This Vegan Indian Butter Cauliflower recipe is a fantastic spin on traditional butter chicken that’s just a full of vibrant flavors.
Butter Chicken is one of the most popular Indian dishes and this Vegan Indian Butter Cauliflower is going to give you all the same flavors and vibes without the meat.
Not only is this recipe full of flavor, but it’s also very easy to make and will be loved by all.
If you serve this to others, they may even have a hard time believing that you made this dish!
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Why You’ll Love This Dish
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.
Oven Roasted Cauliflower and Hummus Bowl 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.
Substitutions and 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
Step by Step Instructions:
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.
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.
Stir in your garam masala, curry powder, cayenne and salt. Let this cook for another minute to heat and activate your spices.
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).
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.
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.
Once done, add your cauliflower and let cook until heated through and well combined (about 5-8 minutes). Top with cilantro. Serve.
We prefer to serve with rice and naan.
Frequently Asked Questions:
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.
What other vegan cauliflower dishes could I make?
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
Pin this Vegan Indian Butter Cauliflower for later!
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Butter Cauliflower
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.
Karen Batchelir
Absolutely fabulous, so easy , so tasty, thank you.
Larisha Bernard
So glad you enjoyed it
Jacqueline
I’ve followed you for a while on Instagram and saved plenty of recipes. This was the first one I made and it is delicious! I also took your suggestion and added a can of rinsed chickpeas.
I can’t wait to try more of your ideas!
Larisha Bernard
so happy you enjoyed it!
Stephanie
Absolutely delicious! Will definitely make this again.
Larisha Bernard
SO happy to hear that
Magda
Delicious!
Jessica Schimkowitsch
Made this tonight. Wow. Relatively easy. I also used an immersion blender and added some chopped up spinach to the tomato mixture before blending. Would eat this every day.
Larisha Bernard
So glad that you enjoyed it!
Shannon
My husband and I are brand new Vegans and stumbled across your YouTube channel. This is the very first vegan recipe we’ve made together and it was an absolute HIT! We have a list of favorites to make off this website and can’t wait to try each one!
Larisha Bernard
Yay! So happy to hear that
Jackie Mauro
Loved this dish! Fairly easy to make. I used an immersion blender vs pouring in a deep blender. Easier!
Larisha Bernard
Awesome!
Sandra D
Made this today and it’s fantastic. We’re not vegan, but I like to shake things up – I’ll make this again and send it to my daughter who is vegetarian (and trying to go vegan). I didn’t have fire-roasted tomatoes so I used a 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes (a bonus is that I didn’t have to blend it). I didn’t use the whole head of cauliflower so did add half a can of chickpeas – I put them in the oven with the cauliflower. I’ve made a couple of your dishes but this might be the first time to comment. Thanks!
Larisha Bernard
So glad that you enjoyed it!
Pat
I would like to try this recipe. What are the measurements on the ingredients (maybe I’m missing them?)
Larisha Bernard
scroll to the bottom or click the big jump to recipe button at the top! 🙂
Jan
This is my new favourite. I have been making what we call ‘butter chickpea’ for years and never expected it could be replaced. This is next level amazing. Thank you
Larisha Bernard
yay! SO glad you loved it!
elizabeth shipley
I was wondering if one could use the microwave instead of the oven to heat up the spices and cauliflower and instead of the coconut milk make a cashew milk.
Larisha Bernard
Cashew milk for coconut would work (of course a different taste), but we don’t think the microwave instead of the oven will work
Christine
Absolutely DELICIOUS and flavor packed! Cannot wait to try more recipes that you have posted! So glad I found you!!!
Larisha Bernard
happy to hear that!
Ingrid
Oh my your recipes are an explosion of tasty joy love them!🙏
Larisha Bernard
Thank you so much!