Whole Roasted Cauliflower With Almond-Herb Sauce Recipe (2024)

To cut calories but not flavour, I steam the head for about 15 minutes. Then I brush the head with olive oil - 2 table spoons is plenty. Then I roast the cauliflower in the oven until brown and nutty. Cooks faster and tastes great.

That's a LOT of olive oil. I like the recipe from an old copy of Cooks Magazine: preheat oven to 425. cut cauliflower into wedges. lightly oil pan and lay cauliflower in it flat sides down. cover tightly with foil. Roast for 8-10 min. Turn so that other flat side of wedge is pan side down. recover and roast 8 min. take foil off, roast 8-10 more (can baste with small amount more olive oil). Cauliflower is moist, rich, browned all around. Much less oil. Easy. delicious

The original recipe which calls for cooking the whole cauliflower including outer leaves and stem (head down) in boiling water for 15 min before roasting is by far less work.

Not a fan of extended cooking with olive oil for extended periods at high temperatures. Wonder about substituting avocado oil for the olive oil since it has the highest smoke point (when components of the oil start to oxidize) of common vegetable oils. Most olive oils have smoke points below 375 F. I use avocado for all high temperature cooking. If want olive oil flavor, use as small a quantity of avocado oil as is practical, then add olive oil right at the end to maintain its integrity.

Slightly mashed capers work beautifully in the place of anchovies in Caesar salad dressing. Sharp and tangy. I imagine they'd do very well with the cauliflower.

Also concerned with all the oil. (Why turn vegetable into fattening dish???) 1st brushed with oil olive, 2nd mid-way with balsamic vinegar. The 2nd hr of roasting may not be necessary but brought out the best in flavors. Also, while a whole roasted head of cauliflower does make a great impression the browned surfaces are the best tasting part of dish. Next time will quarter to allow more exposed surface area for browning. FYI, put Dijon mustard on reheated leftovers. Easy and tasty. Cheers

In the actual NYT paper, this recipe and sauce (both of which are FABULOUS) mentioned several alternate sauces. Is it possible to add them to this on-line version?

This is an Absolute Best recipe I've cooked thanks to the NYTimes cooking site. I worked for Julia Child's French Cooking (at home) WGBH-TV early on and she would have "killed" for this recipe. Go for it and Bon Appetit.

Instead of raw garlic, I sautéed the sliced cloves over medium heat 'til caramelized, then added them to the mix in the processor. Glad that I did. Yummy!

The whole head was impressive, and the silky texture of the interior was interesting, but I thought the flavor wasn't as good as simply tossing florets and stem pieces in olive oil, salt and pepper and roasting conventionally. The interior doesn't get seasoned with the whole roasting method. It took a long time as well. The sauce was delicious.

I found that adding the oil to the wet cauliflower created a bomb that coated the inside of my oven with oil.

Toss cauliflower florets in a mixture of red curry and coconut oil. Baking sheet at 375 till tender top with fresh grated parmesan and finish under broiler. Mmm.

I'm guess umami paste here would be miso paste. Capers have worked well for me with butter type dishes. Another option would be nutritional yeast, a longstanding vegan trick for getting things to taste cheesy, which is to say, umami-y.

5 stars for the sauce. After reading the other notes, I just roasted the cauliflower the normal way--broke up the florets, drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled on some salt and pepper, and baked about an hour at 450F until the florets were singed and crispy. But the sauce was so tasty and unique.

Roasting the entire head of cauliflower this way creates a lovely presentation at the table- a bonus if it’s a special occasion. I bumped up the heat to 400 and used the convection setting for the last 20 minutes. A medium sized head of cauliflower took 70 minutes to cook. The core is firm and tasty, the florets are crunchy and nutty. The sauce is savory goodness, made it tonight with mint leaves and 1/2 teaspoon of dried tarragon ‘cause that’s what I had.

How could you possibly make this sauce/salsa/pesto WITHOUT the anchovies? It is brilliant. If you don’t like anchovies...find another recipe.

The cauliflower was good but the sauce is amazing! Very unusual flavours. I made with almond butter, cilantro, and fewer anchovies. We brought it to a dinner party and before long everything was being dipped in it.

A 1 3/4 lb cauliflower head took 1 hr 20 min at 375.

Made the sauce only. Was delicious. Modified to use olive oil and plain yogurt

Hmmm. I followed the advice of several commenters and steamed the whole head of cauliflower 15 minutes before roasting. It was already done by the time I put it in the oven to roast. I think I'll stick to my tried-and-true method of slicing it into 1" wedges and roasting. This method produces the same flavor in a lot less time.

Great sauce

60 to 70 min is plenty of time. I substituted Spanish ham for anchovies. I should have cooked the garlic a tad before putting in the sauce.

Use the Whold Roasted C. with Romesco instead. The sauce is divine -- use a jar of roasted red peppers from TJ's. Far less oil.

Delicious, exactly as it is set forth in this recipe. Who cares about the olive oil if it is meant to be a vegetarian dinner (notwithstanding the anchovies). Yum!!!

Used Roasted almonds, cilantro.Liked anchovies but maybe a little less.

Made this as cauliflower steaks last weekend and we really liked it. Will make again. If your garlic has been stored a while, don't be alarmed if the vinegar turns it blue! Still edible :)

I made this as part of Easter dinner. Sauce was delicious but sadly the cauliflower was way overcooked, even with the minimum cooking time. I'll make this again but shorten the cooking time significantly. Sauce would be delicious on almost anything!

The pairing of the sauce with this roasted cauliflower is epic. We are not cauliflower freaks; we are anchovy skeptics. Stepping outside of our comfort zone was well rewarded. I didn’t have whole anchovies so I substituted a tablespoon of anchovy paste.