We talk about cauliflower a lot in the shop because it’s an excellent blank canvas for flavor. Toss this hearty, cruciferous vegetable with some olive oil and salt and go to town with the spices.
Roasting brings out cauliflower’s sweetness while allowing its firm texture to hold up. Here, we use our Hot Cajun Blackening Spice to “blacken” thick cauliflower steaks in the oven. Cutting the slabs 1 ½ inches thick leaves you with two to four steaks per head of cauliflower. If you decide to slice the slabs thinner, you’ll want to reduce the roasting time to prevent burning.
Serve with an Italian-style salsa verde, as we did, or garnish with a sauce of your choice, such as a tangy chimichurri, red pepper cream sauce or a zippy remoulade.
You can easily make this vegan by omitting the anchovy filets.
Cajun Blackened Cauliflower Steaks with Salsa Verde
Serves 2-3
Ingredients:
2 large heads cauliflower
Olive oil
1-2 teaspoons flake salt
1 tablespoon Hot Cajun Blackening Spice
Salsa verde (recipe adapted from Serious Eats):
1 ½ cups chopped flat-leaf parsley
⅔ cup olive oil
¼ cup capers
3 anchovy filets (optional)
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
Juice and zest of one lemon
3 cloves garlic, minced
Flake salt
Black pepper
Directions:
Preheat oven to 500. Trim outer leaves and bottom of the stem from the cauliflower, leaving the core intact. Slice the cauliflower in half, through the stem. Then slice into 1 ½ inch slabs. Save excess cauliflower florets for another use.
Place steaks on a baking sheet. Brush both sides with olive oil. Season both sides with flake salt and Cajun Blackening Spice. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 5 minutes.
Remove foil and roast 10 minutes. Flip steaks and roast until golden, 6 to 8 minutes.
Meanwhile, combine all the salsa verde ingredients in a food processor or blender and pulse until the mixture is well combined but still coarse.
Serve steaks drizzled with salsa verde.
With a good fried rice recipe under your belt, leftover white rice never needs to go to waste again. We top this version with a crispy egg fried in sesame oil and sprinkle it with our bright and slightly spicy Shichimi Togarashi.
