I had heard a longtime family friend of ours once mention a recipe that involved baking a whole head of cauliflower and for some reason that stuck in my head. Perhaps, because I am a serious fan of cauliflower or because I thought it was entertaining to put an entire head of a vegetable in the oven. Either way, when cauliflower was on sale for like 50 cents this week at the supermarket, due to having too much stocked up for the holidays I bet, I knew I had to get that recipe! Our family friend luckily remembered what I was talking about and shared the recipe with me, which it sounds like I can use with other vegetables as well.

©EverydayCookingAdventures 2013

I used ground cumin because I didn’t have cumin seed and it took a whopping 5 minutes to prep the whole thing and stick it in the oven. The cauliflower came out steaming and smelly very exotic, I guess due to the cumin which I’m not used to cooking with very often. I cut it in large florets and served it with Martha Stewart’s Crispy Breaded Pork Cutlets (click the link for that recipe). The cauliflower came out perfectly softened and the spices made it wonderfully aromatic and flavorsome. I will have to try this with other veggies in the future! Here’s my cauliflower:

Roasted Spiced Cauliflower ©EverydayCookingAdventures 2013

Roasted Spiced Cauliflower

Ingredients

• 1 whole head of cauliflower
• cumin seed
• salt
• pepper
• ground nutmeg
• butter, softened
• optional: olive oil

Directions
1. Remove the leaves and core the cauliflower.

2. Make a paste using soft butter (or olive oil or mix of both) with salt, pepper, cumin seed, and a little ground nutmeg.

3. On a baking pan, cover the cauliflower with the paste. Cover the whole thing with foil and bake at 350ºF for 45 minutes.

Other Options: Core it and break into the florets, drizzle with olive oil and any mix of herbs, salt and pepper and bake at 400ºF uncovered for about 20 minutes, turning to brown and caramelize once. It’s also great to do with Brussels sprouts or carrots. You can also add a head of garlic with the top sliced off and olive oil sprinkled on to roast and squeeze.