If you're tired of the same old roasted cauliflower, THIS is the recipe to try and the flavour will blow you away. Roasted cauliflower tossed with garlic oil, crispy garlic and five spice powder...YUM. You can apply the same technique to other roasted vegetables as well, such as Brussel sprouts or broccoli. A great way to get your veggies in cuz trust me it is addictive! And it would make a great side dish at your next Thanksgiving or holiday meal.
Watch The Full Video Tutorial!
All my recipes come with step-by-step video tutorials with extra tips not mentioned in the blog post, so make sure you watch the video below to ensure success - and if you enjoy the show, please consider subscribing to my YouTube channel. Thank you!
Ingredients and Notes
Here are all the ingredients you need and important notes about them. For the amounts, see the full recipe card below.
- Cauliflower florets (about one medium head)
- Vegetable oil, anything neutral flavoured is fine.
- Salt, since this recipe calls for "one head" of cauliflower, if your cauliflower is on the small side, reduce the amount of salt slightly. You can always add more later if needed but you can't fix it if it's too salty!
- Ground white pepper
- Sugar
- Five spice powder, store-bought or homemade using my five-spice powder recipe.
- Garlic
- Soy sauce
- Green onions, chopped
- Spicy dried chilies (optional), such as arbol chilies. Break the chilies in half and pour out the seeds. We use whole chilies for garnish as it makes the dish look much prettier, but if you just want the heat you can also just put some chili flakes into the spice mix itself.
How to Make Five-Spice Roasted Cauliflower
Here are all the steps to make this recipe. If this is your first time, I highly recommend watching the video tutorial to ensure success.
- Preheat the oven to 450°F/230°C. You can also preheat the air fryer to 400°F (200°C).
- Toss cauliflower thoroughly with the vegetable oil until thoroughly coated.
- If there is oil pooling at the bottom of the bowl, spoon the cauliflower out of the bowl, leaving behind excess oil, and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet or the air fryer basket. Spread the florets out so they are not touching - you will need to do this in batches if using the air fryer.
- Roast the cauliflower for about 10 minutes, then stir the florets to promote even browning and roast for another 4-5 minutes until they have browned nicely. Air fryers will take less time, so keep an eye on them and remove once they have browned around the edges but are still firm.
- Remove from oven and leave to cool slightly on the pan until ready to use.
- In a small bowl, stir together salt, sugar, white pepper and five spice powder until well combined.
- In a wok, add chopped garlic and then add just enough veg oil to almost cover the garlic. Fry gently on medium low heat until the garlic is thoroughly golden, but not brown.
- Pour the garlic through a metal sieve without scraping the wok as we want the garlic oil that's stuck on the pan. Reserve the excess oil for another use. Return the wok to medium high heat.
- Add dried chilies to the wok and toast until darkened slightly and smells smokey, this will take less than a minute. Add the roasted cauliflower and sprinkle the dry seasoning evenly over them, then pour the soy sauce in around the edges of the wok and immediately toss to distribute the seasoning.
- Turn the heat off, add half of the fried garlic and chopped green onion and toss to combine.
- Plate, and sprinkle with the remaining fried garlic and green onions. Serve immediately on its own as an appetizer or as a side dish.
Recipe
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Roasted Cauliflower with Five-Spice
- Yield: Serves 2
Ingredients
- 500 g cauliflower florets (about one medium head)
- 3 Tbsp vegetable oil plus more for frying garlic
- ½ tsp salt (see note)
- ⅛ tsp ground white pepper
- 1 tsp sugar
- ¼ tsp five spice powder, store-bought or homemade
- 3-5 dried Thai chilies, break in half and remove seeds
- 8 cloves garlic
- 2 tsp soy sauce
- 1-2 green onions, chopped
Note: If your cauliflower is on the small side, reduce the amount of salt slightly.
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 450°F/230°C.
Toss cauliflower thoroughly in 3 tablespoon of vegetable oil until thoroughly coated. Lift cauliflower out of the bowl, leaving behind any excess oil, and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Spread the florets out so they are not touching.
Roast the cauliflower for 10 minutes, then stir the florets to promote even browning and roast for another 4-5 minutes until they have browned nicely. Remove from oven and leave to cool slightly on the pan until ready to use.
In a small bowl, stir together salt, sugar, white pepper and five spice powder until well combined.
In a wok, add chopped garlic and then add just enough veg oil to almost cover the garlic. Fry gently on medium low heat until golden. Pour the garlic through a strainer, reserving the garlic oil for another use. Return the wok to medium high heat without cleaning it; we want the garlic oil that’s left on the wok.
Add dried chilies to the wok and toast until darkened slightly and smells smokey. Add roasted cauliflower, sprinkle the dry seasoning evenly over the cauliflower, and pour the soy sauce in around the edges of the wok. Toss quickly until the cauliflower is thoroughly coated. Turn the heat off, add half of the fried garlic and chopped green onion and toss to combine. Plate, and sprinkle with the remaining fried garlic and green onions. Serve immediately on its own as an appetizer or as a side dish.
Ginger says
I've not yet made this but you can bet that I will! I've been trying to figure out a recipe for cauliflower that will entice me to eat more of it and I just couldn't find anything. But the idea of 5-spice with garlic and some chiles is brilliant!! I am going to 'steal' this idea and apply it to some tofu and/or tempeh as well.
The other place that I like to use 5-spice is in fresh whole berry cranberry sauce (along with some orange) at Thanksgiving time.
Thank you for this marvelous idea!!!
Hendrik says
What's supposed to happen with the chillies, once they're "darkened slightly and smells smokey"? They make no reappearance.
Hendrik says
Sorry, my mistake, just ignore what I said. I was irritated by "darkened" as that is usually the point where the chilies are removed. But they aren't here.
Futile Resistance says
This ia a bit fiddly and time consuming to prep but it's cheap and tasty with lots of garlic - who needs more than that?
tina says
This recipe tastes really good, but keeping the cauliflower not completely soggy yet with char is harder than it seems in the video.
This is not a problem if you enjoy your cauli on the softer side. Also I wish I didn't have to dirty a pan and a wok and turn on the broiler for this. Usually I just sear it in the pan, but again, cauli overcooks and it uses too much oil.
The flavor of the sauce, with the sweet and salty + five spicy + garlic is super delicious and very addictive. Even if the texture isn't 100%, this is always a hit at our dinner table no matter who we're sharing the meal with.
BZT says
The five spice took the dish to a whole new level!! Absolutely amazing..
Pallavi says
The first time i made this recipe, I was skeptical if 1/4tsp 5spice would make a difference. But damn! So flavorful!! Love it.