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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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 made this last night and it was so good! I like all the flavors going on. Instead of parsley, I sauteed kale with garlic. I also served it over couscous to make it more hearty. The tahini sauce was perfect drizzled over the top. I also love that it was Vegan so I didn’t have to alter any ingredients. Keep the plant based recipes coming!
Amazing! My husband (meat and potatoes guy) says this is the best thing I’ve ever made. And I make some good food if I do say so myself! I add an extra can of chickpeas and roast in oven, and a little extra onion never hurt anyone. Same amount of dressing. No parsley the first time and served over mixed greens, but using parsley in on future batches.
This was GREAT. A couple add-ons/notes:
– I added a soft-boiled egg on top for extra protein.
– The dressing comes together really easily with just a whisk (I don’t have a blender).
– Whenever I buy a bunch of parsley, I chop whatever’s leftover and freeze it in a plastic bag. My thawed parsley tasted great in this recipe :)
Wow, good to know about the parsley!!
I was shocked at how delicious this was! We aren’t vegans but we made this exactly as it says as a side dish and my 9 year old and I decided it was so good that it was going to be our main course. Very very good hearty delicious recipe. Will be a staple in our house! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for this scrumptious recipe!!!! What is the shelf life on the dressing? I make meals just for myself so I don’t want to waste anything if I can help it. Thank you again
I would say about a week because of the raw garlic. If you were to use garlic powder instead (I do that sometimes when raw garlic is too strong for my stomach), it will probably last a bit longer.
Thank you for another great vegan recipe Beth! I’ve been eating this a lot as cauliflower has been on sale quite frequently lately! I love how easily this is to make and the leftovers are great for lunch!
Yum!! I doubled the dressing for good measure. I loved this and shared with all my vegan/healthy eating friends. Thank you! I will be making it again. Even my 6 year old scarfed it down. I will be making this again.
I made this salad last night and it was very tasty and also hearty. I used chopped up lettuce instead of parsley. I had to roast my cauliflower a little longer and at a higher temperature than called for in the recipe so that the cauliflower would get softer and start browning. I was going to have it with some sort of protein but it was so hearty, I just had that for dinner. I will make it again! Yum!!
Unbelievably good – I agree with others. Didn’t change a thing and loved it. Especially the delicious, healthy dressing. I literally accidentally made a vegan, gluten free dinner and it was HUGE hit. I’ve since made the smoky chickpeas twice, and the dressing for another salad altogether. My problem is that I don’t typically have fresh parsley.
Do you have the calorie count for a saving of this? Thanks!
Beth doesn’t do calorie counts because she hasn’t found a good tool for it and doesn’t want to falsely advertise the nutritional info of her recipes. However, I often create the recipes in the recipe tool in MyFitnessPal and break it into servings, which gives me a pretty good estimate of what I’m eating. I haven’t done so yet for this recipe or would tell you what I found. Hope that that app/site works for you.
My god this recipe is so good! Way better than I expected from just the ingredients. And fast too!
I added a fried egg on my leftovers for breakfast and it really worked with it, too.
Is this salad good leftover?
I love the leftovers. :)
This was a delicious way to get some veggies after the holidays! I mixed in some baby spinach to give it more green and some bulk, and I really liked that addition. I also roasted the chickpeas on a separate sheet for the final 15 mins of the cauliflower roasting time, and it worked great. I love the spice mix on the chickpeas – I might just make them separately for snacks. I didn’t use all the dressing (it makes a lot!), but now I can taste-test the extra dressing with other veggies. Also, learn from my minor mistake – don’t cut the cauliflower florets super small. I thought small florets = more surface area for yummy brown bits, but the smaller florets disintegrate really easily when you mix the salad after roasting. It still tasted great, it just wasn’t as photogenic.
Tasty salad. I added kale and red cabbage as a base with the parsley and then topped with the cauliflower/onions and dressing. I will definitely make this again!
This recipe is unbelievably good and very easy to make. This is my new comfort food.