Roast cauliflower steaks with tahini, done properly

I had a bloke at the Maitland Showground Farmers Market last month tell me cauliflower steaks were ‘a bit try-hard for a vegetable’. Fair enough, I said, and then sold him on the idea inside about ninety seconds once I explained you’re not steaming the thing into oblivion, you’re roasting it hard until the edges char and the middle goes custardy. That’s the whole trick. Most people ruin cauliflower long before it gets near the tahini.

This is a proper dinner, not a side dish wearing a costume. Two thick slabs of cauliflower, roasted until they’ve got some colour and bite, dressed in a tahini sauce that actually tastes of something, scattered with toasted nuts and herbs. Vegetable-forward, lean on the oil, big on flavour. That’s the brief around here and this dish delivers it without pretending to be a burger.

Why cauliflower steaks earn a place on the dinner table

Cauliflower gets a rough trot in Australian kitchens. Boiled to grey mush, drowned in cheese sauce, or worse, microwaved and called ‘roasted’ because someone couldn’t be bothered turning the oven on. None of that does the vegetable any favours. Cut into thick steaks and hit with proper heat, cauliflower caramelises beautifully. The sugars in the florets brown up, the core goes tender and almost creamy, and you end up with something that holds its own against meat on the plate rather than sitting beside it looking apologetic.

It also fits neatly into how we talk about eating well on this site generally, which is building a more balanced plate without turning it into a diet. Big vegetable component, a decent hit of healthy fat from the tahini and olive oil, protein if you want it on the side. Nobody’s counting anything. You’re just eating a proper meal.

Get your tray properly hot, don’t muck about

The single biggest mistake people make with roast vegetables is an oven that isn’t hot enough and a tray that’s crowded. Cauliflower steaks need 220 degrees Celsius, a tray that’s been sitting in there heating up before the vegetables go anywhere near it, and enough room around each steak that steam can escape rather than sitting there stewing the thing soft and pale. Crowd the tray and you’ll get cauliflower that’s merely warm and a bit sad. Give it space and proper heat and you get char on the flat cut surfaces and genuine colour on the edges.

I’ll also say this, because someone always asks: don’t bother trying to do this on the stovetop in a frying pan like you would a piece of fish. The steaks are too thick and the core won’t cook through before the outside burns. The oven’s doing the work here, not a pan. Trust the process, as they say, though I’ve never liked that phrase much.

The tahini dressing, sorted properly

Tahini splits people into two camps. Some reckon it’s bitter and chalky, others use it every second night. The difference is almost always the tahini itself and how much water you whisk through it. Cheap supermarket tahini in a squeeze bottle tends to be thin and a bit flat tasting, and I’d argue it’s worth the extra couple of dollars for a proper hulled tahini from a Middle Eastern grocer if you’ve got one nearby, or the good stuff on the shelf at a decent greengrocer. On Beaumont Street in Hamilton there’s a shop that stocks the good jars, and it makes a genuine difference to the finished dressing.

Whisk the tahini with lemon juice first and it’ll seize up and go thick and pasty, don’t panic, that’s normal. Keep adding water a splash at a time and it’ll loosen into a proper pourable sauce. Taste as you go. Some tahini needs more lemon, some needs more salt, some batches are bitter enough that a small amount of maple syrup balances it out nicely. There’s no fixed recipe that works for every jar, which is exactly why you taste it rather than just following numbers blindly.

Ingredients

• 2 large cauliflowers, leaves removed, stem trimmed but core intact
• 60ml extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for the tray
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• Sea salt and cracked black pepper
• 80g hulled tahini
• 2 tbsp lemon juice, plus extra to taste
• 1 small garlic clove, finely grated
• 60-80ml cold water, to loosen
• 1 tsp maple syrup (optional, only if the tahini’s bitter)
• 30g pine nuts or slivered almonds, toasted
• Seeds of half a pomegranate
• Small handful flat-leaf parsley and mint leaves, roughly chopped
• Pinch of chilli flakes
• Lemon wedges, to serve

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 220 degrees Celsius and put a large baking tray in to heat up while the oven comes to temperature.
2. Stand each cauliflower upright and cut down through the core into steaks about 2.5 to 3cm thick. You’ll get two decent steaks from the centre of each cauliflower and some crumbly florets left over from the outer edges, which you can roast separately in a bowl on the side rather than binning.
3. Brush both sides of each steak with olive oil and season well with cumin, smoked paprika, salt and pepper.
4. Carefully remove the hot tray from the oven, add a splash more oil, and lay the steaks on in a single layer with space around each one. Return to the oven and roast for 12 to 15 minutes, then flip carefully with a spatula and roast a further 12 to 15 minutes, until the core is tender when pierced with a knife and the edges are well charred.
5. While the cauliflower roasts, whisk the tahini and lemon juice together in a small bowl, it’ll thicken up first, don’t worry. Add the garlic, then slowly whisk in the cold water a tablespoon at a time until you’ve got a pourable dressing. Taste as you go, adjusting lemon, salt or the maple syrup if the tahini’s bitter.
6. Plate the cauliflower steaks, spoon over the tahini dressing generously, and scatter with toasted nuts, pomegranate seeds, herbs and a pinch of chilli flakes. Serve with lemon wedges on the side.

What to put alongside it

On its own this makes a light dinner for two, or a side for four. If you want it as the main event for a family meal, I’d put it next to something with lean protein, roasted chicken thigh, grilled fish, or a scoop of chickpeas if you’re keeping it plant-based, which brings you back to eating more plants across the week without it feeling like a chore. A side of roasted chickpeas tossed through with a bit of the same cumin and paprika ties the whole plate together and adds the protein without much extra work.

If you’re after something warmer and more filling for a cooler night, this sits nicely next to a bowl of the Moroccan-spiced vegetable tagine, both dishes lean on similar spice notes so they don’t fight each other on the plate.

A variation worth trying

Swap the cumin and smoked paprika for za’atar and a squeeze of pomegranate molasses through the tahini dressing instead of maple syrup, and you’ve got a slightly different, more Levantine-leaning plate. Or if pine nuts aren’t in the cupboard, toasted sesame seeds do a similar job for less money. I’d steer clear of adding cheese to this one though, feta or haloumi both fight the tahini rather than complementing it, and you end up with a dish that’s trying to be three things at once.

The published dietary guidance from bodies like Eat for Health keeps coming back to the same point, more vegetables, more variety, less reliance on one protein source every night. Cauliflower done this way is one of the easier ways to get there without it feeling like a sacrifice. The CSIRO’s own research on healthy eating patterns makes similar noises about vegetable variety mattering more than people think. Worth a read if you’re the sort who likes the evidence behind the dinner, not just the recipe.

Fair warning, once you’ve had cauliflound charred properly like this, the boiled version starts to taste like a punishment. That’s not really my problem to solve.

— Dave Forsythe, Golden Door Living kitchen