By Emily Dawson, Food Blogger, Recipe Developer, PhotographerPublished on 12 June 2026

200+ recipes developed and tested in her home kitchen before publishing on British Kitchen Hub.

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Quick Cauliflower Cheese Recipe for 2 Without Flour

Jump to recipe5 mins prep20 mins cookServes 2

Quick Cauliflower Cheese Recipe for 2 Without Flour This flourless quick cauliflower cheese recipe solves three problems in one: it's speedy — not even 25 minutes from start to finish; it's perfectly portioned for two with no leftover mountain of cheesy grumble; and it makes its creamy cheesy sauce without the need for a traditional butter-flour roux, any lumps or seized-up stages. This means you don't have to stand at your hob whisking vigorously for over ten minutes. It is corn flour (corn flour), a naturally gluten-free thickener that dissolves in cold milk and swells as it heats, producing an ultra-smooth sauce with no lumps in under 5 minutes. The basis of flavor — strong mature cheddar is a must; the sharper cheese means more cheesy bake. Mustard powder brings out cheddar's charms without a trace of mustard flavor; it's a classic British culinary sleight of hand that's been used in cauliflower cheese since Victoria was on the throne. The result is what may be the ultimate British comfort food: golden-topped, bubbling creaminess with none of the anxiety-inducing ingredients. This is stress-free cooking halved down to perfectly feed two.

Prep

5 mins

Cook

20 mins

Servings

Serves 2

Difficulty

Easy

Quick Cauliflower Cheese Recipe for 2 Without Flour

Cauliflower cheese is one of the great British comfort dishes — warm, golden, bubbling with cheddar, and deeply satisfying in the way only a properly made gratin can be. The problem with most recipes is they are built for a full-sized family bake, call for quantities of flour and butter, and involve making a béchamel sauce that even experienced cooks occasionally get lumpy. This quick cauliflower cheese recipe for 2 without flour fixes all of that.

The starch that makes this recipe cohere is corn flour—or as the United States would have it, cornstarch. With plain flour, you need to cook that with butter into a roux before making your sauce by adding milk, but corn flour goes straight into the cold milk and gets thicker as it heats up (the starches in the corn flour gelatinize), so even if there are lumps when you start doing this direct method of gravy, make sure not to whisk too hard—stovetop cream will be perfectly smooth/paste-free after 3 minutes! No roux. No risk of lumps. No ten-minute whisking session. It is just a little pot, one whisk, and as fail-proof a sauce as can be.

The recipe is scaled for two people — a genuine two-person portion, not 'serves two if each person has four spoonfuls'. For a side dish alongside roast chicken, gammon, or a Sunday roast, it feeds two generously. As a main dish with crusty bread, it is a deeply satisfying meal for two.

Cauliflower cheese first formed a part of Great Britain's cuisine at least as long ago as the 18th century and appeared in early English cookbooks with cream and cheese baked on top. The updated model became a British family favourite in the 20th century and is now among our nation's most popular accompaniments, served with Sunday roasts, as pub grub chip connoisseurs of yesteryear would like to call it, and at Christmas lunch tables around Britain.

Variations

Extra Cheesy Cauliflower Cheese (No Flour): Add a 15g handful of grated Parmesan alongside the mature cheddar in the sauce — Parmesan has a concentrated, nutty flavor that multiplies the cheesiness without adding bulk. Scatter an extra 20g of grated cheddar over the top before grilling for a deeply burnished, crispy cheese crust.
Cauliflower and Broccoli Cheese (No Flour): Replace half the cauliflower (about 200g) with the same weight of broccoli florets. Cook both vegetables together in the same boiling water for the same time. The broccoli adds color, a slightly different texture, and a mild bitterness that balances the richness of the cheese sauce beautifully.
Vegan Cauliflower Cheese (No Flour): Use unsweetened oat milk or cashew milk in place of dairy milk (same quantity), replace the cheddar with a good vegan cheddar-style block cheese such as Violife or Applewood Vegan, and add 1 tablespoon of nutritional yeast to the sauce for extra savoury depth. All other ingredients and method remain identical.

How to Make Quick Cauliflower Cheese Recipe for 2 Without Flour (Step-by-Step)

Par-boil and dry the cauliflower thoroughly

The most common complaint is watery cauliflower cheese, and it has a single cause: excess moisture coming from the cauliflower itself. The fix is two-fold. First, whatever you do, don't overcook the cauliflower while it is simmering in boiling water—5 minutes max for florets destined for the oven. Other than baking an overcooked piece of cauliflower (which, if it gives off water in the super-wet cheese sauce and glops around like a pool on your plate, is fine), second, never boil them and steam-dry the florets—top-dry by spreading on a towel or tray for a minimum of 2 minutes so that surface moisture is evaporated. A dry cauliflower soaks up sauce; a wet one throws it off.

Make the sauce with cornflour — no roux, no lumps

One of the best reasons to make cauliflower cheese without flour is using the corn flour method. Béchamel usually consists of butter and flour cooked together into a roux, with milk added slowly while whisking; it's totally idiot-proof in the right hands but lump-central for those less practiced. The corn flour goes straight into the cold milk, dissolves completely, and thickens smoothly as it heats. The key is to create a lump-free slurry by whisking corn flour into just enough milk before adding the rest. This helps the starch to mix evenly and thicken all over as opposed to little starchy pockets.

Use the strongest cheddar you can find — and grate it yourself

The cheese, my friends, is what this recipe is all about. Since there are so few other ingredients and none of the flour-butter richness to fill in for flavor, it's up to the cheddar itself (and maybe a little milk) to do all that heavy lifting. Optional for extra mature or vintage cheddar—these have been aged between 12 and 18 months and possess a bold, nuanced, almost crystalline flavor that translates into an intensely cheesy sauce. Whether you use mild or medium cheddar, no cheddar cheese adds up to tastelessness. Grate your own cheese from a block because pre-grated bags will have added anti-caking agents (generally either potato starch or cellulose), and these hinder melting smoothness, leaving you with grainy sauce. Just a few seconds of grating makes all the difference.

Grill for golden, bubbling perfection

The fastest fresh cauliflower cheese recipe for 2 persons — the grill (broiler) is your best friend. The immensely golden, slightly burnt cheese crust — with caramelising edges on the exposed cauliflower tips and that goldfish-eye of a looker in its casserole dish, which is what makes you really want to crash your face first into cauliflower cheese — has been cooked under a hot grill for eight to ten minutes. The grill method is quicker than oven baking (15 minutes) and provides a more distinct color contrast between the golden brown top and creamy sauce below. Note the timing – the difference between golden and burnt is 90 seconds at maximum heat level, so watch it carefully under the grill.

5 from 1 vote

Quick Cauliflower Cheese Recipe for 2 Without Flour

This flourless quick cauliflower cheese recipe solves three problems in one: it's speedy — not even 25 minutes from start to finish; it's perfectly portioned for two with no leftover mountain of cheesy grumble; and it makes its creamy cheesy sauce without the need for a traditional butter-flour roux, any lumps or seized-up stages. This means you don't have to stand at your hob whisking vigorously for over ten minutes. It is corn flour (corn flour), a naturally gluten-free thickener that dissolves in cold milk and swells as it heats, producing an ultra-smooth sauce with no lumps in under 5 minutes. The basis of flavor — strong mature cheddar is a must; the sharper cheese means more cheesy bake. Mustard powder brings out cheddar's charms without a trace of mustard flavor; it's a classic British culinary sleight of hand that's been used in cauliflower cheese since Victoria was on the throne. The result is what may be the ultimate British comfort food: golden-topped, bubbling creaminess with none of the anxiety-inducing ingredients. This is stress-free cooking halved down to perfectly feed two.

Equipment

Medium saucepan (for par-boiling cauliflower)
Small saucepan (for cheese sauce)
Small ovenproof baking dish (approximately 20cm x 15cm — individual gratin dishes also work perfectly for 2)
Whisk
Colander or sieve
Sharp knife and chopping board
Measuring jug and spoons
Box grater (for cheese)
Grill (broiler) or oven

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Ingredients

✓1 small head of cauliflower (approximately 450g / 1 lb)
✓200ml (3/4 cup) whole milk
✓1.5 teaspoons corn flour (cornstarch)
✓70g (2.5 oz) mature cheddar, coarsely grated
✓1/4 teaspoon mustard powder
✓1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
✓Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
✓Small pinch of freshly grated (optional but traditional)
✓15g (0.5 oz) extra cheddar, grated, for the topping

Instructions

Beef Skewers: Grilled skewers with roasted Scotch bonnets and garlic Preheat the grill (broiler) to its highest setting or the oven to 220°C. Grease a small ovenproof baking dish, but it can be any style or size—and set it aside lightly with butter/oil.
Put a medium saucepan of salted water on to heat in the meantime. Break off the cauliflower into florets [note: chop them up consistently; that way, they cook evenly]. Drop them into the boiling water and cook for 5 minutes exactly—they should still be firm and just tender when pierced with a knife but not mushy or falling apart. They will carry on cooking in the oven, so purposely undercook them at this stage. Drain in a colander and spread on a clean kitchen towel or baking tray for 2 minutes to steam dry. If you overdo this step, your finished dish will be waterlogged.
Let the cauliflower drain while you prepare the cheese sauce. Sift the corn flour into cold milk in a small pan—start with 1 tablespoon of the milk to make a paste, combine, and then whisk it in fully before adding more. It is the magic of a lump-free sauce without worrying about making any roux beforehand: this cold-start method.
Put the saucepan on the heat (medium) and whisk constantly and gently while heating up. The store acknowledged that it took 3 to 4 minutes for a noticeable thickening of the sauce—you will feel resistance increase against the whisk. The instant it coats the back of a spoon and leaves a line if you run your finger through it, take it off the heat so that it doesn't over-thicken.
Take off the heat, and stir in the mustard powder, salt and pepper, and nutmeg (if using). Add 55g of the grated cheddar (keep back 15g to top) and, stirring vigorously, melt everything down until absolutely smooth and glossy—you want an intensely cheesy sauce. The taste for seasoning and the cheese sauce should be quite cheesy, as it will tone down slightly with the cauliflower.
Spread the drained cauliflower florets into an even layer in the prepared baking dish, packing them firmly together without any oversized gaps. Spoon the cheese sauce all over the cauliflower, but you'll want to tilt it a little so every floret is coated. Sprinkle the reserved 15g of grated cheddar over the top evenly.
If using a grill (broiler), grill for 8 to 10 minutes until the top is richly golden and bubbly with charred spots on the uppermost florets—this method finishes it fast and gives better color than oven baking. Or alternatively, bake in the upper third of the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Dinner—cauliflower cheese isn't going to wait around for you, so serve it straight from the dish.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you make cauliflower cheese without flour?

Instead of a traditional roux made from butter and flour, this recipe uses cornflour (cornstarch) whisked into cold milk. The cornflour dissolves completely in the cold milk and thickens smoothly as the mixture heats on the hob and no butter needed, no roux required, and no risk of lumps. Is cauliflower cheese without flour gluten-free? Yes, this recipe is naturally gluten-free because cornflour (cornstarch) is derived from maize, which contains no gluten. All other ingredients (cauliflower, milk, cheddar, mustard powder, nutmeg) are naturally gluten-free. If serving to someone with coeliac disease, check that the mustard powder brand is certified gluten-free, as some brands are processed in facilities that also handle wheat.

Why is my cauliflower cheese watery?

The most common cause is excess moisture from the cauliflower itself. Cauliflower has a high water content, and if it is overcooked in the boiling water or not properly drained and dried before being added to the baking dish, it releases water into the cheese sauce during baking, making it thin and watery. What is the best cheese for cauliflower cheese? Extra mature or vintage mature cheddar is the best choice — the stronger the cheddar, the more intensely cheesy the finished dish. Mild or medium cheddar produces a bland, pale sauce regardless of quantity. A popular upgrade is to use a mix of 50g extra mature cheddar and 20g finely grated Parmesan — the Parmesan adds a concentrated, nutty savouriness that multiplies the cheese flavor significantly.

Can I use cornstarch instead of flour in cauliflower cheese?

Yes — cornstarch (known as cornflour in the UK) is precisely what this recipe uses. It is a more reliable thickener than plain flour for a quick cheese sauce because it goes directly into cold milk without needing a butter roux, dissolves smoothly, and thickens in minutes on medium heat with no risk of lumps. Use 1.5 teaspoons of cornflour per 200ml of milk for a sauce that is thick enough to coat the cauliflower generously without being gloopy.

Notes

Mustard powder — the secret cheddar amplifier

Mustard powder, an old British condiment for cauliflower cheese and cheddar-based sauces, is used more counterintuitively there to extend its flavor. It's therefore below the flavor threshold for most palates to detect consciously, laid on at a quarter teaspoon per 70 g of cheese, but it clearly bolsters perception and thickness with which cheddar's sharpness hits your palate. Mustard powder is a well-travelled trick in British cooking, and most anyone who claims not to like mustard will reliably notice the difference between a batch with it added versus without. Equal: Dijon mustard (½ tsp).

Serving ideas and leftover uses

As well as the classic accompaniment to a roast, flourless cauliflower cheese works equally brilliantly in several other guises. Top a baked jacket potato with the remaining for an incredibly comforting lunch. For an instant mac-and-cheese, stir cold leftover cauliflower cheese through cooked pasta with a splash of milk and a handful of extra cheddar in a pan. Add on top of a baked potato gratin – add thinly sliced potatoes and bake at 200°C for half an hour. Or just reheat in a pan with a tablespoon of milk to loosen the sauce, season and eat as it is. With crispy bacon on top or even an egg!