Roasted Whole Cauliflower with Garlic and Cheese Recipe (2024)

Oven Roasted Whole Cauliflower Stuffed with Cheese was originally intended to be a "healthier," whole food, plant-forward substitute for Pull-Apart Cheese Bread.

You know the Pull-Apart Cheese Bread you've seen on your social media feeds before. The loaf of bread that's been partially sliced, stuffed with an ungodly amount of cheese, then thrown into the oven to toast and brown and melt. The post you've seen is the money shot: a chunk of bread pulled apart from the loaf, with threads of melted cheese stretching between the two. glorious cheese-bread-bombs

This cauliflower version has half the cheese and no processed carbs in the form of bread. But after making the cauliflower multiple times, I've realized I wasn't actually making it to substitute for bread anymore. I was making the cauliflower just to eat it for itself. Oven Roasted Whole Cauliflower Stuffed with Cheese is a dish all its own, whether served as a pull-apart appetizer, or even as a vegetarian main dish.

If bland, boring, pasty-ass watery cauliflower can become rice! pizza crust! buffalo wings! then you can become anything you want, little rockstar.

What You Need to Make Oven-Roasted Whole Cauliflower

You probably already have all of the ingredients in your kitchen except the cauliflower. Unless you're me, then you also already have a head of cauliflower because cauliflower is one of those vegetables you buy every week thinking you're going to eat it, even though 60-75% of the time, you don't.

Cauliflower is the banana of vegetables.

• Very large head of cauliflower
• Garlic
• Dried herbs
• Shredded cheese
• Dipping sauce(s)

If You Have More Than One Cauliflower

If you have more than one head of cauliflower, make these cauliflower recipes, too!

• Cauliflower Parm, like Chicken Parm, but made with cauliflower "cutlets," no fussy three-step breading process, and no messy frying
• Roasted Curried Cauliflower
• Cauliflower Gratin inspired by Thomas Keller
• Cauliflower Garlic Soup
• Roasted Cauliflower, Chickpea, and Walnut Salad

Ingredients Notes and Substitutions

• Cauliflower. You definitely need cauliflower for this recipe, since cauliflower is in the name of the dish. However, you can use any color of cauliflower, not just white. Supposedly, orange and purple cauliflower taste different, but either I have absolutely no sense of taste or the difference is too subtle to matter in this recipe. I have not tried this recipe with romanesco, which is the pale green fractal cousin broccoli and cauliflower.
• Olive Oil. I use this every day olive oil for cooking. You can use any neutral flavored oil with medium-high to high smoke point oil, like grapeseed oil or avocado oil.
• Garlic. Use roasted garlic to stuff into the cauliflower. Because cauliflower has such a mild flavor on its own, we are using everything we can to add umami and flavor. The roasted garlic has a dimension of flavor that you wouldn't get from using just fresh minced garlic added in the last few minutes under the broiler.
• Dried Oregano. I use an Italian oregano that comes dried on its whole stems. You can use whatever dried oregano tastes good to you. If I have dried basil, I add about a teaspoon to the mix.
• Cheese. Any "melty" cheese that you would use for pizza or grilled cheese works here, e.g. mozzarella, jack, havarti, and young gouda. With respect to mozzarella, stick to the shreddable "pizza cheese," not burrata or stracciatella.
• Marinara Sauce. I use this marinara when I want something delicious in the convenience of a jar
• Pesto. The one thing I can't bear to buy pre-made is basil pesto because it is always always always oxidized and dark and if it's not, then it probably has some kind of chemical to preserve the color and will have an off taste. Make Basil Pesto from scratch, or just serve marinara.

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