Mediterranean Roasted Cauliflower Recipe
This spicy mediterranean cauliflower recipe comes from my favorite cookbook The Lost Kitchen by fellow Mainer, Erin French. This book is full of incredible recipes but is so much more than just a recipe cookbook. Erin beautifully incorporates pieces of her life and stories of things near and dear to her that pertain to living in rural Maine as a lover of nature and food. She shares on foraging both the fields and the coast, how to make maple syrup, how to cook over wood-fire and much more. I found this book inspiring and captivating.
This roasted cauliflower recipe came out a a section of Erins’ cookbook called Wood-Fired Winter Sides. I was instantly excited when I read that title and starting imagining myself outside in the snow cooking up some of Erin’s delicious food. I knew I couldn’t wait to try this recipe out.
In the 90’s, cauliflower was done one way and that way was throwing a lot of cheese on it and baking it. Today, it is very very different. Cauliflower has gone through a coming of age story, so to speak. It has really shined in popularity with the new and innovative vegetarian and vegan meals – it has become a star.
As a largely plant-based eater, I appreciate cauliflower a lot. There is a lot you can do with cauliflower. The versatility, texture, ability to take on flavor, spice and sauces and degree of satiation, make this a popular vegetable. This recipe is definitely in my top 10 best cauliflower recipes and that is why I am so excited to pass it along to you!
Also, check out my air-fried buffalo cauliflower wings for one of the other creative ways to cook cauliflower that I love.
Below I not only list the recipe but I added tons of helpful information on how to cook with fire, simple equipment we use and my pro tip for staying warm while cooking outside in the winter!
I know you are going to love this spicy Mediterranean cauliflower side dish as much as we have!
Easy Cauliflower Side Dish
Ingredients:
- 1 small head of cauliflower
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- Salt and black pepper
- 1/3 cup pitted kalamata olives
- 1 lemon, zest and juice
- 1/4 cup parsley
Instructions:
- Whether you are using a grill, outdoor fire pit or wood fire oven, prepare whichever cooking source you will be using(fire tips below) or preheat the oven to 425° F.
- Chop the head of cauliflower into varied sized pieces ranging from small to large bite sizes. In a mixing bowl add the cauliflower florets, olive oil, crushed red pepper flakes, salt and black pepper to taste. Toss the ingredients until everything is evenly coated and seasoned. Transfer to a cast iron skillet or any other oven proof skillet and sprinkle the olives on top. Place on or inside the cooking source and cook for 8-10 until tender, but not mushy.
- Zest the lemon over the top, then squeeze the juice from the lemon on top. Finish with the chopped parsley and toss. Serve straight from the skillet.
Cooking with Fire
When it comes to cooking with fire I don’t fully buy that there are two types of people—ones that have it in their blood and ones that don’t. I think it is buried in all of our dna – our respective ancestral line is one that survived, and survived with fire – or we wouldn’t be here today. We just have to ignite that information that is somewhere encoded within us. In a sense the initial statement has truth because certain people are tuned into their intuition which is part of the formula for success when cooking with fire. Said intuition is the tapping into our physical senses, perceptiveness, curiosity, adaptability, and patience. The other side of the coin is that it takes learning through either researching, being taught by others or by experience of doing ourselves and most likely a combination of all of these things.
There are rudimentary principals – easily learned – and the harder nuances that require constant adaptability. Patience is a key because you can’t just start a fire and walk away, you need to sit with it, watch it and play with it. Unique circumstances of that cook – environment and conditions – will always require something specific. It needs constant tending, shifting and adapting. Below are some basics but you will need to exercise your patience and curiosity to continue growing your confidence in cooking with fire. When it comes to a grill, an inexpensive weber work perfect. I use a wood fired outdoor pizza oven from Ooni. Regardless of grill, wood oven or fire pit the instructions below will translate.
- Make sure to have dry, seasoned wood with some small pieces or a feather stick for initial catching. Also have some larger pieces for longer burning once the fire is already established. If you have wood chips, soak the wood chips in water for 20 minutes.
- Collect small twigs if you are in an area with access to them. Have some paper to light. Crumble the paper up and surround it with sticks and small pieces of wood or a feather stick fire starter.
- Feed the fire small pieces and sticks until it is strong enough to add larger ones.
- Once the fire is nice and hot with substantial coals, pour or rake the coals the side to give an area where the heat isn’t so intense. Wait for the logs to smolder and the coals appear to have white ash on top. You want the temperature to be low enough that the food can cook for longer, absorbing more of the smoke for flavor.
- If you’re using wood chips throw some in and place the skillet on a grate with whatever you are cooking on and close it up(if applicable). You can control how much air flows in and want to damp it down to trap more smoke, but also have enough air transfer to fuel the fire. This is something to play and experiment with until you are seeing the results you want.
- Use a meat thermometer or laser pointer thermometer to check the temperature of food and oven. Since I was cooking vegetable in a wood fire oven I used this laser thermometer to know how hot the inside air was.
- With the laser thermometer you can shoot it anywhere to get an accurate reading because how hot the stone is will be is different from how hot the air is and how hot the food is. You can pin point specifically and that makes this tool incredibly valuable!
Cooking with an Ooni Wood-Fired Pizza Oven:
We absolutely love cooking in our Ooni wood-fired oven. We have been cooking year round(as you can see in the snowy photo above)from pizzas, vegetables sides to chocolate chip cookies. It has made outdoor wood-fired cooking fun and easy!
In this recipe I used the Ooni Karu 16 multi fuel pizza oven.
This oven is very easy to use and the learning curve is quick. The biggest thing to play with is the small wood size, feeding frequency and timing. Get some good coals and wait until the temperature is more easily controlled at a lower temperature of 425°F.
This model of Ooni comes with an internal temperature thermometer on the outside which makes it super easy to gauge when to feed the fire. I also use a laser thermometer so I can get an accurate temperature reading on the stone and the food. I recommend this laser thermometer here:
How to Stay Warm Cooking Outdoors in the Winter
Pro tip: we are big fans of our small Winnerwell portable fire pit so we can move it right next to the Ooni and stay super toasty while cooking.
This is the Winnerwell fire pit shown above. I HIGHLY recommend this little guy as it is super nice quality material and well made. We are obsessed with the folding design that makes it convenient to store and use. We originally bought it for ice fishing to put out on the ice but my favorite application has been using it to stay warm while cooking year round in the outdoor wood oven.
spicy mediterranean cauliflower | winter wood-fired sides
Ingredients
- 1 small head of cauliflower
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- Salt and black pepper
- 1/3 cup pitted kalamata olives
- 1 lemon, zest and juice
- 1/4 cup parsley
Instructions
- If you are using a grill, outdoor fire pit or wood fire oven prepare whichever cooking source you have or preheat the oven to 425° F.
- Chop the head of cauliflower into varied pieces ranging from small to large bite size. In a mixing bowl add the cauliflower florets, olive oil, crushed red pepper flakes, salt and black pepper to taste. Toss the ingredients until everything is evenly coated and seasoned. Transfer to a cast iron skillet or any other oven proof skillet and sprinkle the olives on top. Place on cooking source or inside the oven and cook for 8-10, tender but not mushy.
- Zest the lemon over the top, then squeeze the juice from the lemon on top. Finish with the chopped parsley and toss. Serve straight from the skillet.
This is just one of the ways to cook cauliflower as a side dish. Feel free to switch up these ingredients and add in your personal favorites.
I believe this to be one of the best vegan roasted cauliflower recipes. Let me know what you think in the comments below your different ways to cook cauliflower.
Please rate or comment below and if you made any additions or alterations and want to let me in on your easy roasted cauliflower – I would love to hear about it! If you would like to share or pin on Pinterest, I am always thankful. Check out my food journey on Pinterest at Molé in the Wall.
Thanks for checking out one of my favorite recipes – spicy Mediterranean cauliflower. If you liked this one, you may love some of my other favorite recipes such as air fried buffalos cauliflower wings, wood-fired hen of the woods mushrooms or 5 star cabbage steaks!
Now you know how to make the best spicy mediterranean cauliflower! I hope you do try this recipe and thoroughly enjoy it as much as we have. I’m pretty sure this will become a family favorite and become a household staples.
Tags: spicy mediterranean cauliflower
