Have you ever gone grocery shopping and purchased a gorgeous vegetable or fruit on a whim just because it looked tempting. But alas, it set on the kitchen counter for several days until it was too ripe to use? Yes, ripe produce spoils quickly. It is nice to have easy recipes to prepare these vegetables and fruit with ingredients that a person probably already has at home. And I like recipes that do not require much time or effort. Hence, Easy Cook: Roasted Cauliflower.
This gorgeous cauliflower was ready for cooking; in a few days it would have spoiled. Boiled cauliflower is fine; but I was interesting in cooking something more upscale while still keeping things simple.
I remembered eating at the quaint New Orleans Restaurant, 1000 Figs. Their preparation of Roasted Brussels Sprouts was outstanding; we’ve returned to this restaurant several times just for this dish. Why not roast the cauliflower instead of the Brussels Spouts?
I searched the internet for ideas and came up with a simple recipe. It had just a few ingredients that I already had on hand, just a few preparation steps and not many pots and pans.
Mediterranean Diet
The recipe has five ingredients: a medium-size head of cauliflower (mine weighted 2 lb), fresh garlic, olive oil, salt and lemon juice. The ingredients (cauliflower, garlic and olive oil) are included in the Mediterranean Diet — a heart healthy diet. So, we are making a healthy preparation.
Recipe
To make the recipe — and for ease in saving on pots and pans – I cut the cauliflower head into florets and placed them in a one-gallon size zip-lock bag. Next, I mixed the olive oil, lemon juice and salt in a small bowl and poured this over the cauliflower. After sealing the bag, it was easy to mix the olive oil to coat all cauliflower florets. With this method, I did not need much olive oil. 
I spread cauliflower florets on a baking sheet covered with aluminum foil and placed this in a pre-heated 400 degree oven to roast.
Half way through the roasting process (after 15 minutes), I stirred the cauliflower and sprinkled the coarsely chopped garlic over the florets. (The minced garlic becomes burnt if you add at beginning of the baking time.)
After roasting for 30 minutes total, the cauliflower was tender and nicely browned. It was delicious and I was tempting to eat the entire head of cauliflower. But I saved some to share with my husband.
My “Easy Cook” method of preparing cauliflower was successful. Much more tasty than simple boiled cauliflower and not much work. Enjoy “Roasted Cauliflower.”
Easy Cook: Roasted Cauliflower
Ingredients
- 1 medium head of cauliflower (about 2 pounds)
- 2 to 4 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp fine sea salt (can be reduced to 1/2 tsp)
- 1 Tbsp course chopped garlic cloves
Method and Steps
- Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
- Cut the cauliflower into bite size florets by cutting them off the core and place these into a 1-gallon size zip-lock bag.
- In a small bowl, mix the olive oil, lemon juice and salt. Save a little to mix with the garlic cloves. Pour the remainder over the florets in the zip-lock bag. Seal the bag and use your hands mix the olive oil with the cauliflower inside the bag until all the florets are coated.
- Add the chopped garlic to the remainder of the olive oil mixture in the small bowl, stir and set aside.
- Spread the cauliflower florets on a baking sheet with is covered with aluminum foil with dull side up.
- Bake in 400 degree oven for 15 minutes. Open oven door, carefully remove the baking sheet, stir the florets with tongs. Florets will be steaming. Sprinkle chopped garlic over the florets and return to oven. Bake for 15 minutes longer.
- Remove from oven and serve hot.