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No one can resist this roasted cauliflower with Parmesan! It’s as irresistible as French fries, baked in a hot oven until browned and crisp.
Want to make it easy to eat your veggies? This Parmesan Roasted Cauliflower is so irresistible, you’ll find yourself inhaling bites off the baking sheet before you even sit down to serve it. Admittedly, adding cheese to veggies is an age old trick to make them more palatable. But this recipe features roasted cauliflower: baked at high heat the vegetable breaks down into a sweet, caramelized version of itself. Add crunchy Parmesan cheese and Italian seasonings, and it’s a sophisticated, restaurant-style spin on the concept behind cheesy broccoli. Heck, we think it’s even better than French fries.
Also try: Perfect Roasted Cauliflower
Ingredients for roasted cauliflower with Parmesan
There’s a short list of ingredients for Parmesan roasted cauliflower! All you need is a few basics and about 40 minutes to make this recipe. Here’s what you’ll need:
- 2 pounds cauliflower The size of cauliflower heads can vary greatly between small, medium and large. Look for a medium cauliflower and weigh it out at the store.
- Olive oil
- Garlic powder
- Oregano
- Shredded Parmesan cheese You’ll want the kind that looks like tiny sticks: not the powdery shaker can version: that’s grated!
The secrets to Parmesan roasted cauliflower
There are lots of recipes for roasted cauliflower with Parmesan out there: what makes this one special? A few things:
- Use very high heat: 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Don’t trust any recipes that say to roast cauliflower at 350. Roasting at high heat gets the cauliflower tender and browned: that Maillard reaction where food browns and caramelizes when in contact with high heat! Low heat doesn’t get nearly the right flavor and texture.
- Add Parmesan in the last 10 minutes. It won’t get overly browned this way, but still gets perfectly crispy.
- It’s seasoned to perfection. Some Parmesan roasted cauliflower don’t specify the amount of salt. It’s important to have it it perfectly salted: otherwise it tastes oddly bland.
Tips on how to chop cauliflower
The place where most home cooks have an issue with cauliflower: the chopping! It can be difficult to chop florets without getting a huge mess all over your kitchen. For this roasted cauliflower Parmesan, use our streamlined method cutting this veggie! See How to Cut Cauliflower or the video below.
- Remove the leaves: Remove large leaves from the base of the cauliflower so that the stem is exposed; discard the leaves.
- Cut around the stem: With a paring knife, cut around the stem of the cauliflower.
- Break into florets: Break the cauliflower into large florets with your fingers. Remove any large stems, cutting the cauliflower into smaller florets as needed for the recipe.
Ways to serve Parmesan roasted cauliflower
This Parmesan roasted cauliflower is such a treat. We serve it as a late night snack just as often as we make it as an easy side dish…but that’s just us! Here are a few ideas for ways to eat it:
- Grain bowl. Add a whole grain, chickpeas or white beans, and a few raw veggies like arugula and sliced cherry tomatoes. The perfect easy dinner!
- Side for seafood. This would be fantastic next to Pesto Salmon, Grilled Tilapia, Creamy Shrimp Pasta or Easy Pesto Shrimp.
- Pasta. Make an easy main dish by throwing this into a pot of spaghetti or bucatini! Drizzle with olive oil and salt until it pops. You could also add chickpeas or torn fresh mozzarella for additional filling protein.
Cauliflower nutrition
Like we mentioned above…roasted cauliflower with Parmesan has much of the addictive power of fries! It doesn’t just cut down on calories: it adds lots of nutrients too. You get all the nutrient-density of a head of cauliflower. Here’s a breakdown of cauliflower nutrition (source Harvard Medical School):
- Low calorie food: 1 cup of chopped cauliflower has only 25 calories and 5 grams carbs
- High in vitamins: Cauliflower is a great source of Vitamin C! It’s also a good source of Vitamin B and potassium.
- Relatively high in fiber: Cauliflower is high in fiber: 1 cup has about 10% of your daily needs.
This roasted cauliflower Parmesan recipe is…
Vegetarian and gluten-free.
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*Best* Parmesan Roasted Cauliflower
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Description
No one can resist this roasted cauliflower with Parmesan! It’s as irresistible as French fries, baked in a hot oven until browned and crisp.
Ingredients
- 1 medium head cauliflower (2 pounds or about 6 to 7 heaping cups florets)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
- 1/2 to 2/3 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
- For the garnish: finely chopped Italian parsley (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Farenheit.
- Clean and chop the cauliflower into medium florets. In a bowl, combine the cauliflower with the olive oil, garlic powder, oregano, and kosher salt.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Spread the cauliflower on a baking sheet and bake about 20 minutes or until browned on the bottom (we used our bottom oven rack to get them extra brown).
- Remove the baking sheet, toss with the Parmesan cheese. Roast another 7 to 10 minutes until the cheese is browned and the cauliflower is tender. Serve immediately, garnished with finely chopped parsley if desired.
- Category: Side Dish
- Method: Roasted
- Cuisine: Italian
- Diet: Vegetarian
Keywords: Roasted Cauliflower Parmesan, Parmesan Roasted Cauliflower
More cauliflower recipes
Cauliflower is one of the most versatile of all vegetables! Here are some of our favorite ways to use it:
- Buffalo Cauliflower Wings The best baked cauliflower wings! They’re crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, and tossed with spicy buffalo sauce.
- Cauliflower Stir Fry This easy stir fry is an ideal healthy and easy dinner idea! It’s full of nutrients and covered in a punchy sauce.
- Roasted Cauliflower Pasta Loaded with flavor, packed with caramelized roasted cauliflower, Parmesan cheese, and fresh basil!
- Coconut Cauliflower Curry This easy dinner recipe is warm-spiced, nutrient packed, and ready in just over 30 minutes. Dinnertime win.
Want more roasted vegetables? Here are the Best Vegetables to Roast.
Was looking for recipe with caraway seed ? Don’t know if you can roast?
Thanks for the recipe and excellent pointers. I’ll be making this tonight!
Also…. THANK YOU for not drowning your site in ads. I’ve dropped at least half a dozen food bloggers I once loved, who got greedy and crammed ads in every conceivable spot, making their sites almost impossible to read. For that alone, I’ll happily explore your site further!
ps. one small point… a recipe that uses parmesan cheese isn’t dairy-free. 😉
★★★★★
We are so glad to hear this! Thank you for this kind comment. While we do need ads to support our site, we’ve tried not to overwhelm the user experience with them — so we are so happy to hear this works for you! Also, I’ve updated the incorrect note about dairy-free. Thank you so much for this note!
Once again – another absolutely delicious and easy recipe. We had a head of cauliflower that was coming to its end and needed to be eaten. Last year, my husband gave me a vegetarian cookbook called “Listen to Your Vegetables”. We looked up a cauliflower recipe in that book (which is probably delicious), that called for approx 15 ingredients – including many spices that we do not already have on hand. So I said, let’s check “A Couple Cooks” – because just about every recipe I make of yours calls for simple, on-hand ingredients and inevitably turns out to be delicious. Thank you for providing healthy, accessible, uncomplicated recipes. You are my “go to” for sure!!!
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What a lovely comment. Thank you! So glad you enjoyed :)