Whole Roasted Cauliflower with Herb Sauce and Crispy Breadcrumbs

Helllloooooo cauliflower season! I am ringing in Winter with this incredibly delicious and oh-so-simple whole roasted cauliflower with herb sauce and crispy breadcrumbs. It's seriously spectacular and uses just a few ingredients. The herby sauce which uses green olives and is just out of this world.

You have to taste it to see what I mean! It's kinda like a European Summer spin on a Wintery dish. Can you tell I'm not over Tuscany just yet? Olive oil, olives, parsley, and that's just about it. The herb sauce kind of sticks to the top of the cauliflower and the olive oil, which is now infused with that gorgeous herbaceous flavour of parsley, drips through the florets of cauliflower allowing the flavour to really soak through the whole head. 

Plus the best bit? The little crispy, crunchy addition that I'm loving on everything at the moment - olive oil fried bread crumbs. Ugh YES. Such a simple thing to add on, and it really transforms the whole dish! Any excuse to add something crispy and I'm there. Take the time to finish this little step, it is SO worth it!

I hope you guys enjoy this recipe as much as we do, it's seriously delicious and completely fuss-free to make!

Ingredients

1 whole cauliflower + drizzle of extra virgin olive oil + pinch of salt

1/2 - 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 bunch of continental parsley

12 or so pitted small green olives (jarred)

3/4 cup breadcrumbs (regular or panko) + drizzle of extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp salt

Pepper to taste

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius

Place cauliflower on baking paper lined oven tray and spray or drizzle with a little olive oil and season with a pinch of salt.

Cover cauliflower head with foil and bake for one hour.

After one hour, remove foil and bake for another 20 or so minutes until beginning to brown.

While the cauliflower is cooking, place parsley, salt, pepper and olives into a small food processor and blitz until roughly chopped. Then continue to run it while you pour in olive oil. Set aside.

Then place breadcrumbs into frypan with a drizzle of olive oil and cook on a medium heat. Stirring breadcrumbs around until golden and set aside.

Check cauliflower with a skewer to see if it's tender the whole way through. If so, remove from oven and if not, cook it further in 10 minutes increments.

Serve roasted cauliflower on a plate and spoon over herb sauce. Then top with breadcrumbs. Serve right away while hot.