Can’t stop, won’t stop with refrigerator salads! If you’re new here, refrigerator salads are salads that hold up really well in the refrigerator, so you can have delicious and colorful meals all week. This Marinated Cauliflower Salad is the perfect example. In fact, this salad gets better as it refrigerates. The flavors mix and mingle, and all those good flavors get soaked right up by the crunchy cauliflower. 👌
Take a Short Cut
I included a homemade Italian dressing in this cauliflower salad recipe, but if you want to make this salad even a little faster you can easily sub your favorite store-bought bottled Italian Dressing. You’ll need about one cup, but you can just add as much or as little as you’d like.
Make it Vegan
The recipe as written below contains Parmesan cheese, which does give the salad a little bit of body, but if you’d like to make this dish vegan you can easily leave the Parmesan out or add a little nutritional yeast in its place.
What to Serve with Marinated Cauliflower Salad
I served this cauliflower salad with my Garlic Marinated Chicken this week, but it would also go great with Herb Roasted Pork Tenderloin, Baked Ziti, Pizza Baked Chicken, or Easy Oven Baked Fish with Tomatoes. This would also be a great dish to bring to potlucks!
How Long Does It Stay Good?
As I mentioned in the introduction, this salad actually gets better with time in the fridge. …Up to a point. Haha. This salad will be good for about 4-5 days of refrigeration, with the peak flavor being on about day 2-3. As always your mileage may vary depending on the freshness of your ingredients and conditions inside your refrigerator.
Marinated Cauliflower Salad
Servings 8 1 cup eachIngredients
Italian Dressing*
- ½ cup olive oil ($0.84)
- ¼ cup red wine vinegar ($0.40)
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard ($0.06)
- ¼ tsp garlic powder ($0.02)
- 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning ($0.30)
- ½ tsp salt ($0.02)
- ¼ tsp freshly cracked black pepper ($0.02)
- 2 Tbsp grated Parmesan ($0.22)
Salad
- 1 head cauliflower ($2.39)
- 1 2.25oz. can sliced black olives ($1.49)
- ½ 12oz. jar banana pepper rings ($0.90)
- 1 red bell pepper ($1.50)
- ⅓ cup diced red onion ($0.16)
- 2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley ($0.08)
Instructions
- Make the dressing first, so the flavors have time to blend. In a jar or bowl, combine the olive oil, red wine vinegar, Dijon, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, and Parmesan. Whisk the ingredients together or close the jar and shake until combined. Set the dressing aside.
- Remove the leaves and stem from the cauliflower, then chop it into very small florets (about the size of a grape). Place the chopped cauliflower in a large bowl.
- Drain the black olives and remove the banana peppers from the jar. Add both to the bowl with the cauliflower.
- Dice the red bell pepper and finely dice the red onion and parsley. Add them to the bowl.
- Pour the prepared dressing over the salad, then toss to combine. Refrigerate the salad for at least 30 minutes to allow the flavors to absorb. Stir again just before serving. This salad gets better as it refrigerates and the cauliflower has more time to marinate. Always stir just before serving to redistribute the flavors.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Equipment
Notes
Nutrition
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How to Make Marinated Cauliflower Salad – Step by Step Photos
Make the dressing first so it can have a few moments to blend. In a jar or bowl combine ½ cup olive oil, ¼ cup red wine vinegar, 1 tsp Dijon mustard, ¼ tsp garlic powder, 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning, ½ tsp salt, ¼ tsp pepper, and 2 Tbsp grated Parmesan.
Shake the jar or whisk the ingredients in a bowl until the dressing is combined. You can use a store-bought Italian dressing in place of homemade, if you prefer. You’ll need about 1 cup dressing.
Remove the leaves and stem from a head of cauliflower, then chop in to very small florets (about the size of a grape). Place the chopped cauliflower in a bowl.
Drain one 2.25oz. can of black olives, and remove ½ of the peppers from a 12oz. jar of banana pepper rings. Dice one red bell pepper, finely dice about ⅓ cup red onion, and chop about 2 Tbsp parsley. Add everything to the bowl with the chopped cauliflower.
Pour the Italian dressing over the salad ingredients in the bowl, then stir to combine.
Cover the salad and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to give the salad time to absorb the flavors from the dressing. Always give it a stir before serving to redistribute the flavors throughout.
This was good, I blanched the cauliflower for 3 minutes, fyi. Good simple dressing.
This is so delicious! Thanks for giving me a good way to incorporate more veggies into my diet. Next time I’ll be making a double batch. The tanginess of feta was a nice complement to the dressing as well. Thank you Beth for another great recipe! :)
I made this recipe last night to have along side homemade pizzas. It was really good. When I had a forkful of the leftovers today, WOWZA!! I will definitely be making this again and again.
a great chopped salad
I made it according to recipe but then I could not stop myself from fiddling with it and added a handful of feta and a bit of hot Genoa salami that I’d chopped up small. Another winner!
I was thinking something similar like turkey pepperoni and mozzarella! Feta might hold up better with the dressing though.
Great recipe, but I’m out of cauliflower and peppers. Would this work with broccoli and tomatoes?
I think that would definitely be a completely different flavor profile. Whether or not it’s good might just be a matter of personal preference.
One of my favorites! Our family recipe used green bell instead of banana peppers, and no cheese or Italian seasoning. Mom called it Confetti Salad. Warning: if you make it ahead of time and put it in a tupperware-like container, when you take off the cover, there is a strong raw cauliflower scent. You might want to put it in a different bowl if company is coming! This is great for picnics, and it travels well.
Nice Blog !! A Very Healthy and Wonderful Recipe !!! WOW Nice Photos to See. I’ll Definitely Try it. Thank You for Sharing that Lovely Food.
Hi Beth. This sounds great. I plan to make it this weekend. I love roasted cauliflower. Will roasting the cauliflower first work in this recipe?
You could probably do a roasted cauli version. It will be different, but I can’t imagine anything being doused in Italian dressing being bad. 😅
Thank you for sharing this! My feed is filled with holiday cookies, pies, bars and other treats and I’m really craving something healthy to eat. Going to make for lunch and going to throw in some chick peas and have as an entree.
You’re very welcome! I always crave salty/savory things more than sweets, so I feel ya! 😅
Thanks Beth! This sounds amazing!
Thank you for posting the side dish for your garlic marinated chicken,,,, it looked so good and your followers were asking. Now that you posted it, I was surprised that the cauliflower was not quick blanched then cooled. I will stick to the provided recipe and get back to you on my attempt. Without store bought dressing. With this west coast lock down, what else do have have to do?
I’m so glad you shared this! When I saw it as the side-dish to your garlic marinated chicken earlier this week, I HOPED you’d share the recipe! I love salads but I’m sensitive to delicate, leafy greens so any alternative salad dish is such a dream come true. It looks delicious!
I am going to add sun-dried tomatoes and feta.
Is there a type of cheese other than Parmesan that you would recommend? I’m trying to avoid Parmesan. Also, just FYI, Parmesan is one of the few cheeses that aren’t vegetarian.
Feta would be awesome with this, as well!
Cauliflower in Italian dressing was always my favorite part of the marinated veggies my mom would make for potlucks when I was a kid. I’ll definitely try this upgrade! Have you tried this cooked? I imagine it would be delicious grilled in foil pouches on the BBQ.