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Easy keto vegan grilled cauliflower steaks with red pepper sauce – delicious hearty grilled cauliflower steaks with a fresh and crave-worthy red pepper sauce!
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At Sweet C’s, I add lots of tips in all of my recipes – because I am a home cook without any formal training, and I find I am more confident making dishes when I understand why it works, and what each ingredient means to the flavor of a recipe. My goal is for even the most beginner home cook to feel empowered in the kitchen.
Table of contents
Vegan Low Carb Romanesco Cauliflower
If you’re looking for a light, low carb, vegan dinner that has tons of flavor – you might feel like you don’t have a ton of choices, but this dish will blow your mind with tons of flavor. Often times, vegan dishes can have tons of carbs – and not a ton of flavor – but this dish works for those looking for a low carb but filling meat-free, dairy-free dinner.
This recipe is a great light meal that is filling, but not stuffing – you’ll feel great after eating it, and not weighed down. There is so much rich, delicious flavor in these cauliflower steaks – if you’ve never had grilled or roasted cauliflower steaks, you’ll be blown naway by the falvor.
This recipe is naturally gluten free and can be easily adjusted to fit into keto and low carb diets. I hope you love this delicious low carb vegan dinner as much as we do!
Roasted red pepper sauce combines tomatoes, roasted or grilled red peppers, oil, walnuts, vinegar, and herbs.
This simple, delicious, and flavorful sauce is similar to Romanesco sauce – and tastes great on tons of dishes. It is also a great way to add a ton more flavor to dishes without adding tons of calories, fat, or carbs!
How To Make Cauliflower Steaks with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
To make this Romanesco-style sauce, you will need:
- Red Bell Peppers: Brings a sweet and smoky flavor to the sauce and adds a bright, vibrant color to the dish.
- Roma Tomatoes: Brings a subtle sweetness and tanginess to the sauce, and helps to balance out the flavors.
- Walnuts: Adds a nutty and slightly earthy flavor to the sauce, and also provides a creamy texture when blended.
- Parsley: Adds a fresh and herbaceous flavor to the sauce, and also helps to brighten up the dish.
- Olive Oil: Provides a rich and fruity flavor to the sauce, and also helps to blend the ingredients together.
- Red Wine Vinegar: Adds a tangy and slightly acidic flavor to the sauce, and helps to balance out the sweetness of the red peppers and tomatoes.
- Garlic: Brings a pungent and slightly spicy flavor to the sauce, and helps to enhance the other flavors in the dish.
- Salt: Helps to bring out the flavors of the other ingredients and provides balance to the dish.
- Black Pepper: Adds a subtle spiciness and depth of flavor to the sauce.
- Paprika: Brings a smoky and slightly sweet flavor to the sauce, and helps to enhance the smoky flavor of the red peppers.
- Red Pepper Flakes (optional): Adds a spicy kick to the sauce for those who enjoy a bit of heat in their food.
- Place the peppers, tomatoes, walnuts and garlic in a food processor and pulse until chunky.
- Add the red wine vinegar, parsley, salt, pepper and paprika and pulse while drizzling in the olive oil.
- Continue pulsing until the sauce reaches the consistency of your liking – some like it a bit chunky, some smooth.
- Rinse the cauliflower and cut off the hard stem at the bottom of the heat, making sure to leave the core intact.
- Remove any leftover leaves from the stem.
- Place the cauliflower on your cutting board, cut side down, and make vertical slices into the cauliflower to make “steaks.”
- You’ll get 3-4 intact steaks from the cauliflower that have the center core and the rest will most likely come apart into large florets.
- All of these pieces can be grilled, so save anything you think will be large enough to grill.
- Reserve any remaining small pieces of cauliflower for roasting, crudite, cauliflower rice, etc.
- To make cauliflower steaks, it’s easy to infuse a ton of flavor through marinating and grilling or roasting your vegetable “steaks”.
- Marinate. No matter how to prepare these cauliflower steaks, you’ll want to marinate them first to pull out the most flavor.
- In a bowl, combine the olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper.
- Gently toss the cauliflower steaks/florets in the lemon oil mixture and allow it to marinate in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
- Grill
- Preheat your grill to medium high heat. Place your cauliflower steaks/florets onto the grill.
- Toss the red pepper and tomatoes in any residual marinade and place them on the grill as well.
- Grill the cauliflower for a minute and flip them over.
- Repeat this until they begin to soften and are nicely grilled on the outside.
- Oven
- Preheat your oven – with heavy cast iron pan or griddle pan inside oven – to 400 degrees.
- Once oven and pan are scorching hot, place your cauliflower steaks/florets onto a heavy cast iron pan or griddle pan.
- Toss the red pepper and tomatoes in any residual marinade and place them in the skillet as well.
- Roast the cauliflower for 5 minutes, and flip them over to roast for another 5.
- Repeat this until they begin to soften and are nicely charred on the outside.
Other Meat Free Recipes You’ll Love
If you like this easy vegan dinner, please check out some of my other favorites like Easy Eggplant Caponata, Tomato Chickpea Salad, Red Pepper Zucchini Farro Salad, Paleo Vegan “Meaty” Taco Skillet, and more:
Recipe FAQ’s
Marinating keeps your cauliflower from drying out, and infuses flavor – don’t skip marinating!
Roasted red pepper sauce will last in the refrigerator for 4 days in an airtight container. You can freeze for up to four months.
This sauce gets a lovely flavor – and added protein – from the addition of walnuts, but they can be swapped for pine nuts, cashews, or even peanuts – and you can also just omit them.
Absolutely you can use roasted red peppers from a can or jar if you’d prefer to not roast them fresh to save time.
Easy Cauliflower Steaks With Red Pepper Sauce
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Easy Cauliflower Steaks with Red Pepper Sauce
Ingredients
- Cauliflower Steaks:
- 2 heads Cauliflower
- ¼ cup Olive Oil
- Juice from 1 Lemon
- 4 minced cloves Garlic
- ½ tsp. Salt
- ½ tsp. Black Pepper
- Red Pepper Sauce:
- 2 Red Bell Peppers
- 2 Roma Tomatoes
- ½ cup Walnuts
- ? cup Parsley
- ¼ cup Olive Oil
- 1-1.5 Tbsp. Red Wine Vinegar, depending on your taste
- 2 cloves chopped Garlic
- ½ tsp. Salt
- ½ tsp. Black Pepper
- ½ tsp. Paprika, preferably Smoked
- Optional: Red Pepper Flakes
Instructions
- Rinse the cauliflower and cut off the hard stem at the bottom of the heat, making sure to leave the core intact.
- Remove any leftover leaves from the stem.
- Place the cauliflower on your cutting board, cut side down, and make vertical slices into the cauliflower to make “steaks.”
- You’ll get 3-4 intact steaks from the cauliflower that have the center core and the rest will most likely come apart into large florets.
- All of these pieces can be grilled, so save anything you think will be large enough to grill.
- Reserve any remaining small pieces of cauliflower for roasting, crudite, cauliflower rice, etc.
- In a bowl, combine the olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper.
- Gently toss the cauliflower steaks/florets in the lemon oil mixture and allow it to marinate in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat your grill to medium high heat.
- Place your cauliflower steaks/florets onto the grill.
- Toss the red pepper and tomatoes in any residual marinade and place them on the grill as well.
- Grill the cauliflower for a minute and flip them over.
- Repeat this until they begin to soften and are nicely grilled on the outside.
- Flip the bell peppers every 1-2 minutes and let them grill on every side.
- Continue doing this until they begin to char, then remove them from the grill.
- The roma tomatoes can be grilled for a few minutes on each side and can be taken off once their skin splits.
- Allow the peppers to cool and then place them into a bowl of cold water. Remove the seeds from the inside and the charred skin from the outside. Remove the skin and seeds from the tomatoes as well.
- Place the peppers, tomatoes, walnuts and garlic in a food processor and pulse until chunky.
- Add the red wine vinegar, parsley, salt, pepper and paprika and pulse while drizzling in the olive oil.
- Continue pulsing until the sauce reaches the consistency of your liking.
- Serve your cauliflower with the red pepper sauce and garnish with chopped parsley.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
