Dress up roasted cauliflower with a simple lemon-sesame sauce

Cauliflower with Tahini and Dukkah

Appears in May-June 2017

35 minutes

This recipe dresses roasted cauliflower florets with a tahini sauce brightened with lemon juice and cayenne. We used cilantro in our sauce, but flat-leaf parsley is a good substitute. When buying cauliflower, look for a head with densely packed florets. Medium florets, about 1½ to 2 inches, were best in this dish; smaller pieces became mushy. And a hot oven and heated baking sheet were key to browning the cauliflower before it overcooked. For a crunchy, nutty alternative topping, substitute 1⁄3 cup dukkah (see sidebar) for the cashews.

4

Servings

Tip

Don’t forget to line the baking sheet with foil before heating. The tahini mixture makes a mess of an unlined pan.

35 minutes

Ingredients

½

cup tahini
1

teaspoon grated lemon zest, plus 2 tablespoons lemon juice, divided

Directions

01

Heat the oven to 500ºF with a rack in lowest position. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and set on the rack to heat. In a large bowl, whisk together the tahini, lemon zest, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, the oil, garlic, salt, paprika and cayenne. Add the cauliflower and toss, massaging the dressing into the florets.

Reviews

Alida B.

Great cauliflower recipe! Even my husband loves it (and he does not like cauliflower!)

Anton S.

This was delicious! I didn't have cashews or cilantro on hand, but had everything else. I especially liked how the tahini coating formed a crispy coating on the cauliflower, and the final squeeze of lemon before serving added another layer of fresh flavor. Will be making this again and again!

Martha C.

Glad to know that the cashews can be left out; I am allergic

stephanie e.

Super easy, great flavor- everyone loved it! Will make it often. Thanks!

Dennis Alden D.

I have run across four Dukkah recipes - some using hazelnuts, others pistachios, and this one with cashews. Looks like you could try alternative nuts, as they seem to be an important part of giving the Dukkah crunch. The common ingredients for all four recipes were sesame, coriander, cumin, salt and pepper. The remaining one or two ingredients varied slightly.

Mark F.

I just watched the tv show where this was shown and the recipe on the website it totally different. On the tv show they didn't add any spices or the cashews and also on the show they added some corn starch saying that what made it crispy. There was also no mention of dukkah. Confusing.

Lynn C.

Hi Mark -

We apologize for the confusion. This is a case where we have two similarly-named recipes. The cauliflower recipe you are looking for is this one - https://www.177milkstreet.com/recipes/roasted-cauliflower-tomato-tahini-cilantro-lemon.

Best,
The Milk Street Team

Mark F.

Also on the show there was tomato paste in this and you didn't heat the pan first. Annoying.

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Cauliflower with Tahini and Dukkah