This recipe makes me the happiest camper out of all the other campers in the entire camp. I love fun spins on classic dishes, and the fact that we use roasted cauliflower as a replacement for chicken in this recipe makes this count as a fun spin 😉. I don’t eat cauliflower very often. It’s not that I dislike it, it’s just not my all-time favorite vegetable.

When I was younger, my dad would smother it in cheese sauce before dumping my portion onto the plate…and that helped things. Because…cheese sauce.

This Tikka Masala sauce is even better than a cheese sauce, though…I could literally eat this sauce as a soup for every meal for the rest of my days on this lovely planet. But I won’t. Because it’s largely made up of half and half, and I would get morbidly obese. Sad day. It’s actually kind of crazy how good this sauce is, because it’s not complex at all to make. It’s just shallot, jalapeno, a few spices, tomato sauce, half and half, and a tiny bit of butter. Stir your roasted cauliflower in, spoon it over rice, and be super pumped about life.

If you’ve never tried Tikka Masala before, MAKE IT HAPPEN. And make it happen with this cauliflower. Sorry for being bossy…love me anyway.

One thing that is mandatory with Tikka Masala is that it’s super saucy. You can tell in the above pictures that the cauliflower is totally swimming in sauce. This isn’t one of those mac and cheese or spaghetti and marinara situations where you want the sauce coating the pasta, but you don’t want it to be a swimming pool of sauce.

NOT the case here. You want lots of sauce so that it can all soak into the rice you serve it with. You just have, have, have to serve this dish with rice. I like serving it with white jasmine rice, but brown rice or any other type of rice works as well. You can even do quinoa. Anything that will soak up the sauce, because the sauce is baaaaasically the best part of my entire life.

And when you get a bite of saucy roasted cauliflower combined with a bite of rice that is absolutely soaked in Tikka Masala sauce, the planets all align, and the flowers turn their faces towards you and start singing songs about happiness. That actually gave me kind of a creepy image in my head, but you’ll understand what I mean when you try it…maybe. Or maybe I’m just weirdly obsessed with food, causing visions like this to pop into my head on the reg.

Scratch the “maybe.” That’s definitely the case. Whatevs…I embrace it.

Boone hurt his foot again! He must just have the most sensitive paws ever. Remember several weeks ago when my students were over at my house for a big cast party/BBQ thing, and two of the boys were playing fetch with Boone for hours, and the skin on his paw pads ended up kind of peeling/falling off? Ouch. It hurts me just to describe it.

Well that happened again yesterday, but with his back paw! What in the world, man?? He’s just running on grass! Since I’ve been working from home, I haven’t taken him to daycare in a while. As a replacement for the exercise he usually gets at daycare, I (or Seth) have just been playing fetch with him a few times a day. Fetch is his love language, and it totally wears him out. But yesterday, he came inside and was limping, so we looked at his feet and his little paw pad had peeled off again!

But we hadn’t even been going that hard, so I’m a little confused. And our yard is just grass. It’s not like he’s running across jagged gravel or something. Poor guy. And now he has to be in rest mode for like a week until his foot heals. Sigh…oh well.

Hopefully he gets better soon and can resume his multiple fetch sessions a day and be the happiest dog on the block again!

I hope you are all having a fantastic Monday!

Roasted Cauliflower Tikka Masala

This vegetarian spin on the classic Indian dish will make your taste buds so very happy! It’s perfect served over rice :).

Author: Annie Chesson
Prep Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 25 mins
Total Time: 35 minutes
Yield: 3 servings 1x

Ingredients

Scale

For the roasted cauliflower:

1 head cauliflower, sliced into small florets
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
Olive oil for drizzling

For the sauce:

1 jalapeno, ribs and seeds removed, finely minced
1 shallot, finely minced
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon coriander
1/4 teaspoon garam masala
1 pinch cayenne pepper
8 oz can tomato sauce
1 cup half and half
1 tablespoon butter
Olive oil for the pan

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lay your cauliflower florets out across a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt, and sprinkle with your 1/2 teaspoon each of cumin, coriander, and garam masala. Toss with your hands to evenly coat the cauliflower with oil and spices.
Bake for 10 minutes, remove from the oven and turn the cauliflower over with a spatula, and bake for another 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, make your sauce. In a large skillet, heat some olive oil over medium, medium/high heat. When hot, add your shallot and jalapeno. Saute, stirring often, until the veggies have softened.
Add your 1/4 teaspoon each of cumin, coriander, and garam masala along with your pinch of cayenne. Season with salt. Let this cook for another minute or so.
Turn your pan to low heat and add your tomato sauce. Simmer for a minute or two. Add your half and half and butter – stir to combine. Cook this for a minute or two as well.
When your cauliflower is done, add it to your sauce and stir to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Notes

This is super tasty served over any kind of rice! My favorite is white jasmine rice.

Nutrition

Serving Size: About 3/4 cup
Calories: 231
Sugar: 13 g
Sodium: 584 mg
Fat: 12 g
Carbohydrates: 25 g
Fiber: 9 g
Protein: 10 g
Cholesterol: 50 mg

If you make this or any of my other recipes, be sure to Instagram it and hashtag #thegarlicdiaries!

In the mood for more yummy Indian recipes? Check these out:

Chickpea and Veggie Curry

Chicken Tikka Masala

Crispy Potato Curry [vegan + gluten free]

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