Spicy Roasted Cauliflower

I had this idea to make a Halloween inspired dish from cauliflower because lets face it, it looks like brains. Perfect Halloween material right? I figured there's a great side dish or salad in the making. The problem is, cauliflower pretty much tastes like water. Not much flavor going on. It's like chunky H2O. Unless you smother it in a cheese sauce or salad dressing it's pretty bland. This recipe however is the farthest thing from bland-ville.

The cauliflower is roasted and basted in a sweet, spicy, and garlicky sauce that's so delicious that even my husband loved it and he is NOT a fan of cauliflower...he had two servings.  

Slicing the cauliflower into flat patties does a few things. One it makes them look like cross-sections of cerebrums. Which is way cool and creepy for a Halloween inspired side dish. Two, it helps infuse the sauce better because the florets are smaller bites of cauliflower. And three, it makes for quick, easy, and even roasting. 

This recipe was so yummy and the pictures turned out so beautiful that the plating doesn't look much like a Halloween dish. But like all my Halloween recipes, they can be made any time of the year, not just for Halloween, just change up the plating to de-Halloween-ify it.

This would be a perfect side dish with my Midnight Sushi with Wasabi Skulls and a cool Fangtini. Enjoy!

Roasted Brains (Spicy Roasted Cauliflower)

Serves 4

1 head of Cauliflower, florets cut into thin flats of cauliflower

1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 T toasted sesame oil
3 T soy sauce
3-4 T sriracha (to taste)
1 clove garlic, finely minced (I used Dorot garlic cubes)
juice of one lime
2 T honey
green onions (garnish)
black sesame seeds(garnish)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

In a small bowl, mix vegetable and sesame oils, soy sauce, sriracha, garlic, and lime juice and give a quick stir. Note: The honey is not added at this point to prevent the sauce from burning during roasting. The honey will be added to the leftover sauce after basting the cauliflower. 

On a parchment lined cookie sheet, place cauliflower florets in a single layer. Baste one side of cauliflower flats with spicy sauce (with no honey added). Set leftover sauce aside.


Roast 450 degrees for 20-25 minutes. 

Add the honey to the leftover sauce and mix well. Add additional sriracha if desired. Or if you didn't have much remaining, make a new batch of sauce, this time adding all the ingredients at one time. 

Remove cauliflower from the oven and baste generously with the spicy sauce with honey. Transfer to a bowl or platter garnish with green onions and black sesame seeds and Enjoy!

Other Halloween recipes to try: 
Love at First Bite Linguini               Black Magic Spellcakes               Midnight Sushi