Spicy Cauliflower Bites

My 135th recipe, "Spicy Cauliflower Bites", a very simple yet delicious snack/appetizer. My love for cauliflower has made me venture into areas I have never gone before. When I buy cauliflower at the store, I normally prepare only the Gobi Masala or Gobi 65 with it. However when I wanted to see how cauliflower would pair up with an asian inspired sauce, the outcome was two extremely flavorful dishes: Gobi Manchurian and Kung Pao Cauliflower. This time around I was wondering how cauliflower would taste when roasted. Asking myself why I should not try making one today, I decided to try roasting the cauliflower in my oven. With less than 5 ingredients, the outcome was this finger licking good Spicy Cauliflower Bites. Since I was trying this for the first time, I used only a few florets of the cauliflower. After making the dish, that was my only regret. It was extremely delicious that I completed the whole batch within minutes and was soon craving for more. It was slightly spicy with a little bit of garlic flavor. An extremely flavorful dish. If you have a head of cauliflower and 25 mins of free time, this is surely one dish I would recommend everyone to try. Just very little effort, but an wonderful outcome 😉

Spicy Cauliflower Bites

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Prep Time 5 mins

Cook Time 25 mins

Total Time 30 mins

Servings 2

Ingredients

  

• Cauliflower - 15 large florets
• Olive Oil - 1 Tbsp + 1 Tbsp
• Garlic Salt - ¾ tsp adjust per taste
• Hot sauce - as needed I used 1 Tbsp of Sriracha Asian Hot sauce
• Sugar / Honey - ¼ tsp Optional
• Lemon extract - ¼ tsp Optional

Instructions

 

• Preheat the oven to 450 F. Then cut the cauliflower into large florets, wash and pat them dry. Transfer them to a large mixing bowl, add 1 Tbsp olive oil and garlic salt. Mix well until the oil coats the cauliflower nicely.
  
   
• Transfer the cauliflower to a non stick baking tray. Bake cauliflower in the oven for 10 mins. Pull out the cauliflower from the oven, turn the florets, so that they get a chance to roast evenly on both the sides. Return the cauliflower back to the oven and bake for another 5 mins. Cauliflower would be nicely roasted by now.
  
   
  
   
• Take the cauliflower out of the oven, and transfer into the mixing bowl. Add the remaining 1 Tbsp olive oil, hot sauce and if you prefer a slight sweet or tang, add sugar/honey and lemon extract. Transfer the cauliflower back to the baking tray.
  
   
  
   
• Bake it in to oven for 10 more mins, until the sauce gets nicely absorbed by the cauliflower and you are able to see nice black roasted spots. Turn off the oven and transfer the cauliflower to the serving plate.
  
  
• Enjoy hot with your choice of dip.
  
       

Notes | FAQ

- Adjust the cooking time based on your oven setting.
- I added honey to give a little sweetness. You can also add sugar instead. Also if you like a little tang, you can add little lemon juice. However, I did not add it.
- If you don't have garlic salt, you can add about ¼ tsp of regular salt. However you will surely miss the lovely garlic flavor.
- Keep an eye while baking to make sure that the cauliflower florets are roasted evenly and not getting burnt.