Whole Roasted Baby Cauliflower

This simple, Whole Roasted Baby Cauliflower is perfectly charred on the outside and tender in the middle. Made with just four ingredients – salted water, extra-virgin olive oil, coarse sea salt—and cauliflower.

Whole Roasted Baby Cauliflower

If you’ve ever had the “World Famous” Roasted Baby Cauliflower from Miznon, in Chelsea Market you’ll thank me! So simple and delicious as a side, appetizer or vegetarian/vegan main dish.

I took a trip into NYC a few weeks ago with my friend Heather for recipe inspiration. One of our stops was Chelsea Market. We heard great things about Miznon, an Isreali restaurant and it didn’t disappoint. As we stood on line trying to figure out what to get, we saw this beautiful, whole roasted baby cauliflower come out. Knowing we’d be sampling lots of food we knew we wanted to try it (among other things!). It was perfectly tender, you didn’t even need a knife or fork to cut it. We just pulled it apart with our hands! They have tahini sauce and a spicy green salsa as condiments so we dipped the cauliflower in and enjoyed, although it’s perfect on it’s own.

We asked the chef how he prepared it, and he was most generous in sharing. Most roasted cauliflower recipes I’ve tried usually had the same issue, they’d be great on the outside, but slightly uncooked on the inside. By boiling it first in salted water, then brushing it with olive oil and sea salt after with a quick roast at a high temperature, the cauliflower comes out creamy, golden and delicious.

I made this for friends as an appetizer, and like they do at Miznon, put it into the middle of the table for everyone to share and break apart. Added some tahini (affil link) for dipping, everyone loved it! If you like it spicy, try it with this spicy green hot sauce.

Notes:

If you want to serve this as a vegetarian main dish, serve it for two people with pita and tahini.

Boil this with plenty of water in a large pot and salt it, like you would salt pasta water.