Warm Roasted Cauliflower Salad

Why This Recipe is a Keeper!

Cauliflower roasted with olive oil, salt, and freshly cracked black pepper is a beautiful thing by itself. Combining that beautiful, slightly caramelized cauliflower with other flavorful ingredients in roasted cauliflower salads is simply sublime!

Along with the roasted cauliflower, this salad has roasted red bell pepper, olives, capers, sundried tomatoes, garlic, fresh parsley, fresh oregano, red wine vinegar, and chickpeas to add texture and protein. Best of all, most of the ingredients for this salad with roasted cauliflower can be pulled directly from your pantry.

Like my Sicilian Cauliflower Salad, where the cauliflower is blanched and then quickly marinated, I intended for this Roasted Cauliflower Salad to be served cold or at room temperature. However, when the cauliflower came out of the oven, I combined it with the other ready-and-waiting ingredients, and….wow! It was amazing warm, which adds to its versatility. This Roasted Cauliflower Salad can be served immediately warm, room temperature, or cold.

This Roasted Cauliflower Salad recipe is:

• Easy! While the cauliflower roasts, you can prep the other ingredients.
• Pantry-friendly! Many of the ingredients can be pulled directly from your pantry.
• A keeper! This Roasted Cauliflower Salad keeps for up to five days in the refrigerator.

How to Make Roasted Cauliflower Salad:

Recipe Ingredients:

Here’s everything you’ll need to make this roasted cauliflower salad recipe. The recipe card below has the exact quantities.

Ingredient Notes and Substitutions:

• Cauliflower: I used one very large head. Rather than buying bagged precut florets, I recommend cutting the head into florets yourself so all the pieces are as even as possible. While bagged cauliflower florets are convenient, they are not always as fresh as cauliflower florets cut directly from a whole head.
• Olive Oil: Use a good extra-virgin olive oil, but it doesn’t need to be top-shelf.
• Chickpeas: Also known as garbanzo beans.  Drained cannellini or Great Northern beans are great substitutes for chickpeas.
• Roasted Red Pepper: Jarred roasted red peppers are a terrific convenience item. Use water or oil-packed.
• Oregano: I prefer fresh oregano in this roasted cauliflower salad, but dried oregano will work in a pinch. It is one of the few herbs that intensifies in flavor when dried.
• Kalamata Olives: Kalamata olives are native to the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece and named after the town of Kalamata. They’re almond-shaped and have a deep purple-brown hue. If using pitted Kalamata olives, cut each one in half and check them for pit fragments as they’re mechanically pitted.
• Capers: Capers are green, unripened flower buds of the caper bush. They’re available near the pickled products section.
• Sundried Tomatoes:  I prefer oil-packed sundried tomatoes for this cauliflower salad recipe because of the flavor. Dehydrated (bagged) sundried tomatoes will also work, but they must be rehydrated in hot water.

• Easy, done and delish!
• Garnish with fresh oregano leaves or chopped fresh parsley.

Chef Tips and Tricks:

• If serving warm, have all your ingredients at room temperature so the cauliflower doesn’t cool off too quickly.
• A well-stocked pantry is essential to pulling off a cauliflower salad recipe such as this. When you keep a well-stocked pantry, you can create numerous great meals on the fly. Here are some things to always have on hand:
  • Canned and dried beans
  • A variety of olives
  • Various kinds of vinegar
  • Various forms of canned tomatoes and sauces
  • Pasta, rice, grains, lentils, etc.
  • Good-quality, low-sodium canned broth
  • Various global/international ingredients

Money-Saving Tip:

• If using roasted red peppers in oil, reserve the oil from the roasted red peppers and use that in place of olive oil.

Storage:

• Store in the refrigerator for up to five days.

Serve with:

• Italian Stuffed Peppers
• Italian Stuffed Cabbage Rolls
• Chicken Milanese
• Prosciutto-Wrapped Halibut with Herb Caper Butter

More great vegetable salad recipes you’ll love!

• Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad
• Cauliflower Tabouli Salad
• Cauliflower Antipasto Salad
• Roasted Pepper Salad

Get all my side salad recipes at Side Salads – From A Chef’s Kitchen.