Vegan cauliflower cheese is the most delicious way to eat cauliflower! Roasted cauliflower smothered in vegan cheese sauce, topped with breadcrumbs and baked until golden.
Cauliflower cheese is a dish popular in the UK, as well as South Africa, where we’re from. Growing up you didn’t want to see cauliflower unless it was smothered in a cheese sauce and topped with either more cheese or breadcrumbs.
This vegan cauliflower cheese is our vegan take on this classic dish and it was super easy to veganize too.
It can also be called a vegan cauliflower casserole or a vegan cauliflower bake. No matter what you call it, it’s seriously delicious, to the point that I would say that it’s the MOST delicious way to eat cauliflower.
It makes the perfect vegan side dish for any special occasion but it’s also easy enough to make so that it works for a regular Wednesday night dinner too!
If you love cauliflower then also check out our vegan cauliflower curry, BBQ cauliflower wings, vegan buffalo cauliflower and bang bang cauliflower.
What Goes In Cauliflower Cheese:
Ingredient Notes & Substitutions
- Cauliflower florets – are the main ingredient of course. These are roasted with a little olive oil, salt and pepper which brings all that gorgeous roasted flavor to this dish.
- Dijon mustard – is great for adding cheesy flavor but any prepared yellow mustard will work.
- Nutritional yeast flakes – also adds cheesy flavor to the sauce. If you need to omit this however you can do so.
- Soy milk – we used soy milk for our vegan cheese sauce. You can switch this for a different non-dairy milk if you prefer. A creamy plant milk option tends to work best.
How To Make Vegan Cauliflower Cheese – Step By Step
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
- Add cauliflower florets to a mixing bowl along with olive oil, sea salt and black pepper and toss the cauliflower florets so that they are lightly coated in the oil and spices.
- Transfer to a roasting pan or a parchment lined tray and bake in the oven at 430°F for 20 minutes. Remove the cauliflower from the oven. Turn the oven down to 400°F.
- While the cauliflower is roasting prepare your cheese sauce.
- Add vegan butter to a saucepan on medium to high heat and when melted add in all purpose flour. Fry the flour in the vegan butter briefly.
- Add the soy milk all at once and whisk it in. Bring to the boil stirring and whisking constantly.
- When it boils keep stirring for a few minutes until it has thickened noticeably.
- Remove from the heat, add nutritional yeast, dijon mustard, onion powder, garlic powder and salt and whisk in.
- Place the roasted cauliflower into a mixing bowl, pour over the cheese sauce and toss the cauliflower gently in the sauce.
- Prepare your breadcrumbs by adding them to a bowl with melted vegan butter and toss the breadcrumbs with the butter so that they’re lightly coated.
- Transfer the roasted cauliflower and sauce to a 9×13 baking dish and smooth down.
- Spread the breadcrumbs evenly over the top.
- Bake in the oven (uncovered) at 400°F for 25-30 minutes until browned on top.
What To Serve With Vegan Cauliflower Cheese
This is wonderful served as a side dish but also works as a main course if you add a delicious salad on the side.
Serve it with a vegan nut roast or vegan meatloaf or alongside a vegan ham roast for a special occasion. Or serve it as a main course alongside a vegan chickpea salad, vegan kale salad, roasted butternut squash salad, vegan caesar salad or vegan Greek salad.
Recipe FAQ
You can make this recipe gluten-free if you use a gluten-free all purpose flour to make your vegan cheese sauce. You’ll also need to use gluten-free breadcrumbs for the topping, or switch breadcrumbs up for some grated vegan cheese or vegan cheese slices instead.
Keep leftovers stored in the fridge (covered) for 3-4 days.
This is not ideal for freezing as the cauliflower may become watery once thawed.
More Vegan Sides
- Vegan Scalloped Potatoes
- Vegan Stuffing
- Vegan Green Bean Casserole
- Vegan Sweet Potato Casserole
- Vegan Mashed Potatoes
- Vegan Cornbread
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Cauliflower Cheese
Ingredients
Roasted Cauliflower:
- 2 pounds Cauliflower Florets (1kg)
- 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
- ½ tsp Sea Salt
- ½ tsp Ground Black Pepper
Vegan Cheese Sauce:
- 6 Tbsp Vegan Butter
- 6 Tbsp All Purpose Flour
- 3 cups Soy Milk (720ml) or other creamy non-dairy milk
- ⅓ cup Nutritional Yeast (20g)
- 2 tsp Dijon Mustard
- 1 tsp Onion Powder
- 1 tsp Garlic Powder
- ¾ tsp Sea Salt
Topping:
- ½ cup Vegan Breadcrumbs
- 2 Tbsp Vegan Butter Melted
Serving:
- Fresh Parsley
- Ground Black Pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 430°F (220°C).
- Add cauliflower florets to a mixing bowl along with olive oil, sea salt and black pepper and toss the cauliflower florets so that they are lightly coated in the oil and spices.
- Transfer to a roasting pan or a parchment lined tray and bake in the oven at 430°F for 20 minutes. Remove the cauliflower from the oven and then turn the oven down to 400°F.
- While the cauliflower is roasting prepare your cheese sauce. Add vegan butter to a saucepan on medium to high heat and when melted add in all purpose flour. Fry the flour in the vegan butter briefly.
- Add the soy milk all at once and whisk it in. Bring to the boil stirring and whisking constantly. When it boils keep stirring for a few minutes until it has thickened noticeably.
- Remove from the heat, add nutritional yeast, dijon mustard, onion powder, garlic powder and salt and whisk in.
- Place the roasted cauliflower into a mixing bowl, pour over the cheese sauce and toss the cauliflower gently in the sauce.
- Prepare your breadcrumbs by adding them to a bowl with melted vegan butter and toss the breadcrumbs with the butter so that they’re lightly coated.
- Transfer the roasted cauliflower and sauce to a 9×13 baking dish and smooth down.
- Spread the breadcrumbs evenly over the top.
- Bake in the oven (uncovered) at 400°F for 25-30 minutes until browned on top.
- Serve topped with some fresh chopped parsley and ground black pepper.
Notes
- Gluten-Free: You can make this recipe gluten-free if you use a gluten-free all purpose flour to make your vegan cheese sauce. You’ll also need to use gluten-free breadcrumbs for the topping, or switch breadcrumbs up for some grated vegan cheese or vegan cheese slices instead.
- Storing: Keep leftovers stored in the fridge (covered) for 3-4 days.
- Freezing: This is not ideal for freezing as the cauliflower may become watery once thawed.
Made this for Christmas this year, delicious! I had a gluten free person with us so I skipped on the breadcrumbs and added less sauce. I used buckwheat flour and realised then it might not thicken so added cornflour, I didn’t have any all purpose flour gf.
It worked out awesome, cooked that morning and reheated for dinner. Thank you so much!
So happy it was a success! Thanks for sharing and the awesome review.
Can I make this the night before? Then, bake it the next day? Thanks!
Sure! You can get it all assembled in the dish, cover and refrigerate and then bake the next day. All the best!
We all loved this one – totally delicious – no left overs!
Fantastic! Thanks Angela!
My wife was exhausted after Thanksgiving cooking so I, an Englishman offered to cook an old favourite of mine but to make it vegan and slightly simpler. I boiled the cauliflower (less washing up!) and I added all the vegan cheese sauce ingredients (except the vegan butter – to reduce calories) together and heated it up like a roux. It was absolutely delicious. Thank you!
Fantastic! So happy to hear it was a success!
Brilliant recipe Alison, I tried with plain soy milk, can I use the sweetened soy milk too? And what is the green inside on the picture? Is it shallots? What green should I use? What other meals serve best with this? Thanks so much Alison. Two times I have tried this and I will make it again.
Hi Nancy, so glad you enjoyed the recipe. It’s fresh chopped parsley on top of the dish. There is a section in the blog post called ‘what to serve with cauliflower cheese’ that has a lot of ideas on what to serve it with. Regarding sweetened soy milk, I guess it really depends on how sweetened. I often use ‘regular’ soy milk, which does have some sugar in it but doesn’t have a ‘sweet’ taste. I think if it tasted too sweet it may interfere with the other flavors.
Yet another fabulous recipe my family loved it !!
Thanks so much Fiona!
My favourite all-time cauli dish comfort food! Thank you so many recipes here that are foolproof and tasty ! ❤️
You’re so welcome Sandy! 🙂
Made this for the first time last night and it was an instant hit in our house.
I have used the sauce before for vegan Mac and nobody believes there is no cheese in it!
I added a teaspoon of turmeric for a slightly red cheesy colour.
The sauce worked brilliantly with the roasted cauliflower.
Thanks Alison for another superb recipe.
Yay! Thanks so much Catherine!
Tried this out last night! So tasty and easily converted to the gluten free version. Thanks so much for another excellent recipe.
Oh wonderful! Thanks so much for sharing Anna!
This looks yummy and so versatile! I betcha it would be great if you used scalloped potatoes, or macaroni, or broccoli … so many options!
Hi Tania! Thanks! Yes it would be great with roasted broccoli too. And we use a very similar sauce in our baked vegan mac and cheese too so definitely versatile! 🙂
This is awesome thanks so much! One of my favorite recipes is cauliflower cheese so I can’t wait to make this vegan version.