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CHOW: Recipes: Pepper-Roasted Cauliflower

Pepper-Roasted Cauliflower Recipe

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Pepper-Roasted Cauliflower
Difficulty: Easy | Total Time: 1 hr 5 mins | Active Time: | Makes: 8 to 10 servings as an hors d'oeuvre (8 to 9 cups)

Cauliflower is one of those vegetables that go from ho-hum to stellar once roasted. The addition of soy sauce and pepper makes for a salty-peppery-sweet snack.

This recipe was featured as part of our Spicy Holiday Cocktail Party menu.

INGREDIENTS
  • 16 cups cauliflower, cut into small, even-size florets (from 2 large heads)
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
  • 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
INSTRUCTIONS
  1. Heat the oven to 450°F and arrange a rack in the middle. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and toss to coat. Allow to marinate for 20 minutes, tossing cauliflower occasionally.
  2. Arrange half of the cauliflower in a single layer on a baking sheet. Roast until tender and slightly blackened, about 20 minutes.
  3. Remove from the oven and repeat with remaining cauliflower. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Beverage pairing: Tablas Creek Esprit de Beaucastel Blanc, California. Cauliflower has a nice blend of sweet and bitter, and here it’s accented by the lift of pepper and the umami of soy sauce. It deserves a complex wine, and this white is one of the most complex and delicious California delivers. A blend of white Rhône grapes, the unoaked wine merges honeyed notes of tropical fruits with a slightly bitter floral flavor, all held together by a stirring minerality.

    Write a review | 27 Reviews
POST A COMMENT |27 Comments

COMMENT

  • I may have allowed too much liquid to go into the roasting pan, but my cauliflower came out beautiful, browned, and... soggy.

    I threw it back in the oven at 500 for like 10 more minutes, which helped. But the taste was a little too soy-saucey. Could have used slightly less soy, more salt, and maybe chopped garlic.

  • I've made this recipe a number of times. It's really delicious. I just made some and am waiting for the rest of dinner to cook. I think I might eat all the cauliflower while I wait.

  • My 14-year old son liked it, which I think is a tremendous endorsement. Thank you!

  • Totally yummy - replaced sugar with a little chopped fig after roasting...

  • This is yummy, but I think I added too much pepper, because it is boarder line. Usually it is the other way around. I substituted honey for sugar (I was silly enough to run out of regular sugar) I will make it again.

  • Great! I used olive oil and only used one head of cauliflower with the marinade.

  • Quick and easy recipe and great way for a bachelor to cook up and eat his cauliflower! Thanks for the recipe

  • sorry CHOW, i love you but i felt this was too weak for my spice-seeking taste buds. What i did is alter the recipe using Lee Kum Kee Black Pepper Sauce and you get a marvelously intense asian peppercorn heat and lots more flavor. Thanks CHOW for the inspiration!


    SPICY BLACK PEPPER ROASTED CAULIFLOWER

    1 head cauliflower, chopped into florets
    olive oil
    3-4 tablespoons of Lee Kum Kee...+READ

    sorry CHOW, i love you but i felt this was too weak for my spice-seeking taste buds. What i did is alter the recipe using Lee Kum Kee Black Pepper Sauce and you get a marvelously intense asian peppercorn heat and lots more flavor. Thanks CHOW for the inspiration!


    SPICY BLACK PEPPER ROASTED CAULIFLOWER

    1 head cauliflower, chopped into florets
    olive oil
    3-4 tablespoons of Lee Kum Kee Black Pepper Sauce (found in most aisles for Asian foods in the grocery store)
    chopped cilantro for garnish

    1>preheat over to 350 degrees.
    2>Dilute black pepper sauce with a good splash of olive oil (or water, if you're counting calories) so it's more runny instead of thick. Toss with Cauliflower in a bowl until evenly coated.
    3>Roast 40 minutes or until desired texture.
    4> toss with freshly chopped cilantro.-COLLAPSE

  • I made it per the recipe. It was very nice. My head of cauliflower was sort of small, so I was able to share the silpat with a few filets of salmon that I rubbed with soy, pepper and evoo. Saved another pan!

  • Very simple and the flavors blended wonderfully. I can imagine that anyone one of the variations mentioned here would work very well.

  • The sugar has to be for caramelization, not flavor!

  • sprinkle some coarse breadcrumbs (Panko or Italian) and a little cayenne and a chopped hard cooked egg. (along with a little salt and olive oil) The slight sulfur from the egg just brings out the taste of the cauliflower in a very special way.

  • Have you ever tried putting a dressing on these cauliflowers? I have put some yogurt(90%) mixed with mayonnaise(10%) on it, that was really delicious!!
    You should blend yogurt with mayonnaise, until they become smooth, this is the key point...

  • Try roasting, then mashing as a substitute for mashed potatoes. yummy. I could eat roasted cauliflower like candy!

  • I love cauliflower, but it can be a bit bland in many iterations. This one is definitely a keeper!!!

  • i agree that roasting magically transforms cauliflower. i'm inspired by all these variations!

  • Soy and cauliflower sounds lovely. But I don't understand the need for sugar. Given the right main ingredient (I like broccoflower), you won't even need a sweetener. Roasting the veg. with some garlic, olive oil and salt and pepper brings out its own sweetness. On the other hand, balsamic vinegar would work very nicely as a sugar substitute in the tangy/sweet category.

  • I've always been bizarrely in love with cauliflower, even the raw florets, even as a young child. It's amazing to me how many people profess to dislike it, though recipies like this will probably make it go down easier.

  • I like it with thin slices going across most of the head... like this recipe:
    http://recipes.egullet.org/recipes/r167.html

    The recipe calls for more olive oil than is really needed. I generally don't like cauliflower that much (unless it's prepared really well, or unless it's a really tasty variety of cauliflower), but this recipe is amazing.

  • CRT- I do something similar with garlic infused olive oil, sea salt and roughly cracked black pepper at 400 degrees - delicious!

  • Replace the soy and (potentially the) sugar with some really good mustard with seeds intact. Something about mustard and cauliflower.....

  • I'm going to do this as an appetizer...I'm gonna figure out a good dipping sauce... I think I'll keep it to the Asian theme... This'll be fun...

  • Have done cauliflower with balsamic and parm. cheese, roast till almost done and add them both at the end, delicious!

  • Hmmm. Wondering about subbing balsamic vinegar for the soy sauce and olive oil for the vegetable oil. Thoughts?

  • Really tasty! I did it at 425 convection, and it was done in under 15 minutes.

  • the entire recipe only contains 2 teaspoons of sugar...unless you have severe insulin/blood sugar issues, why would you want to use chemicals in place of such an insignificant amount?

  • Surprisingly, it's great. We substituted Splenda for the sugar.