Cauliflower steak serves as a perfect, fiber-loaded vessel for delicious toppings like this vegan pesto and Mediterranean crumble. Integrative nutritionist Jennie Miremadi understands that plant-based eating is an adjustment for some of us. Recipes like these with show-stopping flavor and bites you can really sink your teeth into can make all the difference.
The secret to a perfect cauliflower steak lies in the cutting technique. After nailing the technique, just cook the steaks for a couple of minutes, layer on a flavorful topping and serve alongside some greens for the ultimate weeknight dinner solution. Mediterranean Cauliflower Steaks + Homemade Vegan Pesto For the vegan pesto: For the Mediterranean cauliflower steaks: For the vegan pesto: Leaving food processor on, slowly drizzle remaining olive oil into pesto until all ingredients are fully incorporated. Adjust salt and pepper to taste. Set aside enough pesto for use with cauliflower steaks and reserve the rest for later use. For the Mediterranean cauliflower steaks: Take each half of the cauliflower head and slice off the florets on the rounded side of each to create two 1 ¼” thick cauliflower steaks. Reserve any cut florets for later use. Heat olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat and cook cauliflower steaks until bottom side of steaks are a lightly golden, about 3 to 4 minutes. Then, flip cauliflower steaks and cook for another 2-3 minutes, or until the other side of cauliflower is lightly golden. Transfer cauliflower steaks to a parchment lined baking sheet and sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper. Bake cauliflower steaks in the oven for 10 minutes. Flip cauliflower steaks over and cook for another 5-7 minutes or until just tender. Remove steaks from oven and slather with vegan pesto sauce. Top each steak with sun dried tomatoes, Kalamata olives, artichoke hearts, capers and pine nuts. Serve with additional pesto for dipping, if desired, and enjoy!
Serves 2Ingredients:
2 cups fresh basil, tightly packed
1 garlic clove
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 cup raw pine nuts
1 cup + 1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
Himalayan pink salt + ground black pepper to taste
1 large cauliflower head
1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
4 Tbsp sun dried tomatoes marinated in olive oil
2 Tbsp chopped Kalamata olives
2 marinated artichoke hearts, chopped
2 tsp capers, chopped
pine nuts (for sprinkling on top of cauliflower steaks, if desired)
Himalayan pink salt + ground, black pepper to taste
vegan pestoDirections:
Add basil, garlic, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, pine nuts, salt, pepper and 1 Tbsp of olive oil to a food processor and begin to process on low.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Next, prepare the cauliflower. First, cut away the leaves that are on the outside of the cauliflower stem. Then place cauliflower head with the stem side down on a cutting board. Cut the cauliflower head in half starting from the top of the cauliflower all the way through the center of the cauliflower through to the stem.
Explore our other all-time favorite cauliflower recipes here.
