I’ve come a long way since only eating cauliflower when roasted with lots of orange cheese, butter, and breadcrumbs. Turns out I really like cauliflower in a whole lot of ways.

While roaming the farmers’ market, my sister pointed out our favorite pistachio vendor carrying a bag of ground pistachios and mentioned she likes to toss that with roast cauliflower. Consider me inspired.

This is delicious, simple, and naturally gluten free and vegan. I toasted the pistachios just for a brief moment to add some depth to the nuttiness. For this round I added a thinly sliced celery for some extra crunch too. You can easily omit the celery and replace with toasted pistachio pieces if you’re feeling that instead. This is a great side dish with minimal labor involved- serve right out of the oven or at room temperature.

Roast Cauliflower with Pistachios, Meyer Lemon, and Parsley
1 head of cauliflower
3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3-4 Tablespoons ground pistachio, plus chopped pistachio if desired for garnish
zest of 1 meyer lemon
1-2 teaspoons meyer lemon juice
2-3 Tablespoons parsley, chopped
1 celery stock (optional)*
1/4-1/2 t salt
pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375. Cut and break the cauliflower into bite-sized chunks and toss on a cookie sheet with 2 Tablespoons of the olive oil and 1/4 teaspoon of the salt. Roast for 18-22 minutes or until the cauliflower is just tender and slightly browned. Check and stir after the first 10 minutes. When cauliflower is 2-3 minutes from finished, sprinkle the ground pistachios onto the pan and over the cauliflower (don’t worry about mixing or where the pistachios land, just evenly spread them over the baking sheet).

When the cauliflower is done (and now the pistachio meal is toasted), immediately place in a bowl and toss with the remaining ingredients (including the extra 1 Tablespoon oil), tasting for salt, pepper, and lemon juice.

*if you opt to use celery, take a tender piece and peel away the tough stems. This makes it a nicer texture and way easier to slice thinly on the diagonal.