If you have yet to make Whole Roasted Cauliflower, you are missing out. It is the perfect easy appetizer for a dinner party.
Requiring minimal work from you and about five minutes hands-on cooking time, you can free yourself up to do the thousand other things it takes to host a dinner party and still have a fabulous, delicious and elegant starter for up to six guests.
Bonus: this is fun to eat so if kids are included, they will love just digging in and pulling pieces off.
This is as simple as it gets.
Gently core the cauliflower.
Be careful to leave a partial core – just enough to hold the florets together.
Rub with olive oil and spices. Bake, allow to cool for a few minutes.
Use a spatula to transfer onto a serving plate.
Serve with a handful of forks or just use your hands to pull apart.
Fight over the caramelized brown bits on the bottom.
But mostly, Enjoy!
Did you make this recipe? Please give it a star rating below!
Whole roasted cauliflower with Indian spices.
- 2.5 pound head cauliflower
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon curry powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1/4 teaspoon brown mustard seeds
- 1/8 teaspoon turmeric
- pinch cayenne pepper
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Preheat oven to 450F. Prepare cauliflower by removing green outer leaves and using a paring knife to gently cut out the core. Be sure to leave enough core intact so that florets stay connected for roasting.
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Line a baking sheet with tinfoil and spray with non-stick cooking spray. Place cauliflower on baking sheet and evenly rub with olive oil.
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Mix spices in a small dish and rub into cauliflower.
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Cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes on center rack, rotating once at 40 minutes.
Did you make this recipe? Tag @EverydayMaven on Instagram with the hashtag #EveryDayMaven and please give a star rating below.
This was delicious! I used ground cumin and ground mustard as that was what I had on hand, and it worked fine. The whole cauliflower is lovely for presentation, but it limits the browning. Next time, I will cut it into large florets before oiling, spicing and baking so that there can be more browning and more even spice distribution.
Sounds good Cindy – so glad you liked it!
My favorite way to do tweak this recipe is to cut into about 3/4″ slices (“steaks”) and place them on an oiled baking sheet, brush the top sides with more oil, lightly salt them, roast, then flip all the slices, brush new top sides with oil, and then add the spices, and roast until done. This gets lots of browning and the spices stay on the cauliflower. Adding some cardamon is a nice way to vary the flavor.
Looks and sounds good. Nice recipe. Thank you.
Oh my goodness!!!! I’m so glad you linked me to this. I can’t wait to try it!
I am a cauliflower lover and it is such a fun (and easy) way to cook it! Let me know what you think 🙂
I made this yesterday for a potluck/hors d’oeuvres baby shower. It was quick, easy and a big hi.! Thanks!
That is awesome Carol – so glad you enjoyed it!
Alyssa would it make a huge difference to use ground cumin?
I think it will be fine!