Easy Eats: Marinated Roasted Cauliflower (2024)

More by the author:

This one takes a day or two to get going, but it's really tasty and super easy to make. It's also has the benefit of being low carb, and nutrient-dense.

First, select a nice, large head of fresh cauliflower. In the attached pictures, I actually used two heads, because it was on sale, and I am cheap. You can easily halve this recipe.

Trim the rabbit food off the bottom (stems and leaves) and separate the rest with your fingers into small florets. Rinse it well with cool water in a colander, and allow it to completely dry. It's important that it completely dry, becuase you are going to marinate it in oil, and you don't want the oil and water to get into a fight and turn your snack food into some kind of high fiber cliche about things not mixing.

Put your clean, dry cauliflower florets in a gallon sized zip bag, and add the following:

2 tablespoons dried basil
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 tsp salt
1tsp black pepper
1/2 cup vegetable oil (don't use olive oil for this, unless you secretly hate yourself)
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

Seal the zipper on the bag, pressing as much air out in the process as possible. Now juggle the bag and massage it for a while, coating all the florets with the gunk you just added. Be careful not to break the florets. Once you feel like it's pretty evenly mixed and coated, set it in the fridge overnight.

The next day*, arrange your amazingly marinated vegetable bits on a baking sheet, in a single layer (you'll have enough for two batches, if you use two heads like I did). Bake in a hot oven at 425° for about an hour. Toss it a few times with a spatula as it goes, so that you get things even. You want it to start getting dark brown, almost burnt looking, but not too charcoaley, becuase that's gross. Once it is turning dark brown and a bit crispy on the outside, the natural sweetness of the cauliflower becomes enhanced.

When it's done, let it cool a bit, and enjoy it as a snack on it's own, or with an entree.

*by the way, feel free to save some at this point as a salad topper. It's delicious even before you cook it.