13 easy and delicious recipes for cauliflower
From a luxurious mac and cheese to more-ish curries, healthy salads and delicious dips, you’ll love these easy meal ideas for the humble cauliflower.
Smothering it in cheese sauce is a perfectly valid way to use cauliflower, but there are far more exciting ways to turn this staple veggie into a delicious meal.
And not just tasty, scientists have found that eating white vegetables, including cauliflower, potatoes and onions can reduce your chances of contracting stomach cancer. Win-win.
Now that we’ve made our case for cauliflower, check out these 13 clever recipes for a brilliant brassica.
Cauliflower and blue cheese dip
The concept of a three-course meal is not part of the Tigrinya dining experience. The way we serve food is simply by presenting a banquet of everything and letting you fix yourself a plate, or it is presented on a communal platter with all the selections on it. People are always questioning this, wanting to make the cuisine fit into the eating format they understand. My mother is not a western-trained chef and when I started to take her to western restaurants to inspire some fusion, this recipe was born. – Saba Alemayoh
Get Saba and Tekebash Alemayoh’s cauliflower and blue cheese dip recipe.
Cauliflower Korma
Cauliflower is a terrific team player, with a mild taste and texture that lends itself to myriad flavours and cuisines. You could call it the chicken of the soil. Here it’s teamed with cashews and coconut to build a creamy curry the whole family will love – and subbing coconut oil for ghee means it is more inclusive for plant-forward members of the clan too. Feel free to go heavier on the chilli to garnish, or even spike the spice mix with chilli powder.
Get the recipe for our cauliflower korma and cheat’s garlic roti paratha
Scallop tart with cauliflower
Plump, fresh, local scallops are a sweet sensation and really come into their own at this time of year. They’re even better with butter, be it atop buttery puff pastry or with a herby butter on the half-shell. Get the recipe for scallop tart with cauliflower
Roasted cauliflower salad
Cauliflower happily soaks up whatever flavours you fancy; the more you throw at it, the more interesting it becomes. Serve this vibrant salad as a side with grilled lamb or chicken skewers, or make a meal of it by adding dollops of creamy cheese or labneh.
Get the recipe for this vibrant roasted cauliflower salad
Pink pickled cauliflower
If you’re up for a weekend cook-up, pickle some cauliflower for later – use some atop your roasted cauliflower salad (above), saving the rest for mezze or dips. Do yourself a favour and whip this salad out again for the festive season; it’s a Christmas Day cracker.
Get the recipe for pink pickled cauliflower.
Cauliflower pizza base by David Herbert
Making your own pizza from scratch is easier than you might think. Check out David Herbert’s recipe for a classic base, with two options for toppings – and a cauliflower base for a gluten-free alternative. Get David Herbert’s cauliflower pizza base recipe
Cauliflower corn mac ‘n’ cheese
The beauty of this dish is that if you have a fussy bunch, you can put bigger chunks of cauliflower on one side, or cut the cauli superfine and they won’t be able to pick it out. Serve with inactivewear, TV remote … you know the drill. Get guest chef Lucy Tweeds’ recipe for cauliflower corn mac ‘n’ cheese
Julia Busuttil Nishimura’s roasted cauliflower and wheat salad
I adore the combination of cauliflower and tahini, and this nourishing salad is substantial enough to be a complete meal. Better yet, it’s cheap and uses up all those items you’ve got sitting in the fridge or the pantry. Get guest chef Julia Busuttil Nishimura’s roasted cauliflower & wheat salad.
David Herbert’s pea and cauliflower curry
This vegetable curry is full of colour and flavour. The pea and cauliflower is a dryer-style and is great served with flatbread or rice. Get David Herbert’s recipe for pea and cauliflower curry
Luke Hines’ Fiery Fish Curry and cauliflower rice
A home-cooked curry tops Luke’s list of favourite meals. He uses barramundi in this recipe, but any firm white fish works well. Get the recipe for Luke Hines’ fiery fish curry and cauliflower rice.
Yotam Ottolenghi’s Cauliflower, Pomegranate & Pistachio Salad
Roasted and raw grated cauliflower are so different from one another, but so good together.
Linguine and cauliflower
Cauliflower is finally and deservedly hip. The linguine is based on a recipe from Marcella Hazan that I’ve been varying for 20 years. Roasted cauliflower makes a great side dish; you can use whole smaller varieties (about 45 minutes’ cooking time) or individual baby cauliflowers (about 35 minutes). Get the recipe for linguine with roast cauliflower.
Africola’s roasted cauliflower with capers and dates
South African-born Duncan Welgemoed sees the world differently from most Australian chefs.
He cannot help it. He was raised with the foods of his homeland, a diverse cocktail of native, European, Cape Malay, Indian and Afrikaans influences. Overlay that with an education in formal French-inspired cooking in England, and the inspiration of Australia and its (often native) produce and you have a unique perspective.
The idea behind Welgemoed’s cauliflower dish comes from using vegetables as the main component to a meal, a substitute to “the big fat steak”, as he puts it.
