This is one of those vegetable dishes that can be incredible or dreadful and it’s a thin line between the two. At its best, cauliflower cheese is cheesy, rich and comforting – the ultimate low-carb comfort food. At its worst, it’s watery with a lumpy or tasteless sauce and is the bane of children everywhere.
The first key to good cauliflower cheese is to steam it so that it isn’t soaking up water while it cooks. It may still need to be drained, but will definitely be less watery than if it was boiled. The second key is a smooth, rich cheese sauce made with sharp cheese and a bit of strong English or Irish mustard to brighten it up. Colman’s English Mustard is the most widely available and it’s what I used here. If you can’t find it, Dijon-type mustard is acceptable. Although any sharp white cheddar will work, Kerrygold’s Dubliner cheese is exceptional in this dish. It has a nutty flavor missing from some other cheddar-type cheeses.
You can make this a one dish complete meal for meat lovers by baking diced ham into it. Unless you are using leftovers from a ham you roasted, cook the ham first to get any water out of it as well!