Cheese-Topped Cauliflower Steaks

By David Tanis

Updated Oct. 12, 2023

Cheese-Topped Cauliflower Steaks
David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
Total Time
1 hour 5 minutes
Prep Time
20 minutes
Cook Time
45 minutes
Rating
4(558)
Comments
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Cauliflower “steaks” were all the rage in upscale restaurants a few years ago, but they’re easy to make at home in any number of variations. To get thick slices, you’ll want to invest in a couple of cauliflowers and be prepared to turn the trimmings into soup or use for stir-fry for another meal. Or simply skip the slices and use florets instead. You can serve these with a light marinara sauce, but they are very tasty with no sauce at all.

Featured in: A ‘Steak’ Dinner With Vegetarians in Mind

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Ingredients

Yield:4 to 6 servings
  • 2medium cauliflower heads (about 2 pounds each), cut into 12 (¾-inch-thick) slices, trimmings reserved for another purpose
  • Extra-virgin olive oil, for roasting
  • Salt and black pepper
  • 12slices fresh mozzarella (from 1 1-pound package)
  • 12slices provolone (from 1 8-ounce package)
  • 12slices Monterey Jack (from 1 8-ounce package)
  • About ½ cup grated Parmesan or Pecorino Romano
  • Pinch of red-pepper flakes
  • ½cup dry, coarse bread crumbs, preferably homemade (see Tips)
  • 12anchovy fillets, rinsed and patted dry (optional)
  • Pitted black olives, such as niçoise (optional)
  • 2tablespoons roughly chopped Italian parsley
  • 1teaspoon roughly chopped rosemary
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 servings)

810 calories; 56 grams fat; 32 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 19 grams monounsaturated fat; 3 grams polyunsaturated fat; 26 grams carbohydrates; 7 grams dietary fiber; 7 grams sugars; 54 grams protein; 1627 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat oven to 400 degrees. Place cauliflower slices on 2 rimmed baking sheets. Drizzle both sides of the cauliflower with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake, rotating the pans and switching racks halfway through, until fork-tender and lightly browned, about 20 minutes.

  2. Step 2

    Top each cauliflower steak with a slice of fresh mozzarella, a slice of provolone and a slice of Monterey Jack. Sprinkle each steak with a generous amount of grated Parmesan or pecorino, a tiny bit of red-pepper flakes and a heaping tablespoon of bread crumbs, and bake until golden and bubbling, another 15 minutes.

  3. Step 3

    Top each steak with a torn piece or two of anchovy (if using), a few black olives, a bit of parsley and rosemary.

Tips
  • You may prepare the cauliflower steaks in advance though Step 2, then reheat briefly to serve. They also taste good at room temperature.
  • To make homemade bread crumbs, pulse some bread in a food processor and leave the crumbs out at room temperature to dry out for a couple of hours.

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Ratings

4 out of 5
558 user ratings
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Comments

mamamoso

Your not baking a french pastry… use amounts of cheese to your preference

Debbi

I've made a variation of this in the past with half the amount of cheese. sometimes with marinara, sometimes without. It's delicious! The small trimmings- don't waste them in soup or stir fry. Roast them with the "steaks", then they're great for snacking while you wait for the rest of dinner to finish cooking. Or, if I'm feeling lazy, the cauliflower steaks and rice are my entire dinner.

Lilycooks

My preference would be to go with a brush of garlic flavored olive oil, just grated parm-reggianno, a few red pepper flakes, a bit ofchopped kalamata/anchovy sprinkled on top.

Sarah MoJo

This is a great weeknight meal, especially when only feeding one or two people as you don't have to buy more than one cauliflower. I put a base of arrabiata sauce on the plate and put the cauli steak on top. I used only shredded parm-reg. The olives were key for me. It was a satisfying, healthy dinner.

Meinmunich

Feeling lazy to make sauce, I roasted cherry tomatoes along with the cauliflowers. The tomatoes with slits so that it doesn’t explode, were SO GOOD that I am looking forward to make this wish again for the tomatoes. Hope I had made more tomatoes than à small handful.

J

Meh. This wasn't bad, it just wasn't very good, either. Skipped the anchovy to make it vegetarian, which may have been where it went wrong. It came out pretty bland and unexciting. Usually a pile of cheese will win me over to most things, but this was decidedly a pile of cheese that didn't steal my heart. The black olives were essential, in my experience. Put them on before baking rather than after. Even my partner, who haaaaaaaates olives, admitted they add something to the dish.

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