Want to impress? This roasted cauliflower steaks with romesco sauce and crispy lentils recipe will have everyone licking their plates in satisfaction!
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There’s dishes that are great because they are quick and flavorful and then there are dishes that taste like they came from a 5-star Michelin restaurant. This roasted cauliflower steaks with romesco sauce and crispy lentils recipe is the later.
We’re pairing a perfectly seasoned, creamy Romesco sauce with crispy black lentils and tender seasoned and roasted cauliflower for a dish that bursts with flavor and texture.
If you’re looking to impress someone, then this is the dish that you have to make!
If you’re looking to get out of a rut, then this is the dish you have to make!
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Restaurant Quality – Sometimes you just want a dish that will really impress. Whether impress yourself or someone else, this dish will level up your cooking skills without a lot of work and taste like a chef sat it in front of you.
- Great Texture – we love combining texture to really heighten your senses. Between the creamy sauce, the crispy lentils, and the soft, roasted cauliflower, you will be amazed!
- Holiday Worthy – This dish has the ability to impress without taking a lot of time during any holiday season making it a great main dish to serve.
Ingredients and Substitutions:
Gather your ingredients! See my recipe card below for a complete list of the ingredients with measurements.
- Cauliflower – we are using a large head of cauliflower to slice into “steaks”. When you cut from the top of the head down, you get a large, thick slice of cauliflower.
- Variation: If you don’t feel like doing steaks, you can do this same recipe by cutting your cauliflower into florets.
- Substitute: You can use broccoli instead, as well as broccolini, bok choy, or even try switching it up with plant based chicken pieces if you’d prefer that.
- Black Lentils – we like using black lentils here because when they are roasted, they give a really fun crunch that is unlike many other things while still providing nutrients and protein
- Substitute: You can also brown or green lentils. Beyond lentils, if you still want something crunchy, swap the black lentils for chickpeas. If you just want another protein option that pairs well with this dish, try cannellini or butter beans, but do not roast these.
- Nuts – we’re using a combination of cashews and hazelnuts for this romesco sauce. This helps thicken the sauce while providing protein in it as well. You want both of these to be unsalted, but roasted. If you can only find salted, then reduce the amount of salt in the recipe.
- Breadcrumbs – traditionally romesco sauce contains bread slices, but since we don’t always have that on hand, we’re using breadcrumbs in our recipe because most people have that on hand as a pantry staple.
- Garlic – is used for aromatics and base flavor
- Tomato Puree – for the romesco sauce, tomato puree or tomato sauce is used
- Substitute: You could also just blend more roasted red peppers if you can’t have tomatoes
- Roasted Red Peppers – You can roast your own red peppers or use jarred
- Vegetable Stock – we like using a low sodium vegetable stock so that we can control the sodium level inside of our curry
- Spices – We are using a combination of garlic powder, onion powder, regular and smoked paprika, chili powder, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper in different parts of the recipe for optimal flavor
- Asparagus – is in the photos but not in the recipe. We wanted a green vegetable to be served with this and made our vegan lemon garlic butter asparagus recipe to pair with it. You can serve whatever vegetables you’d like with it.
Other must try vegan restaurant quality dishes:
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Creamy Romesco Sauce with Spiced Cauliflower and Crunchy Lentils
Ingredients
For the lentils
- 1 cup dried black lentils (200g)
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 piece Kombu, optional
- 3 cups vegetable stock (720g)
For the Roasted Cauliflower
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon chili powder
- 1 large head of cauliflower, cut into 3-4 cauliflower steaks
For the Romesco sauce
- 1 large roasted red bell pepper
- ½ cup roasted unsalted hazelnuts
- ¼ cup roasted unsalted cashews (30g)
- ¼ cup tomato sauce (65g)
- ¼ cup parsley, chopped roughly(4g)
- ¼ cup breadcrumbs (25g)
- 3-4 cloves garlic
- 2 tablespoon sherry cooking wine (sub with vegetable stock)
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon onion powder
- ¼ – ½ cup olive oil (55-110g)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).
- To a small pot, add 1 cup dried black lentils, 1 bay leaf, 1 piece kombu*, and 3 cups vegetable stock. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer. Cook for 15-20 minutes or until soft, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and once cooled, remove any excess liquid and set aside.
- While the lentils are cooking, in a small bowl, add 2 tablespoon olive oil, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1 teaspoon onion powder, ½ teaspoon each paprika, salt, and pepper and ¼ teaspoon chili powder. Whisk together. Brush this mixture evenly over your cauliflower steaks, flip and brush the other side. Place steaks on a parchment lined baking tray.
- When lentils are done and excess liquid removed, add them to the tray. Bake for 15 minutes, then flip the cauliflower pieces and cook for another 10-15 minutes or until fork tender.
- While cauliflower is roasting, to a blender add 1 large roasted red bell pepper, ½ cup hazelnuts, ¼ cup cashews, ¼ cup tomato sauce, ¼ cup parsley, ¼ cup breadcrumbs, 3-4 cloves garlic, 2 tablespoon sherry cooking wine, 1 teaspoon smoked paprika, ½ teaspoon each cayenne pepper and sea salt, and ¼ teaspoon garlic powder and onion powder. Start blender and while blending, drizzle in ¼ cup olive oil or more to taste/desired smoothness.
- To assemble, pour ¼ of the romesco sauce onto a plate or bowl. Top with one of the cauliflower steaks and ¼ of the black lentils.
Notes
Video
Nutrition
Frequently Asked Questions:
You could make the romesco sauce in batches, but we wouldn’t really recommend making the full dish and freezing it together.
Yes! Make ahead and let cool completely. Then, store in air tight containers in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Yes! Sub the cashews and hazelnuts for beans (we’d recommend butter beans) and this dish would be Top 9 Allergen Friendly.
The recipe above is for the sauce, cauliflower and lentils. We’d recommend adding a green like asparagus seen in the photos; however, you could also do wilted spinach or kale, bok choy, brussels sprouts and more. You could also serve a delicious kale salad before and serve this with homemade naan or vegan breadsticks as a side.
Perhaps the best meal I had last year, swapped the romesco out for a white bean/greens puree which was still great. Definitely on the “making again” list.
Love your substitution idea! Sounds so good. Thank you so much for giving the recipe a try! Happy to hear that it made the “making again” list.
This recipe is incredible! The romesco sauce is absolutely packed with flavor and really brings the whole dish together. I doubled the sauce (so glad I did!) because it’s so versatile and delicious. I substituted crispy chickpeas for the lentils and the texture was perfect. This was a huge hit in my house, and I’ll definitely be making it again. Your blog is always the first place I check when I’m looking for creative vegan recipes, thank you for all the amazing inspiration!
Awww, thank you so much!! We completely agree with your decision to double the Romesco sauce—it’s so versatile that we often find ourselves wanting extra for dipping. Swapping crispy chickpeas for the lentils sounds like a fantastic twist, and we are so glad the texture worked out perfectly for you. Thank you so much for making our blog your first stop for vegan inspiration; it truly means the world to us!