Whole Roasted Cauliflower With Pistachio Pesto Recipe (2024)

If you're trying to cut down on your use of foil, the initial cauliflower cooking can be done in a Dutch oven. Works beautifully.

Loved this recipe. Made two adjustments: 1. I used dry white wine to deglaze the pan on the first go, instead of the 3/4 cup water (but I did add in a bit of water during roasting to keep things balanced). Onions turned out super jammy at the center and had crispy caramelized edges. So flipping good.2. 10 min before finish, I sprinkled finely grated parm on the cauliflower. It made a golden crust and dialed up the flavor. Both have that nutty base and it was just ::chef’s kiss::

Any suggestions to replace pistachios? Pine nuts? Almonds? Allergies to pistachios

This dish turned out great last night with some modifications:4 Onions instead of 2 as it become a delicious "jam" when doneWhite wine instead of water for cooking(We had a 2.5 pound organic cauliflower from Costco so cooking time was longer)For the pesto:A combination of basil and flat leaf parsley4 garlic cloves instead of 1 (1 clove for an entire cauliflower, seriously???)Juice of whole lemon

Mona M, you ask what to substitute for the cilantro in the pesto. You could use basil as you suggest. But I think it might work well for this recipe, in particular if being served as part of the Seder menu using the other dishes in the set here, to use a combination of parsley and fresh mint. They play well with the others of pistachios and lemon peel.

I would add a third onion - they sort of melt down to nothing

Yes, this is a very uninteresting pesto recipe, because it leaves out a crucial ingredient: grated parmesan. Add 60 grams of grated parmesan, and make that 2 cloves of garlic, and it will be worth eating.I also agree that 100% flat-leaf/Italian parsley is better than a Cilantro mix.

I halved the cauliflower, cut down total oven time to 30 min, 10 min uncovered.Instead of the pesto I mixed capers, grated garlic, zest and juice of half a lemon, parsley and olive oil.The kids devoured it, we ate the crumbs

Arugula is also a good substitute for cilantro in pesto recipes.

1/4 cup each- a total of 1/2 cup

I don’t know why this wasn’t done in a Dutch Oven or heat proof pot. Why fiddle around with aluminum foil? The pesto was very tasty. I used pepper flavored and salted pistachios and he’d off on additional seasoning. The pesto basically made the dish. It took a longtime to achieve the end result of a cooked cauliflower. Overall a bit of a fun experiment in cooking.

Hi Cheryl- You could sub any nut here- walnuts, almonds, pine nuts would be fine!

Found this to be very good. After reading some reviews, I did add 1/4c parmesan, 2Tbs fresh lemon juice & 1TBS more cilantro & parsley to pesto mixture. Pesto is great and key to making this really good. Not removing thick stalk in center of cauliflower keeps it from getting that desired "custardy" texture unless you up covered cooking time to at least 45 minutes while keeping uncovered time the same. Suggest using pesto on each serving instead of covering whole head. Will increase pesto amount.

This is similar to Julie Moskin's whole roasted cauliflower with almond-herb sauce that is also on this site. I frequently just cut up the cauliflower, add some olive oil and roast it. This is a big time saver, although the presentation might be lacking! I serve the sauce on the side and the sauce typically keeps a few days and is great on other vegetables or a salad.

Deglaze with wineAdd more garlic to pestoAdd basil and parsley for pestoAdd parmesan in the endAdd more onion

The trick is really making sure the cauliflower is soft enough before you turn the heat up. Then it is heaven, and perfect if you’re serving people who require dairy-free and gluten-free food (though there are many variations you can imagine with cheese).

I agree with all the notes, this recipe is delicious with needed tweaks. I liked the basic idea of double the onions, keep adding water and/or use sherry, double or triple the garlic, try basil or all parsley, add Parmesan, use a Dutch oven. I recommend quartering the cauliflower to better remove the slightly bitter which keeps the presentation and reduces the cook time. I recommend reading others notes to get more detail. I’d make it again.

I love the pesto recipe as is. No parm makes it suitable for a meal with meat or chicken, if you keep kosher.

It’s rare I don’t like the recipes I find on the app, but this one was a miss for me. It was just too bland for my taste, the pesto was bitter and lacked «depth». Maybe parmesan would have helped, but I won’t be making it again to find out.

For the person asking about allergy safe replacement for pistachios, I made it with sunflower seeds for an allergic relative and it worked fine

I sauteed red onions and a clove of garlic in a sautéed pan, deglazed with red wine, poured into a casserole dish and placed the cauliflower on top with a little rosemary. I added some nutritional yeast to the pesto for some acidity. Absolutely delicious. The red wine onions _really_ worked amazingly well with the creamy cauliflower. Probably the best thing I've ever cooked.

Ok, after making this twice I can say that orange cauliflower becomes tender much faster and if using a white one, I microwaved mine for 7 minutes before roasting to make it match the orange one as I was preparing two together that time. That said it still takes longer than written, about 2 hours. But AMAZING AND WORTH IT and you have time to make your main dish while it cooks. The pesto lives on in my heart. The onions are amazing. I used roasted pistachios as raw were not available for me.

Sooo good! Made in my enameled cast iron with the lid and worked great. I also shredded Gruyère cheese on top. Don’t skip the lemon zest! Def my families favorite way to enjoy cauliflower.

I love this and use the pesto recipe regularly now with roasted vegetables. Sometimes I add a jalapeño or more, which makes it a little more like z’chug.I might do the cauliflower in pieces next time—it will cook faster and each piece will have more flavor.

Def use a cauliflower on the smaller side if you don't want to be cooking all night! Agree, more onions, wine instead of water. I thought pesto was fine as-is.

I need to know where I went wrong. The cauliflower was nearly raw even after being in the oven for the directed time and then some with the temp at 450. Was I supposed to wrap the cauliflower in the tinfoil or cover the top of the Dutch oven? I rinsed the cauliflower before rubbing on the oil - would that mess up the absorption? There was about 4 Tablespoons of water at the bottom of the pan - should there have been more? I want to get this right because it sounds so good! Thanks!

Pretty good for cauliflower! I would use more onion to get more pan juices to bast the top with to more crispy.

Used basil instead of parsley and cilantro. Much more flavorful and pesto like. Also used half the olive oil that recipe called for when sautéing the onions.

Very delicious - this recipe stands out to me even though I made it quite a bit ago. I remember wishing our smaller blender was more powerful and our Vitamix would have been able to blitz such a small amount (even in the personal cup containers). Potentially worth making more pesto, or supplementing with more volume somehow.

Even better the next day. It is a little involved but I would say worth it. The jammy onions at the bottom are delish. I used a dutch oven for the whole thing and served it with some lemon dill salmon made on the stove