast Your Cauliflower!
It was Chef Thom Bateman who shared a recipe on his Instagram where he roasted his cauliflower and I have not looked back since! The flavour of the cauliflower is increased tenfold with a simple exchange of cooking method.
Roasting brings out a caramelised nuttiness, whereas boiling would simply dilute down the natural flavours of this glorious, white root vegetable.
Small steps like this that can make a massive difference when cooking. Our cooking education never truly ends; always learning, always developing and always eating!
Why I Love Oven Roasted Cauliflower Cheese:
- Super simple and easy to make! But packs a punch of extra flavour.
- Great dish that you can make ahead of time (the day or two before) and roast to finish before serving
- A great way to use up milk that is getting close to it’s best before date
Suitable for the whole family:
Suitable from approx. 6 months old with some substitutions and considerations:
- se unsalted butter to reduce salt content.
- ensure cauliflower is soft enough to be ‘squashed’ between thumb and forefinger if BLW.
- ensure dairy and wheat allergens have been tested
Ingredients
- Cauliflower: the 1kg weight is approximate as obviously cauliflowers vary in size and weight. However, 2 whole cauliflowers should be sufficient to make the dish, so stick with that as a guide.
- Butter: I prefer to use salted butter as it seasons the dish from the beginning but if you’d prefer to control salt content (if also serving to a baby) then use unsalted butter and add salt as necessary to portions later on.
- Flour: plain flour / all purpose flour - this is used to thicken the sauce
- Cloves: an optional aromatic, but make sure to remove from the cheese sauce before adding in the roasted cauliflower and baking in the oven.
- Nutmeg: an optional aromatic
Other optional aromatic/flavourings are garlic or mustard
- Milk: it’s best to use whole (full fat) milk if you can, but semi-skimmed will work as well.
- Cheddar Cheese: I personally use extra mature cheddar as it has the strongest flavour, but you can use Mature Cheddar if you like a milder taste.
- Parmesan: or more specifically, Parmigiano Reggiano (which is the full, legally protected name of the true italian cheese, which is what I use). Grand Padano is a suitable alternative.
How To Make Oven Roasted Cauliflower Cheese
Preheat oven to 180C fan / 200C conventional. Break up cauliflower into florets and place in a lined baking tray with oil, salt & white pepper. Roast raw cauliflower in the oven for 30 mins.
Melt salted butter in a pot then add in cloves and ground nutmeg, stir to combine.
Add plain flour and mix to make a roux. Cook for 1 minute on medium heat to remove the floury taste from the roux. Start adding whole milk, a little at a time, whilst whisking to start to thicken the sauce.
Once the sauce has thickened and you have a smooth white sauce, ensure you remove the cloves. Next, add extra mature cheddar cheese (grated).
Add roasted cauliflower to cheese sauce, mix through and transfer into an oven proof dish for baking (or a freezer-safe container for storage), then sprinkle parmesan on top.
To cook:
Pre-heat oven to 200C fan / 220C conventional.
Bake in preheated oven, from:
- room temperature - 30 minutes
- refrigerated - 40 - 50 minutes
- frozen - 50-60 minutes
How To Prep Ahead For Christmas
This freezable cauliflower cheese can be prepared ahead of time and either:
- Refrigerated (3 days)
- Frozen (up to 6 weeks)
Then follows a secondary roasting time element at 200C, varying from:
- warm/room temperature - 30 minutes (i.e. cooked straight away)
- refrigerated - 40 - 50 minutes
- frozen - 50-60 minutes
Reheating: either cook directly from frozen/refrigerated or re-heat (if stored pre-cooked) in oven (as microwaving it will split the cheese sauce).
I love using Pyrex's Cook and Freeze as I can store food in their dishes and place directly in the oven from the freezer - absolute game changer!
FAQs
They aren’t required, so leave them out if you don’t have them available. You could add garlic or mustard if you want to add a little more flavour.
Storage, Preparation
If preparing in advance, roast the cauliflower and make the sauce, then refrigerate or freeze it until needed.
It can be refrigerated at this stage for 3 days or frozen for up to 6 weeks.
When you are ready to cook and serve - simply roast in the oven for the final step as per the recipe.
I personally wouldn’t recommend re-heating in the microwave as the sauce can split slightly. So if you need to re-heat, either stick back in the oven or heat on the hob in a pot.
Other Make Ahead Christmas Recipes You Might Like
If you love this freezable roasted Cauliflower Cheese recipe and want to add some more of my Christmas favourites, then try these:
If you have any questions please leave a comment and I'll get back to you. Or I would really appreciate it if you left me a review below.
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Oven Roasted Cauliflower Cheese
Ingredients
- 1 kg cauliflower 2 whole cauliflower (approx)
- 90 g salted butter
- 80 g plain flour
- 5 cloves ensure you remove before adding cheese to sauce and baking in oven
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- 700 ml whole milk
- 260 g extra mature cheddar cheese
- 50 g parmesan
Instructions
- Pre heat oven to 180C fan / 200C conventional / 355F
- Break up 1 kg cauliflower into florets and place in lined baking tray with oil, salt & white pepper
- Roast raw cauliflower in oven for 30 mins
- Melt 90 g salted butter in pot, add 80 g plain flour and mix to make a roux (see process step by step above for photos)
- Cook for approx 1 minute on medium heat to remove the floury taste from the roux, then add in 5 cloves and ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg, stir to combine
- Start adding 700 ml whole milk, a little at a time, whilst whisking to start to thicken the sauce
- Once all the milk has been added and you have a white sauce, add 260 g extra mature cheddar cheese (grated)
- Add roasted cauliflower to cheese sauce, mix through and transfer into oven proof dish for baking (or freezer safe oven-proof dish). Sprinkle 50 g parmesan on top. See Notes.
- Pre-heat oven to 200C fan / 220C conventional / 390F. Bake in oven for 30 minutes then serve when piping hot.
Notes
- Refrigerated (3 days)
- Frozen (up to 6 weeks)
- warm/room temperature - 30 minutes (i.e. cooked straight away)
- refrigerated - 40 - 50 minutes
- frozen - 50-60 minutes
Mhairi says
I used to make cauliflower cheese regularly but would always be a bit watery and a bit tasteless. Then I saw Lauren’s recipe showing to roast the cauliflower in the over, genius!! So much more taste and not at all watery, perfect every time!
Niamh says
My first time making cauliflower cheese and this recipe was so easy to follow and the results were 10/10. Unreal thank you
Valerie Bell says
Hi Lauren, made your roasted cauliflower cheese and it was sooooo good 👍.Will never go back to my old way of watery, mushy cauli cheese - as you said, game changer!!
Thanks 😊
Valerie Bell says
You have got to try this - tastiest cauliflower cheese ever!!!
Hayley says
Made this tonight as my contribution to our family’s Sunday roast and roasting the cauliflower is such the game changer! I’ve found cauliflower cheese can go watery but this was perfect! My new go to recipe, can’t wait to try more!
Moseley says
Forever will roast our cauliflower before using. Game Changer!!! The flavour is sooo much better. Thanks for that advice alone. xx