Have you ever left a restaurant and knew you were going to go home and immediately figure out how to recreate a dish? That’s what happened with this vegan butter cauliflower.
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As a long-time vegan, I’ve learned how to turn just about any dish into a dairy-free, plant-based version—and when I tried a vegan “butter chicken” dish at a local spot, I knew I had to make it our own.
It’s inspired by the popular Indian dish, butter chicken, but we are using cauliflower instead for that tender, melt-in-your-mouth texture that soaks up all the bold, spiced flavor.
It’s rich, cozy, and packed with warming spices, but still easy enough for a weeknight. It’s one pot, ready in just over 30 minutes, and pairs perfectly with rice or naan to soak up every drop of sauce.
Why You’ll Love this Butter Cauliflower Recipe
Full of Flavor
One of the hardest things to do is replicate flavors that you’ve had at a restaurant or that remind you of a favorite dish. There’s no problem with that here. The recipe isn’t lacking flavor at all!
Simple
It’s also hard to feel like you can get amazing flavor without spending a lot of time in the kitchen; however, this recipe gives you everything that you need easily and it’s not time consuming.
Vegan Butter Chicken Ingredients
Gather your ingredients!
Below are notes about the ingredients before we get into the full recipe located lower in this post on how to make vegan dish:
- Cauliflower – We are cutting a head of cauliflower into florets. You want to make sure that you try to get them into even sizes if possible so they cook in the same amount of time.
- Onions and Garlic – our aromatics in the dish and really help to kick start our flavors
- Fire Roasted Tomatoes – fire roasted tomatoes give a little more pizzazz to the dish and we really love using them in this dish
- Sugar – optional, however, the sugar helps balance out the acidity of the tomatoes
- Canned Coconut Milk – acts as a replacement for heavy cream that you may see in non-dairy versions
- Apple Cider Vinegar – to help with the tanginess of the recipe and also help bring out the spice flavors
- Ginger – we are using fresh ginger for this recipe for the best flavor
- Spices – we are using a variety of spices for all the components of this dish. We really think the combination of all of these together really helps to heighten the dish and give that ultimate flavor.
Vegan Butter Chicken Recipe Substitutions & Variations
- Cauliflower – You could sub cauliflower with tofu, potatoes, chickpeas. Or get creative and do a combo of vegetables!
- Fire Roasted Tomatoes – regular diced tomatoes will also work
- Sugar – still optional, other sugar sources like coconut or date granulated sugar, agave, or maple syrup would also work
- Canned Coconut Milk – vegan heavy cream would also work for this recipe
- Apple Cider Vinegar – lemon juice, lime juice or white vinegar would be a sub
- Ginger – ground ginger can also work. We recommend ½ teaspoon to start and then adjust to taste
How to make Vegan Butter Chicken with Cauliflower
- To start you’re going to preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Grab a large bowl and add ½ cup coconut milk, vinegar, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder and salt, then whisk that together well. After mixed, add in your cauliflower florets and coat everything well.
- Let this marinate for 10 minutes, then in one even layer place on a baking sheet. Cook in the oven for 18-20 minutes.
4. While you wait for your cauliflower to cook, over medium heat in a large skillet add your oil. Add onions, garlic, and ginger and cook for 3-4 minutes until fragrant and onions have softened.
5. Stir in your garam masala, curry powder, cayenne and salt. Let this cook for another minute to heat and activate your spices.
6. Then, add in tomatoes and stir to combine. Bring to a boil, then turn down to simmer. Let your sauce simmer and thicken (about 4-5 minutes).
7. Turn off your heat, and carefully pour your sauce into a high speed blender. Blend until you have a smooth consistency. Pour sauce back into pan over low, add remaining coconut milk, and stir.
8. Give it a taste, if you feel like you’d prefer a sweet or need more balance with the acidity of the tomatoes you can add in the sugar. Otherwise, omit.
9. Once done, add your cauliflower and let cook until heated through and well combined (about 5-8 minutes). Top with cilantro. Serve.
10. We prefer to serve with rice and naan.
Cauliflower Butter Chicken FAQs
Coconut milk is the only top 9 allergen in this dish. Swap it for another non-dairy milk. You may want to let it reduce longer or add in a teaspoon of cornstarch to help thicken faster.
Yes. Once cooled completely, you can store in an air tight container in the fridge for 2-3 days.
Yes. You’ll need to use two sheet pans to cook your cauliflower florets, but you can double the other parts of the recipe as written
We wouldn’t recommend freezing this dish.
More like this Vegan Butter Cauliflower Recipe:
If you love this cauliflower recipes, you may love these even more:
- Oven Roasted Cauliflower and Hummus Bowl
- Vegan Crispy Roasted Cauliflower
- Oven Roasted Cauliflower Steaks with Pesto and Beans
- Vegan Cheesy Cauliflower Taco Casserole
- BBQ Cauliflower Wings
- Spicy Vegan Cauliflower Burger
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Cauliflower Butter Chicken (Vegan)
Ingredients
Marinade
- 1 large head of cauliflower, cut into bite size pieces
- ½ cup canned coconut milk
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
For the Butter Sauce
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ yellow onion, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 inches fresh ginger, grated
- 1 tablespoon garam masala
- 2 teaspoon yellow curry powder
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper, more or less to taste
- ½ tsp salt, more or less to taste
- 2 15oz cans fire roasted tomatoes
- ½ cup canned coconut milk
- 2 tbsp vegan cane sugar, optional
- ¼ cup fresh cilantro, roughly chopped, optional
Serve With
- cooked rice
- vegan naan
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Into a large bowl, add ½ cup coconut milk, vinegar, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder and salt. Whisk together well. Add in cauliflower florets and coat everything well. Let marinate for 10 minutes, then place in even layer on a greased baking sheet. Cook in the oven for 18-20 minutes.
- While cauliflower cooking, over medium heat in a large skillet add your oil. Add onions, garlic and ginger and cooked for 3-4 minutes until fragrant and onions have softened.
- Stir in garam masala, curry powder, cayenne and salt. Let this cook for another minute to heat and activate your spices. Add in tomatoes and stir to combine. Bring to a boil, then turn down to simmer. Let your sauce simmer and thicken (about 4-5 minutes).
- Turn off heat, and carefully pour sauce into a high speed blender. Blend until you have a smooth consistency. Pour sauce back into pan over low, add remaining coconut milk, and stir. Taste and add sugar if desired.
- Add your cauliflower and let cook until heated through and well combined (about 5-8 minutes). Turn off heat and add cilantro. Serve with rice and naan.
So delicious! Great flavor that comes together quickly. I’ll make this one again.
Thank you so much!
The good first – the flavours are lovely, and it’s an easy recipe to make.
The not-so-good – I really do not see the point of marinading then roasting the cauliflower. I followed the recipe to the letter, and found this added nothing to the final dish. It’s a lot of faff for nothing, and it’s expensive to run the oven unless there are other things to be put in at the same time.
In future I will steam the cauli slightly, then let it sit in the marinade before addiing it to the sauce.
Thanks for your feedback. Glad you enjoyed
Added spinach to the sauce before blending and it worked great. Next time I’ll use tofu along with cauliflower
Love that idea! Thank you so much for trying out the recipe!