Roasted cauliflower salad with lemon garlic dressing {capers + parmesan}

Roasted cauliflower salad with lemon garlic dressing – bold flavors of anchovies, garlic, lemon, cumin and capers with a generous sprinkling of Parmesan cheese on top!  

Hello there, and a happy Monday to you!

It looks like it’s going to be quite a busy week with Halloween just around the corner, and everyone in full prep mode.  Kids are gearing up for the holiday, adding last minute touches to their costumes, making plans for parties and trick-or-treating with friends, school parades, and visiting pumpkin patches.

In their excitement, they are also jumping ahead and talking about Christmas lists and wishes already!!  I want to tell them Wait…slow down, don’t rush!  There’s time for Christmas, but right now, focus on Halloween, savor every minute of costume making, each step in the preparation, decorating…

It’s exciting though, and even I can’t help but skip ahead, (as far ahead, as Thanksgiving for now…) I know it always comes too soon after Halloween, and I always feel unprepared, and rushed.  I wish we had more time in between holidays to slowly build up the joy and anticipation.  It’s all about that looking forward feeling, the imagining, the planning, isn’t it?

This year, it will come even faster, as we’re spending Thanksgiving away from home, and the upcoming trip starts almost a week before.  We will be visiting some great places like Grand Canyon, Lake Powell, and Monument Valley, so I’m not complaining this time.  We are also having a big family reunion, and a great Thanksgiving feast, right after we come back from the trip, so that requires a bit of clever planning ahead for quicker, easier, yet still great tasting dishes.

I’ve recently made this hearty cauliflower salad, and I fell in love with it.  It’s quite easy and quick to make so it’d be perfect for our Thanksgiving table, plus it has the looks worthy of a holiday dish.  It’s a warm salad or roasted cauliflower, doused in a super flavorful dressing, reminiscent of Caesar but without the creaminess.  It has bold flavors of anchovies, garlic, lemon, and cumin.  A sprinkling of Parmesan, capers, and fresh garlic chives on top, and I have to tell you, it’s a thing of beauty.  So yummy in fact, that I can’t stop eating it.

Unlike my usual way of cooking cauliflower – roasting it with garlic and cumin and other spices, for this recipe I quickly broiled it with only olive oil and salt.  This way, you can dress it up later, and the flavors are much stronger.   The dressing can definitely be doubled and used for Caesar salads or other salads, especially ones with meat.  The salad is best served warm, with a generous grating of Parmesan cheese.

If you decide to make it for your holiday table, try to find purple, orange and green cauliflower for a confetti style, festive looking salad.

Here are some other suggestions for warm and cozy salads, or side dishes:
Roasted cauliflower salad with hazelnuts
Parsnips with rosemary butter and walnuts
Roasted beets and charred onion salad
Roasted beets salad with caramelized garlic and goat cheese

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Roasted cauliflower salad with lemon garlic dressing {capers + parmesan}

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

20 mins

Total Time

30 mins

 

Roasted cauliflower salad with lemon garlic dressing - bold flavors of anchovies, garlic, lemon, cumin and capers with a generous sprinkling of Parmesan cheese on top!

Course: Salad, Side Dish

Servings: 4

Calories: 278 kcal

Author: Viktoria

Ingredients

• 1 large cauliflower
• 4 Tbs olive oil
• salt
• Parmesan cheese
• garlic chives optional
• For the dressing:
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 Tbs olive oil
• 5-6 anchovies*
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 2 Tbs Parmesan cheese
• 1 Tbs capers

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425° F.

2. Separate the cauliflower into florets, and spread on 2 baking sheets, with 4 Tbs of olive oil, salt and pepper.
3. Roast for 20 minutes, stirring, once halfway through cooking.
4. Prepare the dressing by mashing the garlic, with some salt in a mortar and pestle. Add the anchovies, and mash some more until you get a paste. Add the cumin, juice from the lemon, the olive oil, capers, and Parmesan, and stir well.
5. While the cauliflower is still warm, pour 2/3 of the dressing over, taste and add more dressing if needed. Serve sprinkled with more Parmesan on top, and garnished with garlic chives.

Recipe Notes

* I used canned anchovies, which are not whole, but rather half pieces so in the recipe I added about 5 or 6 of these. I personally love the saltiness and the slight anchovy flavor, but taste the dressing, and feel free to adjust the amount to your liking.