Cauliflower cheese will not be watery if you check one thing when cooking it

Pairing vegetables with cheese is the easiest way to turn something bland but nutritious into a delicious dish. In the case of cauliflower cheese, crafting a rich and velvety cheese sauce to smother cauliflower remains the ultimate goal for devotees of this classic dish. But it's far from straightforward.

Debbie, a culinary expert from Proper Foodie, insists that the cauliflower's preparation method is the key to achieving that coveted, silky texture. Despite widespread assumptions that too much milk causes disappointing results, Debbie blames the moisture levels within the vegetables themselves. She cautioned, "Cauliflower cheese can go watery if the cauliflower is overcooked. Overcooked cauliflower releases water, which will seep into the rest of the dish." Debbie added: "So even if your sauce was thick when it went in the oven, if it's in there too long, the water from the cauliflower will cause it to go watery."

To avoid a disaster with your masterpiece, Debbie recommended limiting the oven time to 20 to 25 minutes to maintain that ideal creamy consistency.

If you worry that your dish lacks sufficient browning, simply remove it from the oven and briefly grill it on maximum heat for a minute or two.

Perfecting the roux proves essential for creating that luxurious, smooth foundation for the dish.

Several techniques exist to guarantee you achieve flawless consistency each time. The culinary expert from Proper Foodie revealed: "This paste is the starting point for making the cheese sauce. Many recipes say to use equal amounts of butter and flour, but I prefer to use slightly less butter, to give a thicker roux and to stop any excess butter from forming on top of the finished sauce."

It's also vital to maintain constant whisking whilst preparing the roux, particularly when adding the milk to the flour and butter mixture. Stop stirring for just a second, and you risk creating lumps that will stubbornly refuse to disappear later.

Debbie explained: "You can also remove the pan from the heat as you need to if you feel it's getting too hot or if you can't stir fast enough to stop lumps forming."

If a skin forms on your sauce, a handy tip is to place a sheet of cling film directly onto the sauce's surface straight after taking it off the heat. When ready to add the sauce to your cauliflower, simply remove the cling film, scrape any stuck sauce back into the pan, and continue with your recipe.

Cauliflower cheese recipe

Ingredients

• 20g butter
• 30g plain flour
• 250ml milk
• 50g cheddar cheese, grated
• One medium cauliflower with the leaves removed, cut into florets
• 30g cheddar for the topping
• Black pepper
• Fresh chopped parsley

Method

1. Begin by creating the roux. Simply warm a knob of butter in a saucepan over a medium heat.

2. Once it melts, whisk in the 30g of flour to form the thickening base (the roux).

3. Turn this into a deliciously "full-flavoured" and "silky smooth" white sauce by gradually adding milk whilst continuously heating and stirring. Lower the heat of your hob to a gentle simmer and then mix in 50g of cheese, stirring it continuously until it's perfectly blended into the sauce.

4. Arrange the cauliflower florets in an eight-inch ovenproof dish and smother them with your homemade sauce.

5. Sprinkle the dish with additional cheese before placing it in a preheated oven at 180C for 15 minutes to brown. Test the texture of the cauliflower with a fork. If you feel any resistance, allow it more time to bake.