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!
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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Nutrition
Video
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.
Made this tonight! WINNER! I added carrots to roast because I didn’t have much cauliflower. Delicious, even a hit with carnivorous hubby.
This recipe was amazing! I love salads but have a harder time with them in the winter. This is the perfect salad for anytime of year, but especially nice for the colder months. I couldn’t believe how well all the flavors and textures melded together. Another great recipe! Thank you for doing what you do!
Delicious! I think I prefer it warm vs. cold, though. And I had no tahini, so I used almond butter and 1/2 an avocado!
I feel like this post is completely disingenuous by not mentioning the prep needed for the tahini. I had no idea what I was getting into and spent over 20 minutes of my cooking process trying to mix it into a paste. I don’t understand how you could go into so much detail and then fail to mention this crucial detail.
There’s always that one person.
I don’t think that’s usual for tahini. I’ve never spent more than about 3 minutes stirring tahini, and once it’s stirred it will stay stirred if you keep the tahini in the refrigerator, so this is a once time task and doesn’t need to be performed every time you make this recipe.
This recipe is amazing! I cannot recommend it enough.
My expectations were high after reading the reviews and it didn’t disappoint. I’m glad you listed this recipe in your best of 2017 post because I’m not sure I would’ve tried it otherwise. It’s funny with the dressing…when I tasted it alone, the tahini taste was strong and I was sure it would be too overpowering. Yet it was wonderful once on the salad. And it’s follong enough to be a main dish!
What is the nutritional content
You can use a resource like myfitnesspal to determine the nutritional content of any recipe :)
LOVE LOVE LOVE this recipe! Even my meat loving husband and sister in law thought it was incredible. It took some time to make it the first time, but after two times, it’s bevome a breeze.
I love your site and am making the lentil black bean soup as we speak.
Thank you so much !!!
Wow! This was SO good! Even my husband and toddler liked this. I added a tad bit of stevia to the dressing and I didn’t add parsley because I don’t like it. So satisfying! Thanks!
What kind of parsley do you use for this?
I use flat-leaf or Italian parsley.
Made this for lunch today and it was soooo yummy! I substituted spinach for the parsley (because it needed to be eaten soon) and it was right up my alley! Thanks!
What is the nutritional info, please.
You can use a resource like myfitnesspal to determine the nutritional content of any recipe :)
Oh my god, this recipe BLEW ME AWAY. Dear god it was amazing!!!! Keeping it forever, literally made it twice in two weeks, ate it as many meals as possible last week, and now stocking Tahini/all the ingredients for life.
Can’t believe this is vegan and gluten free, I’m neither but am now making this all the time.
THANK YOU!!!
Thank you, Beth! Another recipe to add to our rotation. I can’t believe how sweet the cauliflower and onions got when roasted (I also broiled for a few mins). I also cooked the chickpeas for closer to 15-20 minutes before they got a little crispy. It’s a few steps and takes a bit of time but oh, so worth it! I’d like to make it again soon as it’s gone too quickly, but cauliflower here is $4 a head right now. :(
Thanks for a great recipe! Any reason you couldn’t roast the chickpeas on the same pan with the cauliflower and the onions? Say, for the last 15 minutes?
Probably! I find oven roasted chickpeas have a drier texture than these skillet chickpeas, though.