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.
Can broccoli be substituted for the cauliflower? How about a mix of broc/cauli?
You could, but I definitely prefer the neutral flavor of cauliflower for this one. :)
Got it, thanks!
I think this might be one of the best on-line recipes I have tried. Usually I kind of doctor them to my tastes. No need here. This has all the flavor you want and so simple to make. Thank you so much for sharing. I only made 1/2 of recipe to see how it tastes. Now I am making a full recipe so I have more to eat.
I made this again for the second time. The first time I used a cheap dollar store brand of italian seasoning and it was overpowered with rosemary, but still pretty good. This time I bought the good stuff and boy oh boy this salad turned out amazing! I wouldn’t recommend store bought dressing because your recipe is the bomb! I plan on using it in other recipes. I think it might be the best I’ve had! Thanks for an awesome recipe !
Made your vegetable soup too and it was so good as well. Got to check out your other recipes. These two were delicious
Sorry meant cabbage soup. Really good stuff
What’ are the nutritional facts?
The nutrient facts are located at the bottom of the recipe card.
Would tomatoes go well with this?
I probably wouldn’t add them, but I think it’s mostly going to just be a matter of personal preference. :)
I just used what veggies we had in the house and added some cooked chicken. Everyone liked it. I used cauliflower, zucchini, carrots, red onion, and a little broccoli. I thought we had a bell pepper, but I couldn’t find it. Maybe before tomorrow, we could buy a bell pepper. Looking forward to eating it tomorrow after it sits overnight.
Raw zucchini? How was it? I need to use some zucchini from the garden.
I love this so much. The marinade dressing is so good! I’m making it for the second time, not changing a thing. Thank you!!
Love. Just pure love. I was feeling lazy and I had some leftover Girard’s Light Caesar dressing that I needed to use up so I just used that instead of Italian dressing. I let it marinate overnight and it was all gone by the end of the next day because it was that popular with my household! Next time I will try doubling the recipe so I can reach the “peak flavor” on day 2-3 mentioned in the post AND actually have some to take for work lunches lol
I like that it’s marinated.
This salad is delicious, refreshing and filling! I made a few substitutions based on what I had on hand — pepperoncini instead of banana peppers, addition of crumbled feta, sun-dried tomatoes, and a few chopped marinated artichoke hearts. Great fresh but even better after 1-2 days. This will be a summer staple!
I made this for our easter lunch celebration and it was a huge hit! A fresh and delicious salad, thank you for the recipe.
This was really really good. Even better the next day.
non lo chiamerei marinato
I really enjoyed this! As a veggie I’m always trying to get more protein so I threw a can of chickpeas in and it worked really well!
This was awesome, my wife doesn’t care-much about cauliflower but she loves it.