Not to gloat, but I roast several greens. Okay, the general public wouldn’t count the number as a brag, but I’m proud to count creamy sweet potatoes and crispy carrots as key components of my weight loss plan. When I’m genuinely on my game, they’re even a part of my patent-pending Midnight Meal Prep habitual. (That’s once I check my bank account before mattress, panic, and try to throw lunch collectively for the rest of the week.) But once I attempted this roasted cauliflower recipe, all those root veggies became a distant memory. Cheesy, with some luck, caramelized, goosed up with a briny-tart dressing, and hit all the notes. Here’s what makes this model better than the rest.
Super-Smart Slicing
Instead of snapping off every floret, you slice the complete cauliflower head into neat planks. (You trim the bottom first, so you have a strong base for safer reduction. Safety first!) This increases the cauliflower’s quantity, making contact with the sheet tray, growing caramelization, charring, and crisping. Plus, it’s so much faster.
Melted! Cheese!
Need I say greater? Once the cauliflower planks are deeply browned, take the sheet pan out and bathe the whole lot with grated parm before popping it lower back inside the oven for another 10 minutes. In that magical amount of time, the cheese will melt and work its way into each corner and cranny of the cauliflower—you watch for the parm to smell toasty, nutty, and quite a whole lot irresistible, and then it’s finished! Try not to inhale it directly off the sheet tray because that savory, tangy dressing to come certainly makes the dish.
Lemon-Caper Dressing
Despite my earlier bragging about being a roasted vegetable pro, I rarely think about creating a sauce to place on them. And while I’m still not above a final minute drizzle of straight-up Sriracha or tahini, this recipe’s brilliant and briny lemon-caper dressing is precisely what a plate of tacky cauliflower desires. You virtually whisk collectively chopped capers, olive oil, lemon juice, and salt, but it’s simply the element you want as a foil to those deep, wealthy, roast-y flavors. Once you notice how smooth this dressing is, I assure you’ll begin drizzling it over pretty much any roasted vegetable state of affairs.
This cauliflower is the perfect addition to any grain bowl or salad. However, it’s highly flexible. Use the leftovers in a breakfast frittata or a subsequent-degree vegetarian sandwich. Or take a page out of my book and eat them bloodless, standing over the kitchen counter and marveling at how delicious roasted cauliflower may be.
