This Buttery Whole Roasted Cauliflower is a delicious holiday side dish that features cauliflower that is perfectly tender on the inside and crisp on the outside. It requires minimal ingredients and comes together in just 30 minutes.
It’s a great choice for your holiday table along with Parmesan Crusted Potatoes, Jiffy Corn Casserole, and Honey Butter Skillet Cornbread.
Buttery, flavorful, and a beautiful addition to your Thanksgiving or Christmas holiday table, this whole roasted cauliflower recipe uses ingredients you may already have on hand.
Before roasting, you’ll soften the cauliflower in chicken stock to ensure it bakes thoroughly and is fork-tender. After simmering, bake and briefly broil the cauliflower to achieve a perfectly crisp exterior.
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💛 Why you’ll love this recipe
- Ready in 30 minutes.
- Budget-friendly ingredients.
- Gluten-free, keto-friendly, and low-carb.
➡️ Ingredients
⏲ How to make this whole roasted cauliflower
This is an overview of the recipe’s instructions. The full instructions can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
- Preheat Oven: Arrange an oven rack on the middle rack and preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
- Bring Chicken Stock to a Boil: In a large pot over medium-high heat, bring chicken stock to a boil.
- Prepare and Simmer Cauliflower: Meanwhile, using a knife, cut off the bottom of the cauliflower head and remove any outer leaves. Do not break the cauliflower apart. Transfer the cauliflower to the stock pot and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes.
- Prepare Cauliflower to Roast: Using tongs, transfer the cauliflower from the pot to an 8×8-inch baking pan or a large cast-iron skillet. Spoon some chicken stock atop cauliflower, drizzle on melted butter, then sprinkle on grated Parmesan, thyme, salt, and pepper.
- Roast Cauliflower: Transfer the baking pan to the oven and bake until cauliflower is golden, about 9-10 minutes, basting with cooking juice halfway through. Then, move the pan to the highest oven rack, turn on the oven broiler, and broil for an additional 30-60 seconds.
- Serve: Remove the pan from the oven, drizzle on cooking juice, then serve.
👉 Ingredient substitution suggestions
- Unsalted Chicken Stock: Vegetable stock or beef stock will work here. Either can be subbed in for chicken stock at a 1:1 ratio.
- Unsalted Butter: If you only have salted butter, that will work fine; I would just suggest decreasing or altogether omitting the added salt that the recipe calls for.
- Grated Parmesan Cheese: Shredded Parmesan cheese will work here. You can also use Pecorino Romano cheese in place of grated Parmesan.
✨ Variations
- Add garlic powder or finely chopped garlic cloves to the cauliflower before baking.
- Include finely chopped fresh herbs, like thyme or rosemary, on top of cauliflower before baking.
- Add some heat by sprinkling a little ground cayenne pepper and/or red pepper flakes on top before baking.
〰️ How to serve
- Sauce — Stir together tahini, extra-virgin olive oil, and lemon juice and brush atop roasted cauliflower right before serving.
- Mains — Serve as a side to chicken tortilla casserole.
💬 FAQs
How should the roasted whole cauliflower be stored?
Store cooked and cooled cauliflower in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Reheat in the oven at 400 degrees F or in 30-second increments in the microwave until warmed throughout.
📚 More cauliflower recipes
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Buttery Whole Roasted Cauliflower
Ingredients
- 4 cups unsalted chicken stock, or more (enough to cover cauliflower)
- 1 medium-sized head of cauliflower, rinsed, patted dry
- 6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- Preheat Oven: Arrange oven rack on middle rack and preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
- Bring Chicken Stock to a Boil: In a large pot over medium-high heat, bring chicken stock to a boil.
- Prepare and Simmer Cauliflower: Meanwhile, using a knife, cut off bottom of cauliflower and remove any outer leaves. Do not break cauliflower apart. Transfer cauliflower to pot of stock and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes.
- Prepare Cauliflower to Roast: Using tongs, transfer cauliflower from pot to 8×8-inch baking pan or large cast-iron skillet. Spoon some chicken stock atop cauliflower, drizzle on melted butter, then sprinkle on grated Parmesan, thyme, salt, and pepper.
- Roast Cauliflower: Transfer baking pan to the oven and bake until cauliflower is golden, about 9-10 minutes, basting with cooking juice halfway through. Then, move pan to highest oven rack, turn on oven broiler, and broil for additional 30-60 seconds.
- Serve: Remove pan from oven, drizzle on cooking juice, then serve.
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