Salads aren’t just for the warm weather months, but when I get my vegetable cravings in the winter I change up my salads with heartier vegetables and ingredients that have warm, smoky flavors, like roasted vegetables and smoked paprika. This Roasted Cauliflower Salad is actually a play on one of my other favorite salads, Mediterranean Farro Salad. I used the same Lemon Tahini Dressing (because it’s so good that I want to pour it on everything) and spiced chickpeas because I thought they would provide just the right punch to complement the mellow roasted cauliflower. The combination of roasted cauliflower, sweet red onions, spiced chickpeas, and tangy lemon tahini dressing might be my favorite yet!
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Other Salad Greens Options:
Parsley is a great green to use for salads because it’s cheap and the presence is subtle enough to not over power the cauliflower and chickpeas. Baby spinach would also work, as would finely chopped kale, but both will likely be a bit more expensive.
What is Tahini?
Tahini is the star ingredient for the delicious lemon tahini dressing for this salad. If you’ve never heard of tahini, it’s just like peanut butter, but made with sesame seeds instead of peanuts. It has a creamy yet slightly sharp flavor that is totally unique. It’s usually about twice the price of peanut butter, but it’s a valuable ingredient and stays good in the fridge for just about forever (just like peanut butter). You can use it to make gobs of delicious homemade hummus, as well as this amazing lemon tahini dressing. I promise you’ll want more of this dressing.
What to Serve with Roasted Cauliflower Salad
This Roasted Cauliflower Salad is really filling, so it can definitely stand on its own as a vegetarian main dish, but if you want to make something to go on the side, it also goes great with Focaccia Rolls, Herb Roasted Chicken Breast, Homemade Naan, Greek Turkey Burgers, or Creamy Mushroom Soup.
Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Lemon Tahini Dressing
Servings 4Ingredients
- 1 head cauliflower ($2.99)
- 1/2 red onion ($0.55)
- 2 Tbsp olive oil ($0.32)
- Salt and Pepper to taste ($0.05)
- 1/2 bunch parsley ($0.45)
LEMON TAHINI DRESSING
- 1/3 cup tahini ($1.13)
- 1/3 cup water ($0.00)
- 1/4 cup lemon juice ($0.18)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced ($0.16)
- 1/2 tsp cumin ($0.05)
- 1/4 tsp cayenne ($0.03)
- 1/4 tsp salt ($0.02)
SPICED CHICKPEAS
- 1 15oz. can chickpeas ($0.79)
- 1 Tbsp olive oil ($0.16)
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika ($0.05)
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder ($0.03)
- 1/8 tsp cayenne ($0.02)
- Salt and Pepper to taste ($0.05)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Chop the cauliflower into small florets and place them on a large baking sheet. Slice the red onion into 1/4-inch strips and place them on the baking sheet. Drizzle the cauliflower and onions with olive oil and season with a pinch or two of salt and pepper. Toss the cauliflower and onions until coated in oil, salt, and pepper.
- Roast the cauliflower and onions in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, then stir, return them to the oven, and roast for an additional 10-15 minutes, or until the cauliflower is tender and browned on the edges. Let the cauliflower cool slightly.
- While the cauliflower and onions are roasting, make the lemon tahini dressing. Add the tahini, water, lemon juice, garlic, cumin, cayenne, and salt to a blender. Blend until smooth, then refrigerate until ready to serve.
- Drain and rinse the can of chickpeas. Add them to a skillet along with the olive oil, smoked paprika, cayenne, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir and cook the chickpeas over medium heat for about five minutes, or until they sizzle and become slightly crispy. Remove the chickpeas from the heat.
- Pull the parsley leaves from their stems and roughly chop the leaves into small pieces (about 1.5 cups loosely packed, once chopped).
- To build the salad, combine the roasted cauliflower and onions in a bowl with the spiced chickpeas and chopped parsley. Drizzle the lemon tahini dressing over top, and toss to combine. Serve warm or cold.
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Try this lemon tahini dressing drizzled over all your favorite roasted vegetables!
How to Make Roasted Cauliflower Salad – Step by Step Photos
Begin by preheating the oven to 400ºF. Chop one head of cauliflower into florets. Slice 1/2 of a red onion into 1/4-inch strips. Place the cauliflower and onions on a large baking sheet. Drizzle the vegetables with 2 Tbsp olive oil and a couple pinches of salt and pepper. Toss the vegetables until they are well coated in oil, salt, and pepper.
Roast the cauliflower and onion for 20 minutes, stir, then return them to the oven and roast for another 10-15 minutes, or until the cauliflower is tender and the edges browned. (the sides touching the baking sheet brown fastest, so you’ll see more browning once you give it a final stir).
While the vegetables are roasting, prepare the lemon tahini dressing. Place 1/3 cup tahini, 1/3 cup water, 1/4 cup lemon juice, 2 cloves minced garlic, 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/4 tsp cayenne, and 1/4 tsp salt in a blender. Blend until the dressing is smooth. Refrigerate the dressing until you’re ready to serve the salad.
To prepare the spiced chickpeas, drain and rinse one 15oz. can of chickpeas. Add the drained chickpeas to a skillet along with 1 Tbsp olive oil, 1/2 tsp smoked paprika, 1/4 tsp garlic powder, 1/8 tsp cayenne, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir and cook the chickpeas for about 5 minutes over medium heat or until they begin to sizzle and become slightly crispy on the outside. Remove them from the heat. (I like to do this in a non-stick skillet.)
Pull the leaves from about 1/2 bunch of parsley and chop them into small pieces (about 1.5 cups loosely packed once chopped). To build the salad, combine the roasted cauliflower and onions with the spiced chickpeas and chopped parsley…
Drizzle the lemon tahini dressing over top…
Stir to combine, and enjoy! You can enjoy this Roasted Cauliflower Salad slightly warm from the oven, or chilled after storing in the refrigerator.
I’m eating this right now and it’s so yum! I added some baked boneless skinless chicken thighs (just olive oil, lemon and some Cavender’s Greek seasoning) and a little feta and subbed arugula for parsley. I’ve spent the last couple weeks doing a lot of eating out and take-out and this was just what I needed!
My SO and I are in LOVE with this. I’m literally eating it right now and can’t wait to go back for seconds. We’ve recently stopped eating meat, and even though I crave a burger every now and then I could eat this salad every day and be satisfied.
Can I substitute hummus for tahini? My local small town grocery store doesn’t stock tahini. Looking forward to making this I am sure it will be a hit with the wife and kids.
Love your site.
Thanks.
Hmm, I don’t think hummus will work quite the same as tahini.
This was fantastic! I also made the Mediterranean Farro salad version, and I liked this one even better.
I have one question- in your pictures, the lemon tahini dressing drizzles nicely over the salad. When I served mine (refrigerated, per your instructions), mine was much thicker and tended to be more of a “glob.” Would you recommend heating up the dressing to make it thinner, or adding more liquid at that point? Thanks!
You can let it sit at room temperature for a few minutes to thin out, and make sure to give it a good stir. :) If you need, you can add a touch of water. I like to refrigerate mine to thicken it up just a bit, but you’re right, it does get QUITE thick if in the refrigerator for a long time.
Wow!!! This is fantastic, I love the flavors and texture of this. I served it over a spring mix with a good handful of parsley on top. Thank you for your amazing recipes.
Beth, this salad is SO delicious that we’ve now made it twice in 5 days. Added chicken to it once, too – which was perfect. That dressing is crazy good.
Made this. Followed the recipe exactly. Absolutely delicious! I oven roast cauliflower all the time (with garlic and parmesan cheese) but never thought to make it into a salad. Thanks Beth, for a new idea!
Thanks for the lunch inspiration. I’ve enjoyed this all week. One change is I reduced the garlic amount to one clove (as I often do when making hummus) and it was MORE than enough for me. Next time I’ll get my act together to actually include the onion and parsley but it was great with just the basics.
Cilantro report!
Due to meal planning fail on multiple points (PSA: tahini looks truly vile when it’s gone off in the back of the fridge), I ended up using cilantro in place of parsley. It was delicious and complemented the other flavors well. I might just make cilantro standard operating procedure when I make this dish again…and I will. I certainly will.
Fortunately for the dressing, we had some plain hummus in the fridge. It doesn’t taste as tahini-ish as it should, but it still made a complex and delicious dressing. I am already looking forward to lunch tomorrow.
The sad part is that I work at a grocery store and I STILL regularly have to substitute ingredients in recipes because I forgot to bring home garlic salt from work that day or something. Dang it.
This is deeeeelicious! Spicy and warm with just the right hit of lemon and garlic! My family loved it!
Thanks Beth!
This is such a delicious winter salad! Great flavors, the lemon balances the tahini nicely and the smoky flavors of the cauliflower and the paprika in the chickpeas really makes this dish stand out.
This looks awesome! I love roasted cauliflower, and the tahini dressing and chickpeas put it over the top. Will def be making soon!
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5 stars. Absolutely delicious. My changes were small – I used spinach instead of parsley. I had a bag going bad in the fridge and it needed to be used soon. I already had a head of cauli when I read this recipe but since I live in England and get my veg from the farmers market, it was a little on the small size. I didn’t use all the dressing because it seemed like a bit too much.
I just feed a bite to my work colleague and she is raving about it. I’m sitting at my desk eating this in a wrap and doing a yummy dance in my seat.
Keep it up!
This is hands-down the best salad I’ve ever eaten. SO GOOD!
How well does this hold up in the fridge, I like to prep my work lunches. I make a big batch of something and week it all week.
I feel like it holds up pretty well. That cauliflower is pretty sturdy, even after roasting. :)
Thanks! I am going to make this salad this Sunday.
Did it last all week for you?