This cauliflower steak recipe is hands down our favorite way to eat cauliflower! The roasted steaks are golden brown, tender, and topped with our favorite homemade chimichurri sauce.
I love cauliflower, especially when roasted until golden brown and crisp. That’s why I absolutely love these roasted cauliflower steaks! My roasting method guarantees deeply golden brown cauliflower. Adam loves this recipe!
Then, you’ll serve the steaks with my homemade chimichurri sauce made with fresh garlic and parsley. This sauce is super popular with grilled and roasted meats like our chimichurri chicken, but trust me, it’s just as incredible with these roasted cauliflower steaks!
Key Ingredients
- Cauliflower: I buy whole heads of cauliflower and usually get 2 to 3 thick steaks from each. You’ll probably have some leftover cauliflower, which you can use for recipes like cauliflower rice or mashed cauliflower. When shopping for cauliflower, look for creamy white, compact clusters of florets, and give cauliflower that is spotted or dull-colored a pass. For more tips, see how to buy and cut cauliflower.
- Olive Oil: I roast the cauliflower steaks in olive oil, which helps them become beautifully golden and crispy. Avocado oil is a good substitute if you prefer.
- Chimichurri Sauce: My recipe is inspired by traditional Argentinian and Uruguayan versions. You’ll combine finely chopped parsley with olive oil, vinegar, garlic, and spices. It’s incredibly easy to make, I promise! Watch the video or see my chimichurri recipe for all my tips.
Find the full recipe with measurements below.
Tips for How to Make the Best Cauliflower Steaks
Tip 1: Keep some stalk attached. To cut cauliflower into steaks, I slice the head in half right through the stalk and then trim away the rounded edge of each half, leaving about 1 ½ inch thick slices that still have the stem attached. You can see me do this in our video! The trick to cauliflower steaks that don’t fall apart is to make sure that each steak has some of the stalk attached. Typically, I get two thick steaks from a medium-sized cauliflower.
Tip 2: Start by searing on stove. I cook my cauliflower steaks in an oven-safe skillet. This way, I can start them on the stove to get a really good golden brown sear and then finish them in the oven for that roasted tender texture.
Tip 3: Top with homemade chimichurri sauce: Our homemade sauce is the real magic behind this recipe. The warm cauliflower soaks up all of the flavor, making you want to keep taking another bite. While the cauliflower is in the oven, I make my chimichurri sauce. Then, when the steaks are done, I top them with a generous spoonful of chimichurri and serve.
They’re hearty and flavorful enough to enjoy as a main course, but I also love pairing them with a side salad, cooked quinoa, or rice dishes like Mexican rice or coconut rice. You can also serve these as a side dish, splitting each steak in half to make four portions.
Epic Cauliflower Steaks
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- COOK
- TOTAL
Enjoy these cauliflower steaks with chimichurri sauce as a plant-based main dish or served as a tasty side. We cut our steaks thick, which means that one cauliflower will make two steaks. You will have unused cauliflower after cutting the steaks, but don’t worry, these can be used to make cauliflower rice, mashed cauliflower or roasted alongside the steaks and saved for another meal.
The recipe for chimichurri sauce makes about 1 cup. You will have plenty left over to be used in other dishes. Take a look at the original sauce recipe for suggestions on other ways to use it.
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
Cauliflower Steaks1 medium head of cauliflower
2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt, to taste
4 tablespoons chimichurri sauce or more to taste, recipe below
Chimichurri Sauce2 cups (50g) packed parsley leaves and tender stems
3 to 4 garlic cloves, 1 tablespoon minced
1 medium shallot, minced
½ teaspoon dried oregano, optional
½ to ¾ teaspoon fine sea salt
½ to 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes or 1 jalapeño or Fresno chili pepper, finely chopped
½ cup (120ml) extra-virgin olive oil
¼ cup to ⅓ cup (60ml to 80ml) red wine vinegar, adjusted to taste
Directions
- Prepare Cauliflower
1Preheat the oven to 400°F (204°C).
2Remove the large outer leaves of the cauliflower and trim a small amount of the stem to create a flat base. Cut the cauliflower in half, from rounded top to stem.
3To make each cauliflower steak, trim the rounded edge of each half, leaving about 1 ½ inch thick slices that still have the stem attached (see our video for a tutorial). Save the trimmed cauliflower for another recipe.
4Heat the olive oil in a wide oven-safe saucepan over medium heat.
5Place the cauliflower steaks in the hot oil and cook until deep golden brown, about 5 minutes. It helps to occasionally move the steaks so that the oil gets underneath.
6Carefully flip the steaks and cook another 3 to 5 minutes, or until the second side is well browned. As the second side browns, season the steaks with salt.
7Transfer the oven-safe pan to the oven and roast the steaks until the stems are tender and easily pierced with a fork, 8 to 10 minutes.
8Serve cauliflower steaks with a generous spoonful of chimichurri sauce on top. For side portions, slice each steak in half and then serve.
- Make Sauce
1Make the sauce by hand: Mince the garlic and shallot and add them to a medium bowl. Finely chop the parsley and add them to the bowl along with the salt, red pepper flakes, olive oil, and red wine vinegar. Stir, then taste and season with more salt or red pepper flakes if needed.
2Make the sauce in a food processor (or blender): Add garlic and shallots to the bowl of a food processor (or blender) and pulse until minced. Add the parsley, salt, and red pepper flakes. Pulse until the parsley is chopped small. Scrape the sides, and then pour in the olive oil and red wine vinegar. Pulse a few more times until the sauce comes together. Taste and season with more salt or red pepper flakes, if needed.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- No oven-safe skillet: If you do not have an oven-safe skillet, you can brown the steaks in a regular skillet and then carefully transfer them to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- Storing chimichurri: The sauce is excellent the day you make it, but it will last a few days in your refrigerator (you might notice the parsley’s green dulls slightly). It’s absolutely perfect with grilled meat, like grilled steak, but is also excellent with shrimp, fish, veggies, chicken, and grilled bread.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
Simple and easy to make. Thought the chimichurri had a bit too much vinegar, if I did it again I’d reduce by at least half.
This was delicious! I made it for a group gathering and it was a hit. I did add a splash of freshly squeezed lime juice and a little fresh cilantro with the parsley.
Great Recipies
Fabulous! Used half cilantro, half parsley. Will make this again and again! Wished I had have doubled it 🙂
Made this last night, and husband remarked, “This is delicious!” while sounding incredulous. He did not think it was funny when I said we were having steak and it turned out to be cauliflower steak… 🙂 Next time, I will try the sauce to go with. Easy and even better than plain roasted florets, which are always a favorite in our house.
Hello, could this be made without using vinegar? Looks delicious, I would LOVE to make this for MyFamily!! Cheers to healthy recipes!!~Angela
Hi Angela, The vinegar is pretty essential to the sauce. Without it, you will have something more similar to an herbed oil. It would still taste delicious, you will just be missing the bite from vinegar.
Hi, this looks amazing.. what can I use instead of red wine vinegar? Lemon juice? Apple cider vinegar? Thanks!
Lemon juice is definitely an option or a white wine vinegar. Apple cider vinegar will work in a pinch, but adds a bit of its own flavor.
So, so, so good, and simple to put together. I actually threw in the remaining pieces of cauliflower in the pan to cook along. they were crispier and delicious.
These are amazing! The sauce went perfectly with the cauliflower. Thank you!
AMAZING!! just finished eatin’ the whole thing for dinner! looove how allways incredibly easy and delictious your recipes are :)) thank you for yoir inspiration & best of luck!
I have just made this for the first time if it tastes as good as it looks I’m won over I just managed to get one steak from the cauliflower it’s quite hard get two as it crumbles very easy
This cauliflower recipe was outstanding! My husband, who isn’t a huge cauliflower fan, thoroughly enjoyed it….he couldn’t believe it was really cauliflower! I love cauliflower but am not a huge parsley fan, but made the recipe exactly as it says, and it was unbelievably delicious! A perfect combination of flavors!! Bought a new head of cauliflower so I can cook it again soon!!
I saw this recipe and made it while on vacation. Glad I found your site again because I can’t get this dish out of my mind. The sauce is outstanding for many other uses.
I like what I am reading…
I saw this recipe on your website last week and couldn’t get it out of my mind. I made it today and it was absolutely delicious! The only change I made was one cup of parsley and one cup of cilantro instead of the two cups of parsley. All the flavors came together so wonderfully, the garlic, the shallots, the tang of the vinegar, the fresh green of the parsley, the bite of the cilantro and red pepper flakes, the cauliflower so tender and caramelized… Best of all it was simple! I’ll be making this again and again. Thank you!
That’s the way we make Chimichurri in South America; halve parsley an halve coriander. It goes also amazing with steam potatoes or a good beef steak. Yummy!
Can you sub red wine vinegar with balsamic?
You can try it. Balsamic vinegar has a lot of flavor on its own so the taste of the sauce will be different.
You continue to delight with these recipes, thank you.
We love cauliflower and this recipe was delicious!
Me encantan sus recetas. Son fáciles de hacer y muy deliciosas. No requieren de mucho tiempo y son muy nutritivas. Muchas gracias por permitirme disfrutar de sus deliciosas recetas.
We are so glad that you enjoy our recipes 🙂