Roasted Cauliflower with Harissa Chickpeas
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
This recipe is so full of flavor! My roasted cauliflower with chickpeas is a dinner salad meal, layered with spices, harissa, greens, and feta cheese. Featuring sheet-pan roasted cauliflower and chickpeas front and center, all mixed up with fresh herbs, and a squeeze of lemon.
Do you play on team cauliflower? Or, maybe you absolutely love cauliflower, but some of the close, personal people in your life draw a firm boundary line around it?
In either case, I offer this recipe to bring the lovers, haters and the in-betweens together, all in the name of vegetable deliciousness.
About the ingredients:
About the ingredients
- Cauliflower: One large head, separated into florets.
- Chickpeas: Canned or home-cooked chickpeas.
- Onion: I prefer the sweetness of red onion, but use what you have.
- Harissa paste
- Cumin seed
- Feta cheese
- Fresh lemon
- Herbs: Fresh cilantro and parsley
Roasted cauliflower for the win!
I’ve been making and sharing this recipe for years, and it’s never stopped being totally crave-able. If you’re a fan, you already know that plain roasted cauliflower is fantastic.
And cauliflower plus chickpeas are so good roasted together.
Cauliflower and it’s cousin Romanesco gets all crisp and toasty when roasted in the oven, on its crumpled edges, while chickpeas turn into irresistible nutty-tasting nuggets.
They’re two somewhat neutral-tasting, down-to-earth vegetables that really shine when combined with bold seasonings that bring out their best features.
Surprisingly, not everyone agrees that roasting cauliflower is a great technique.
One day, I was browsing through a huge and wonderful vegetable cookbook and I came across the section on cooking methods for cauliflower. The author lists the many ways cauliflower can be prepared:
- Steamed.
- Stir-fried.
- Boiled.
- Fried.
- And last but not least, microwaved.
And then, the sentence: “Cauliflower...is not good roasted”. Are you freaking kidding me?! I couldn’t disagree more. Because, come on!
Like the best oven-roasted broccoli, cauliflower is delicious baked in the oven. In fact, it might be my favorite way to eat it. In the meantime, let’s skip down the path of roasting brassicas.
How to roast cauliflower:
It’s not a complicated process (and you can apply the same technique to broccoli).
- First, heat your oven to 425 degrees for at least 20 minutes before roasting. This ensures the oven is fully to temperature.
- Next, spread cauliflower florets out on a rimmed baking sheet, lined with a sheet of parchment for easy clean-up (that part is optional).
- Drizzle the cauliflower with oil, season well with salt and roast until the edges turn golden brown and crisp, usually about 25 minutes.
Along with crisp, toasty cruciferous vegetables, the spicy Tunisian chili paste harissa is an incredible condiment you need in your life.
I could put harissa on everything at any time of day, from eggs to leftovers I eat for lunch, as if it were the global version of ketchup.
To make this roasted cauliflower salad, you can use a good quality prepared harissa paste (look for brands packed in glass jars rather than tubes). Or, try my easy homemade harissa recipe and go to town!
If you really want to find harissa nirvana, it’s easy to make yourself. It has just the right amount of smoky, sweet-heat, and savory deliciousness without being spicy-hot.
What is harissa?
Harissa is a chili paste condiment from North Africa, very common in Tunisian and Moroccan cooking. It’s usually made with a combination of dried red chili peppers, garlic, olive oil and spices like caraway and coriander. You can find harissa in many well-stocked supermarkets — I recommend one made by Mina.
Roasted Cauliflower with Harissa Chickpeas
Ingredients
- 1 (900 g) head cauliflower (about 2 pounds), separated into bite-sized florets (8 cups)
- ¼ cup (60 ml) extra virgin olive oil
- Salt
- 1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
- 1 15-ounce (425 g) can chickpeas, drained
- 1 small sweet onion, like Maui or red onion; finely sliced
- 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
- 2 or 3 tablespoons (30 g) harissa paste
- ¼ cup each Italian parsley and cilantro leaves
- 2 tablespoons (30 ml) fresh lemon juice
- ⅓ cup crumbled feta cheese
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 425 (220 C) degrees.
- Spread the cauliflower out on a large rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with 3 tablespoons of the oil, ½ teaspoon salt and the cumin seeds. Roast 25 minutes, or until the cauliflower is tender and golden. Add the chickpeas and roast an additional 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, heat the remaining tablespoon oil in medium (8-10-inch) sauté pan. Add the onions and a pinch of salt. Cover the pan and cook over medium-low heat until the onions are very soft, 8-10 minutes. Stir in the garlic and harissa along with 2-3 tablespoons water and stir until blended and saucy. Pour over the cauliflower on the sheet pan.
- Tear the parsley and cilantro into rough pieces and toss them over the chickpeas. Squeeze the lemon over, add the feta cheese and gently mix together.
- Transfer to a serving bowl and serve.
Karen’s Notes and Tips
- If you’d rather make this a vegan dish, simply omit the cheese.
- Serve this dish as a hearty warm salad, or make it more of a meal by spooning it over couscous or other cooked whole grains that you enjoy.
- Use your favorite brand of harissa, or make my easy homemade harissa recipe.
- This is terrific as is, but fantastic with Lemon Tahini Sauce and a side of warm flatbread.
- The salad will keep well for 3-5 days in the refrigerator and reheats well.
Nutrition per serving
Nutrition facts are calculated by third-party software. If you have specific dietary needs, please refer to your favorite calculator.
Hey, I’m Karen
Creator of Familystyle Food
I’m a food obsessed super-taster and professionally trained cook ALL about creating elevated dinners with everyday ingredients. Find simplified recipes made from scratch and enjoy incredibly tasty food! Read more about me here.
Leave a comment and star rating
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
This is so delicious!!!! added a little bit of fresh mint with cilantro and parsley! Thank-you love it…new favorite 🙂
I would love to try the recipes, some of the ingredients I do not know, I would love to tap on the gradient and see if there’s an alternate one or a substitute.
Looks delicious! I tend to get lazy and just roast my cauliflower with garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. I like that you have incorporated other flavors!
Kari
http://www.sweetteasweetie.com
“I do not care for roasted cauliflower.” I was thinking of that line from Vegetable Love as I clicked through from The Kitchn, because, like you, I disagree with that statement! I’ll definitely be giving this a try this week!
That is classic Barbara Kafka; gotta love her strong opinions. Enjoy, Kate! This recipe is one that I make over and over again.
I tried this and it was amazing; so simple to make as well. My new favorite add-on, Harissa sauce! Heavenly to say the least. Thanks for sharing.
As a vegetarian, I absolutely love these sorts of spicy vegetable recipes. Thank you so much for sharing this, I’ve just pinned it.
I made this tonight and loved it! I used about 1.5 T harissa paste and it was just right for us (we like things moderately spicy). I was definitely, definitely be making this one again.
I just made this lovely dish for dinner and is was beyond delicious! Thank you so much for the amazing recipe.
Josefine – how wonderful! So glad you liked ;))
Hi! This is seriously one of the most delicious veggie dishes I have ever tried! I have made it twice this week :). Only change I made was using ground cumin instead. Thanks so much for sharing!
Recently I discovered that if I roast my cauliflower, it tends to have bitter taste. Quick search on the internet tells me that cauliflower, when heated released pungent sulfur & contains phenylthiocarbamide (aka PTC) that makes it bitter. Some people are genetically sensitive to PTC, some aren’t. After trying several methods of preparing cauliflower, reducing the cooking time is crucial. So when I want a “roasted” curried cauliflower, what worked best for me is soaking the cauliflower in salted water then steam it while roasting the onion, garlic, curry mixture in the oven. Then toss together. Lucky those who aren’t sensitive to PTC.
I made a variation of your recipe seeing it on pinterest this am. It was very good!
Amy – thanks for stopping by. I’m glad to know you enjoyed!
This sounds like great ingredients for Hummus.
Just served this for diner, it was fabulous! My boyfriend and I liked it a lot 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Anne-julie – So glad to know that you enjoyed the cauliflower!
A friend posted this recipe on Facebook, and so glad she did. It led me to your blog and your great recipes! Thank you for sharing this…I will be making it immediately!
Thank you Shawn – I hope you’ll love the cauliflower!
I love roasted cauliflower, what a scrumptious way to prepare it!
Thanks Laura! This is one of my very favorites, for sure.
I didn’t have any harissa, so I served the roasted cauliflower and chickpeas over brown rice with hot mango chutney and toasted cashews. Delicious! Thanks for the great recipe idea Karen.
Mary, I’m so pleased to know you tried out the recipe – if I had hot mango chutney I’m sure I could form some kind of addiction to that too, along with the harissa. Sounds like it was a great mix! Cheers to you, neighbor 🙂
I put this over couscous, and it was spectacular!
I made my own harissa and served this dish to my daughter and her family. EVERYONE loved it, even the Littles!!! Thank you so much :o)
Deb – how amazing are you?! Do you have a favorite method for making harissa? I’m so pleased your family enjoyed this, esp. the Littles 🙂
Thank you so much for visiting my site and allowing me to find my way here. Your recipes are so reminiscent of my own culinary desires… I made these roasted cauliflower steaks once and they definitely proved your theory about roasting cauliflowers.
Best, Phi
Thank you Phi. My sentiments exactly about your work! I also have a recipe somewhere for roasting a whole head of cauliflower – could be a beast, but want to try it.
I agree with you both; roasting is one of the very best ways to cook cauliflower and this looks like a total winner!
Thanks Kalyn!
You are so totally the blogging queen these days – I’m loving every single idea! I remember reading that note from Barbara Kafka a few years ago and wondering, Whhhhaaaat? Roasted Cauliflower was the very first recipe on A Veggie Venture!
Thanks, Alanna. Funny you saw that in the book, too. Now I’m going back to read your very first post – wow!