That was a most outstanding meal and I had to share it with the world. Veggies and I have been at odds for years and I think cauliflower has won my heart over. I smile when I prepare this and can’t wait for the roasty smells to start. If you search Meathenge you’ll run in to this preparation method with a few different recipes and experiments. This vegetable dish is so good you can eat it as a meal and it’s good reheated the next day. Plus it’s easy and takes no longer than 35 minutes to cook. Here we go!
You want to break up 2 heads of ‘flower in to florets, about the same size each. Slice them in half if you must. Wash, shake and pat dry (oil & water don’t mix, eh). Toss in to largest bowl you have or directly in to flat bottomed turkey roaster.
Note: If you don’t have a large flat bottomed roaster of some kind, use the biggest one you have and adjust quantitiy of veggies.
Preheat oven to 450, place rack on bottom.
Slice large white onion in to crescent moon shapes, I love that shape. Put that in bowl. I had 2 large handfuls of these little brown, could have been crimini, mushrooms. You could fit 2 in your mouth at once. Add an appropriate amount of these. This is all up to your taste and size of roaster.
Add enough extra virgin to coat. Using your hands to ‘toss’ the mixture around in the bowl. Dump in to roaster. Here’s the important part, you don’t want piles of cauliflower. All the florets should have enough space to rest nicely on the bottom of the pan. Don’t worry about any other veggies, they’ll be fine. See, you want those florets to contact the bottom of that really hot roaster and get all caramelly. Salt the entire surface area semi lightly. Stir and flip, salt again. Do your fresh ground pepper after the dish comes from the oven, don’t wanna burn that pepper.
Put in to your hotass oven (preheat for about 25 minutes or so). If you have a convection oven, your results will be even better. Just make sure to adjust your oven temperature accordingly.
At 15 minutes remove from oven, close door. Use a spatula to stir and flip over the florets. Put back in oven for another 15 to 20 minutes.
Remove and eat with fork.
This meal was so good I didn’t eat any meat with it.
Biggles
But, could you use a spork?
Looks delish! Maybe it could convert my cauliflower-hating children….
Hey Jlee,
A spork? I don’t think I have one of those. User yer fangers.
Biggles
Hey Anon,
Well, it converted my hillbilly ass. That’s fer sure.
Biggles
Comin’ to this a bit late, but wanted to add my remarks. I am very familiar with cauliflower, because my mom was Brit! I have always steamed my cauliflower and then at the last minute tried to upbeat the bland flavor with tons of spices and sprinkled herbs. Most of the time, this didn’t work.
If the procedure you describe really tunes up the cauliflower, then I am all for it! Bravo, Biggs Budddy!
Hey BB,
Yeah, steaming veggies bores me to death. And I agree, it is tough getting flavor in to that stuff. I’ve tried all kinds of ways and so far it works best to flavor it on your plate with something spicy and hot. Otherwise it tends to mellow.
Biggles
Just letting you know that I’m featuring this recipe as one of my South Beach Recipes of the Week where I spotlight low-glycemic recipes from other food blogs. It includes your photo (with a photo credit for you, of course) and link back to the recipe. Loved the sound of this.
Hey Kalyn,
Wahoooo!!! I’m famous on the internet.
The sound of it isn’t anything near as good as the real thing. A few co-workers have tried it and say they’ve never had cauliflower that good. Although, they’ve only had steamed and mashed and low roasted with not much going on.
Take care,
Biggles
Howdy! Not familiar with your site, but a bunch of veg-heads are about to try this wonderful-smelling roast cauliflower with dinner omlettes. Thanks for a great post from your land of meat! 🙂
Hey Stephanie,
Most excellent! I think you’re really going to enjoy it. The deep, rich flavors this produces will cause you to eat it all yourself. MmMMmmMmm.
Biggles
WOW I just wanted to know if there was a way to roast cauliflower and BANG, ran dead on into your site. Hope this is as good as it sounds!
CTK
p.s. are you a used car salesman..hehe should be!