Roasted cauliflower is rarely as exciting as a roasted potato, but that’s not the cauliflower’s fault. It’s starting with a big disadvantage. Naturally starchy potatoes crisp quite readily, even without deep frying, while other, less-starchy vegetables often come out of the oven, limp, soft and disappointing. There is, however, an easy way to help cauliflower and all of the other less starchily endowed vegetables achieve crispy glory: Just add starch.

Not all starch is the same

Starch has two primary uses in the kitchen—thickening and crisping. Cornstarch can help you accomplish both, as it contains two types of starch molecules, amylose and amylopectin. Amylose is a straight, linear chain; amylopectin is highly branched. This makes them good at different things. When thickening a sauce or gravy, you want a tangly, bushy molecule like amylopectin that gets caught on itself, slowing down the flow of the liquid and upping the viscosity.

Amylose, on the other hand, is great at building a hard, crunchy coating, thanks to its ordered, stackable structure. Cooking—whether you’re frying, roasting, or even boiling—causes food to lose some of its moisture. Once that moisture comes in contact with a starch, the granules swell, giving the amylose more room to spread out and move around. As the water evaporates, these molecules settle into a rigid, locked network, creating a crunchy coating. Many flours contain amylose, but cornstarch contains a relatively high amount, almost 30% by mass, making it a great ingredient for upping the texture on your roasted vegetables.

Keys to crispy success

Our adaptation of Lebanese fried cauliflower (arnabeet mekleh)—one of our favorite recipes from our new cookbook Milk Street 365—makes excellent use of the amylose in cornstarch. We toss 3 pounds of well-oiled cauliflower with 1/2 cup of highly seasoned cornstarch—that’s a little over 2 tablespoons per pound. This gives the veg a crispy, flavorful coating that’s shockingly close in texture to one that’s deep fried, with a tender, toothsome interior. Pair it with a creamy, savory sauce made of yogurt, tahini, lemon, garlic, and mint, and you’ll be in textural contrast heaven. (More of a visual learner? Milk Street culinary director Wes Martin can walk you through the recipe over on Instagram.)

And cauliflower is just one vegetable that benefits from the amylose treatment. Carrots, parsnips, broccoli, onion rings, squash cubes, and even chickpeas all develop a crispy coating when treated with a combination of cornstarch, oil, and heat.

But a greater amount of starch does not translate into better crunch. It’s best to take a light hand—you want your veg to appear dusted, not completely coated. You should be able to see the color of the vegetable through the starch, and there shouldn’t be any clumps. When prepping your produce, think small. Chop or slice your vegetables into little pieces, to increase the surface area available for crisping and browning.

And don’t forget to get your pan nice and hot. Heating an oiled baking sheet at 425°F helps the vegetables brown and crisp immediately when they hit the hot pan.

And finally, season your starch. We use a combination of cumin, fennel seed, and coriander for the cauliflower, but any combination of ground seasonings (or a seasoning blend) would work. Aim for 3 teaspoons of ground spices and 1 teaspoon of salt for every 1/4 cup of cornstarch. This will ensure the your vegetables aren’t just crispy, but evenly and richly flavored. I personally plan to try the cauliflower spice blend on some onion rings. Crispy, cumin-y onion rings with lemon-tahini dipping sauce sounds divine—especially when you don’t have a vat of fry oil to deal with.

Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest.

And if you're looking for more Milk Street, check out our livestream cooking classes with our favorite chefs, home cooks and friends for global recipes, cooking methods and more.