We eat a lot more pasta at this house than you might guess from looking at this blog. At least once a week, often more. This roasted garlic and cauliflower pasta is the kind of recipe I reach for when I have a head of cauliflower to use up and want something genuinely cozy without a lot of fuss. As one reader put it: “6 years later, this recipe is a dream.” Serve it with my vegan parmesan on top for the full experience.
The roasted garlic sauce is what makes this pasta. You roast two full heads of garlic until the cloves are browned and completely soft, then mash them into a smooth puree and whisk in lemon juice, chili flakes, and olive oil. The starchy pasta cooking water loosens the whole thing into a silky, light sauce that coats every piece of pasta and cauliflower. No cream or blender! Just roasted garlic melting around the pasta and adding so much flavor.
Baby arugula instead of parsley is my preference here. The peppery bite contrasts beautifully with the sweet roasted garlic. The walnuts on top add a crunchy, toasty finish that I find essential. Both are listed as optional in the recipe but I would not skip either.
This pasta comes together in about an hour, most of which is hands-off roasting time. A genuinely great weeknight dinner when you have a cauliflower that needs using up.
Roasted Garlic & Cauliflower Pasta with Walnuts
Ingredients
- 2 heads garlic, top quarter cut off to expose cloves
- 6 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon olive oil
- ½ teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
- 1 medium head cauliflower (2 lbs)
- salt and ground black pepper to taste
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice, plus extra
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste
- 1 lb short pasta, such as penne or fusilli (can use GF pasta)
- 2-3 handfuls baby arugula
- ¼ cup walnut halves, toasted and chopped
Notes
- From America’s Test Kitchen’s The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook
- ATK lists an alternative version of this pasta with broccoli and almonds as well if that catches your interest. The original recipe calls for chopped parsley, but I used handfuls of baby arugula because I happened to have it in my fridge.
Instructions
- Adjust an oven rack to the middle position, place a naked baking sheet on the rack and preheat to 500°F. Tear two squares of aluminum foil and place cut garlic heads in the centers. Drizzle exposed garlic tops with 1/2 tsp olive oil each. Season with salt, pepper, and thyme leaves (if using). Wrap garlic bulbs up securely and place in the oven. Roast until garlic is browned and mushy/tender, about 40 minutes.
- While garlic is roasting, trim the cauliflower leaves and the extra bit of stalk at the bottom. Cut the head right down the middle, from top to bottom. From there, cut each half into 4 wedges. In a medium bowl, toss the cauliflower wedges with 2 tablespoons olive oil, salt, and pepper. Remove the pre-heated baking sheet from the oven and carefully lay the cauliflower wedges onto the surface, leaving some space around each piece. You should hear sizzling. Roast cauliflower until tender and well-browned, about 25 minutes (I flipped mine halfway).
- Once slightly cooled, transfer cauliflower to a cutting board and cut into bite-size pieces. Unwrap roasted garlic and squeeze cloves out into a small bowl. Mash roasted garlic with a fork to make a smooth puree. Whisk in the lemon juice, pepper flakes, some salt + pepper, and 1/4 cup of olive oil. Set aside.
- Cook brown rice pasta according to package directions with a fat pinch of salt in the water. Reserve 1 cup of pasta cooking water before draining. Once drained, return cooked pasta to the pot. Add chopped cauliflower, garlic sauce, arugula, extra lemon juice to taste, and 1/4 cup reserved cooking water. Add more cooking water as necessary to achieve desired consistency. Serve pasta with handfuls of chopped walnuts on top and extra chili flakes.
The essentials: onions, whole tomatoes (canned since we live in a four season climate), salad greens, lemons and peppers (hot and sweet).
Would love to win the cookbook as I hear ATK is a damn fine authority on food.
Ooh, always have these on hand: miso, tahini, flaked salt, garlic, and cannellini! My go-to is a quick sauce out of some combination of miso, tahino, and oil, drizzled over roasted whatever’s-in-season and some rice or beans.
In my pantry I always try to have olive oil, walnuts, almond milk, coconut milk & black beans. I can typically pull something together with the produce on hand if I have these staples at the ready!
i try to always have garlic, peanut butter, arborio rice, garbanzo beans, and olive oil.
Our pantry is usually stocked with canned tomatoes, olive oil, a grain medley from Trader Joes’s that we love, sweet potatoes, and lentils. I can only imagine how lovely this cookbook must be.
I love America’s Test Kitchen!
I’ve been vegan 2.5 years. My staples are chick peas, black Eyed peas, brown rice, onions, tomatoes.
A few things that always seem to live in my pantry for easy meals are black beans or chickpeas, lentils, almond meal, brown rice, and black barley. Do spices count? I’m constantly using smoked paprika, cumin, cinnamon, and dulse (certainly not together)! Admittedly, when supplies are low we eat a lot of piles on top of other piles.
Chickpeas, quinoa, coconut oil, some kind of dried fruit, and some kind of nuts.
I love to have black beans, canned tomatoes, quinoa, olive oil, and onions.
Roasted cauliflower is so delicious. I often roast it with cumin seeds, salt, and olive oil before proceeding to eat nearly the entire head by myself! I wouldn’t have thought to add the walnuts to your pasta dish. I’ll have to try that! Five of the items I am never without in my pantry are: Rancho Gordo dried beans, California Estate Limited Reserve olive oil, Tarazi tahini, raw cashews (and lots of other nuts and dried fruits) from Nuts.com, and 10-minute farro from Trader Joe’s. I also keep my freezer very well-stocked! I think these staple items are the best way to build tons of flavor in the meals I prepare.
olive oil, dried black beans, thai fish sauce, chili oil, and jasmine rice!
As a vegetarian and avid baker I could not live without chickpeas, brown sugar, good vanilla, olive oil, and garlic.
That recipe looks great. thanks for the chance to win the cook book.My five on hand ingredients are:
dried beans
mushrooms
canned diced tomatoes
brown rice
nutritional yeast
We always keep canned chick peas, lentils, olive oil, balsamic vinegars, and canned tomatoes on hand. (Thanks for the post – I am always looking for creative cauliflower recipes!)
Being a vegetarian, it is easy to whip up a veg meal with less than 5 ingredients too. But there are a few things that are staple in my pantry – tomatoes, potato, whole wheat flour, lentils and lemon. With these in the pantry you can cook up a feast fit for kings.
The five things I always have in my pantry are:
Coconut oil
pasta
sea salt
brown rice
organic canned tomatoes
Olive oil, brown rice, sun dried tomatoes, lettuce, and seasonal veggies like squash.
We had our first little bit of icy weather yesterday, the kids in the neighborhood spent the day sliding down hills with boogie boards and trash can lids. This cozy dish is perfect – everything I want in a meal right now. And that book! Another great one to add to the collection!
All you had to say was cauliflower…
Always on hand in my pantry Bob’s Redmill GF Rolled Oats, Grade B Maple syrup, brown rice, beans (usually black or chickpeas) and coconut oil.
(And dark chocolate, but that’s normally always IN my hand as opposed to on hand :) ).
Mmm, this looks divine! I always try to have coconut oil, peanut butter, some sort of beans or lentils, nutritional yeast, and alllll the nuts!
My little girl and I eat lots of beans, fruits, veggies, nuts and chocolate!
rice, beans, nuts, dried fruit, and canned tomatoes. plus, you know, at least 20 other things. :)
I always make sure that I am fully stocked with chickpeas, lentils, quinoa, frozen vegetables and almond butter, a very necessary staple in our house ;-)
I always keep rice, lentils, various kinds of beans, canned tomatoes, and olive oil.
My pantry staples are black beans, salsa, sweet potatoes, nutritional yeast, and dried fruit (apricot, dates, prunes, etc)
petite diced tomatoes, lentils, chick peas, olive oil, black beans
Yum, this pasta looks to die for! We’re stuck in that same frigid weather down here too and it’s making for lots of soup-bread dinners. Our pantry staples are: red lentils, good quality oils, soba noodles, garlic, and chickpeas/misc. canned beans.
I always have the fixings for a bowl — a grain (brown rice or millet or some such similar thing), a green leafy veg — some kind of kale, homemade kimchi or kraut, seeds and/or nuts, avocado and then I always make a dressing. It sounds boring but it has endless possibility by switching the dressing ingredients from soy to citrus, miso, tahini…and it is so warming on a cold day
I love ATK, and this recipe looks so hearty and perfect for this cold weather!
I’ve been a vegetarian for 10 years, so I’d like to think I’ve finally solidified my basic pantry needs to these 5 items:
-Chickpeas
-Black Beans
-Sweet Potatoes
-Quinoa
-Org. Diced Tomatoes
-Tahini
I just bought a cauliflower yesterday…love how the universe works! My favorite pantry staples right now are lentils, tomatoes, veggie stock, nuts/seeds and quinoa. I would happily curl up with the ATK Cookbook however I patiently wait for yours.
Pasta, Chickpeas, almonds/pine nuts, every canned tomato item under the sun, olive oil & vinegar varieties.
That recipe sounds fabulous and we’re eating cauliflower 2-3 times a week right now so this is definitely going into the rotation for next week!
I wish I could stay home in bed on this cold snowy day reading that book! I love cauliflower and I will have to add it to my shopping list for tomorrow. My pantry items are olive oil, lentils, canned tomatoes, onions/garlic, and pasta. I’ve never had a rice pasta before and I think I will need to start exploring the different options out there! You have a truly wonderful blog and I look forward to your email in my inbox.
sweet potato, black beans, oats, canned tomato, olive oil
My favorite go-to ingredients are:
green chiles
collard greens
garlic
sweet or smoked paprika
nuts
Beans beans lots of beans, fire roasted tomatoes, at least two types of grains (freekeh, rice, pasta), coconut oil, and canned coconut milk.
Pasta is a staple in Italy, so I used to eat once a day, as many Italians do. Now I eat maybe one a month, because I’m trying to eat less gluten as I can – gluten-free pasta is a bit weird here and my boyfriend hates it!
But this pasta dish, with this crunchy and almost burnt cauliflower seems sooo good!
Valentina,
Jovial Pasta is made in Italy, I wonder if you get track it down? Have you considered trying to make your own gluten free dough? It is a bit of trial and error, but well worth the cause. Nobody should be without pasta. Am I right?
Beans (garbanzos, navy, etc.)
Tahini
Rice (brown, red, black) and Puy Lentils
Tins of plum tomatoes
Broccoli, cauliflower, carrots
Canned/Dried Beans/Grains – Tahini – Ground Cumin/Coriander – Dried Chiles – Jalapenos – Dried Mushrooms
Love the post! In my pantry, we always have black beans, fire-roasted tomatoes, pasta in fun shapes (lumanche!), zahtar, and tons of nuts (pecans, pepitas, almonds, walnuts…)
chickpeas (so many chickpeas), lentils, barley, oats and plain soymilk. thanks for the giveaway, i’ve been waiting for a veg atk book!!
1 Nutritional yeast
2 Nuts/ Seeds (almonds, cashews,walnuts,sunflower, pumpkin)
3 Green vegetable broccoli, spinach, kale
4 Tumeric powder and root I use it in everything
5 Tomato sauce I try to make my own for canning but goes fast.
Thanks
I always have garlic, onions, kale, chickpeas and lemons – hey.! That sounds yummy! May be I will add some tahini (my 6th go to) and make something like that tonight!
quinoa, lentils, almonds, broth, and canned tomatoes with chilis!
as always, your pictures suck me in so that i do a mental checklist of what i have in stock so that i can recreate your wonderful dishes. five never-without ingredients in my pantry are quinoa, olives, fire roated tomatoes, black beans, olive oil.
Looks delicious!
It’s nothing original, but I always keep a stock of rice noodles, basmati rice, black beans, bread crumbs and rice vinegar.
Pantry staples always on-hand include quinoa, tahini, good balsamic vinegar, sesame oil, and chickpeas. And plenty of root vegetables in these frigid winter months!
Ahh I want this book! My book loving foodie self fairly salivated over this recipe as well – it looks delicious and hearty! I always keep some good olive oil, basil, tomatoes, spinach, and nuts of all kinds. I had the hardest time keeping this list to five, since I also keep tons of cabbage, cauliflower, potato (sweet and salty), spinach, berries (fresh or frozen), and of course, fully stocked cabinets of garlic, lemon, and spices. I am basically a food fanatic.
I always have tofu, it is so versatile, there is always some type of greens, kale collard or broccoli, miso and brags and tamari, and always always umeboshi plums or umeboshi vinegar which can enliven any food, and of course the olive oil!
The quickest, easiest, soup and so delicious, heat up some spring water, add thinly sliced daikon radish (another staple) and umeboshi vinegar to taste, fast, very healing and tasty to boot!
I don’t usually jump to use cauliflower, but this looks quite tasty! I’m not eligible for the giveaway, but wanted to leave a comment anyway :-)
This looks amaziing <3 I really want to try to do it!!
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