I am always playing around with new veggie side dishes, sometimes building a whole meal around one. This smoky sautéed cauliflower with green beans has a lot of flavour bombs in the mix. Smoked paprika, fresh thyme, and sherry vinegar for some brightness. I finish the simple sauté with a garlicky tahini drizzle, toasty almonds, and finely chopped olives. Not to be corny, but this is a real symphony of flavour that we’ve got going on here.
More vegetable side dishes to round out the table:
- Seared Broccolini with Chili Hazelnuts, Whipped Tahini & Wheat Berries
- Grounding Roasted Roots with Herbed Jalapeño Yogurt Sauce
- Vegan Sweet Potato Casserole with Apples & Crunchy Rosemary Walnuts
- Braised Romano Beans with Spicy Cherry Tomato Sauce
- Maple Tahini Glazed Cauliflower with Chipotle
The method is simple! I just sauté everything in a large pan until the cauliflower is evenly browned and the green beans are tender. In the midst of the cooking, I clear a space in the pan and pour in an extra bit of oil to make a “spice jacuzzi” for the smoked paprika and thyme. I stir that in, and then finish the vegetables with sherry vinegar and a bit of lemon zest to keep it bright. Also, I learned the term “spice jacuzzi” from Diaspora Co. It’s a key cooking technique!
I drizzle a basic tahini sauce over top and garnish with toasted almonds and salty bits of chopped olives. Flavour town is for real!
If I were making this for a gathering and wanted to pregame a bit, I would recommend blanching the cauliflower and green beans. After you’ve thoroughly cooled those, you can store them in a container in the fridge for up to one day. Then the next day you can proceed with sautéing. The tahini sauce can be made 3-5 days in advance too.
Smoky Sautéed Cauliflower with Green Beans, Tahini & Almonds
Ingredients
Tahini Drizzle
- ¼ cup tahini
- 1 small clove garlic, finely minced or grated with a Microplane
- sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 teaspoon sherry vinegar
- ¼ cup water
Sauteed Cauliflower & Green Beans
- 3 tablespoons sliced almonds
- 1 tablespoon olive oil, plus extra
- ½ head cauliflower, cut into small florets (about 4 cups florets)
- sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves, minced
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ lb green beans, trimmed and cut in half
- 2 teaspoons sherry vinegar
- 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
- 2 tablespoons pitted Kalamata olives, finely chopped (about 8 olives)
Notes
- If your pan is drying up towards the end, simply keep adding tiny splashes of water to keep your veg from browning too much.
- To keep this totally nut-free, toast some pumpkin or sunflower seeds instead of sliced almonds.
Instructions
- Make the garlicky tahini drizzle. In a medium bowl, combine the tahini, grated garlic, salt, pepper, sherry vinegar, and water. Whisk this mixture together until combined. Set aside.
- Place a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the sliced almonds to the pan. Toast the almonds, stirring around often, until deep brown on all sides, about 4-5 minutes. Transfer the almonds to a small plate and set aside. Return the pan to the heat.
- Pour the olive oil into the pan and swirl it around. Add the cauliflower to the pan and spread it out into a single layer. Season with salt and pepper. Let it sit until it browns a bit on one side, about 4 minutes. Then, give the cauliflower a stir, flipping the pieces over. Let the other side of the cauliflower brown for another 3 minutes.
- Make a little space in the middle of the pan. If the pan seems dry, pour some more olive oil into that space. Add the thyme and smoked paprika to the oil (they will sizzle!) and stir to incorporate.
- Add the green beans to the pan and stir. Season again with salt and pepper. Keep sautéing the vegetables, stirring occasionally, until the edges of the cauliflower are softened and the green beans are bright green and crisp-tender, about 6 more minutes. If you have some excessive browning happening on the bottom of the pan, just add some tiny splashes of water as you go and stir.
- Once the vegetables are cooked, stir in the sherry vinegar. Turn off the heat and stir in the lemon zest. Transfer the sautéed cauliflower and green beans to your serving plate. Drizzle the top with the garlicky tahini. Finish with the toasted sliced almonds and chopped olives.
This recipe was a great thanksgiving side dish, but I’ll definitely be adding it to my regular meal rotations. I never thought of adding olives and almonds to my roasted veggies so that was an unexpected but really yummy touch to the dish. Would recommend!
Do you think I could roast the veg instead of pan frying? This looks so yummy, so glad I stumbled across this recipe!
Hi Amy,
Yep you definitely could roast instead! I’d do the cauliflower in a 425 oven for about 20 minutes. Then at the 20 minute mark, I’d add the green beans to the baking sheet and roast for another 15 minutes. Stir up the cauliflower when you add the green beans too. You can toss both the cauliflower and green beans with olive oil, salt, pepper, and the paprika and thyme called for in the recipe.
-L
I made this with a vegan yellow Mediterranean rice, and wow they go WELL together. Highly recommend! Thank you!! We’ll be making it again.
Wow, the savory jackpot. So amazing.
I really don’t even like green beans in general but this is completely delicious and easy to make. Highly recommend!
mmm! made this last night and ate it as a meal instead of a side. It is so crunchy, delicious and satisfying! I can’t wait to have more of it tonight!
Do you think white wine vinegar would also work?
Yep, that would be fine! Any vinegar that you like honestly :)
-L
I eat a lot of cauliflower as part of my diet and am always on the lookout for new recipes, since cauliflower needs flavor help, this definitely works, thank you! almonds are nice too for the texture