Roasted Cauliflower With Honey Halloumi And Saffron is a celebration of beautiful exciting flavours coming together perfectly in a super easy dish. You won't want to share, I promise! You will even sit down with a fork and finish it all in one session. It is that delicious!
An Exciting New Way To Enjoy Roasted Cauliflower
Cauliflower lovers! You are my people! And if you stick with me and my blog, I guarantee there will be an exciting cauliflower dish or two every month for you to explore, cook and relish. This dish is inspired. I saw a recipe for a Baked Cauliflower With Burnt Honey And Halloumi by chef Ben Sears in delicious magazine. And I couldn't get it out of my mind. It was a clever dish - honey and halloumi, sweet and salty! Right away I could see that it was going to be too sweet for my palate (and my family's) because of the amount of honey used in it. But I persisted and made a batch and it was good but I felt it needed so much more and yet so much less at the same time.
The original dish had cauliflower, honey, halloumi, oil, salt and zaátar. A simple dish. That you might really enjoy if you were at a fancy restaurant, the ambience was enhancing everything and the wine was making you deliriously happy. But if you don't add garlic to cauliflower, you shouldn't speak to me! Wine or no wine! End of discussion.
I do admit that cauliflower is gorgeous just roasted, no frills! But any opportunity to not pack it with flavour is wasted in my opinion. So, I set out to test and create a dish that would make me happy. At home, in my kitchen wearing my comfy trackies in the middle of the day, no ambience or wine but a dish that made me want to dive in with a fork and not stop until it was all gone. This Roasted Cauliflower With Honey And Halloumi is what I will be eating every week from now on.
A Note About Cooking Honey
So the original dish said Burnt Honey. Again, I must admit that these are the kind of recipe names that draw me to them. Because they are unusual and exciting. But they can also often be misleading. Like in the original recipe. Even when I cooked it at medium-high temperature, the honey did not burn (which in retrospect was a good thing because it could've become bitter!). It maybe turned a shade darker? I will never know as it was amber and quite dark to begin with. Nevertheless, heating honey at higher temperatures kills off its beneficial nutrients. So, I wanted to tread with caution.
I only cooked the honey slightly. It did not burn but rather just softened, warmed through and became liquid. If you want to skip cooking the honey altogether and just add it after the pan has come off the heat, I won't hold it against you. In fact, I encourage it.
Once you've dressed your cauliflower and drizzled and sprinkled everything there is to drizzle and sprinkle, give the salad a good old toss just before eating to mix all the flavours into one divine dish. Maybe share? Enjoy!
More Cauliflower Recipes
Recipe
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Ingredients
- 600 g cauliflower florets, (large florets)
- ¼ cup olive oil
- Large pinch of salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 brown onion, peeled and thinly sliced
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- Pinch of saffron
- 1 teaspoon red chilli flakes
- 1 tablespoon Za´atar
- 50 g halloumi, drained and grated
- ¼ cup chopped parsley leaves
- Extra salt, pepper, olive oil – to serve
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 220°C (200°C fan-forced). Line a rimmed baking sheet with baking paper.
- Add cauliflower florets, ¼ cup oil, salt and pepper to a large bowl. Toss and mix well to coat the cauliflower with the oil. Spread on the prepared baking sheet and roast for 20 minutes. Increase oven temperature to 240°C (220°C fan forced) and roast for a further 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and into a shallow, rimmed serving bowl.
- Heat a tablespoon of oil in a small frying pan on medium-low heat. Add onion and garlic. Sauté for 7-8 minutes, tossing constantly until onion is soft and starting to caramelize.
- Add honey to the pan. Cook for 3-4 minutes until honey is bubbling and starting to caramelize. Remove pan from heat.
- Add the remaining tablespoon of oil, red wine vinegar and saffron. Mix well.
- Pour the onion-honey dressing evenly over the cauliflower.
- Sprinkle the chilli flakes and Zaatar.
- Top with the grated halloumi and parsley. Season with a dash of salt and pepper and a light drizzle of olive oil. Serve immediately.
So easy, so delicious. It's on repeat !
Hi Sneh this sounds yummy. Wondering if it’s suitable to take to a family gathering or if it’s best to serve straight up as you suggest in instructions. Thank you Lyn
Hi Lyn, It is totally doable. Keep cooked cauli and saffron-onions separate. Take grated halloumi along and put it all together after warming cauli and onions in the microwave. x
This recipe is a keeper! I made it twice within 1 week. Both times I substituted parsley for coriander and red wine vinegar for white, 'cos I didn't have any. And the second time, I lightly fried the halloumi in the same pan with the onion mix residue and cut it up into small pieces. The saffron, honey and onions and salty halloumi meld into the hot cauliflower to create a heavenly mouthful packed with delicious flavours. I also threw in two large handfuls of spinach, topped it with the hot cauliflower and mixed in the fragrant onion sauce. The spinach wilted down a tad, which was just perfect. Love this recipe!
Hey what's the substitute for halloumi?
If you can't find Halloumi, you can just skip it. A good substitute would be a salty cheese like Parmesan or Feta.
I love roast Cauliflower, one of my favorite ways to have it.
Your salad is inspiring, I was captured by the honey and cheese, I was only a little sad to see see halloumi wasn't fried and crispy. Delicious combo none the less.
Thanks Kat! Halloumi is actually used as a garnish here, hence grated. It is merely to add the salty element in a delicate understated manner. You can of course add pan-fried cubes to the salad if you wish 🙂
So delicious! I’m a big fan of cauliflower abc usually just eat plain roasted. Made this tonight and could have eaten the whole thing myself! Simple to make, and so yummy to eat. Thank you. Looking forward to the next cauliflower recipe.
Thank you for your wonderful feedback Kate! I am so chuffed that you loved it so much x