This Asian-inspired Miso Gochujang Peanut Butter Glazed Whole Roasted Cauliflower is a veggie-forward show-stopper perfect for the holidays, whether you’re having it as a vegan main course of a vegetarian meal or serving it as a side dish or appetizer. Gluten-free and refined sugar-free.
Mix Miso, Peanut Butter and gochujang! And glaze a cauliflower! Flavor explosion! This Asian-inspired miso & peanut butter whole roasted cauliflower recipe is incredibly easy and requires just about 15 minutes of active kitchen time but delivers a healthy vegan main that’s impressive enough for entertaining during the holidays. I like to make this whole miso glazed roasted cauliflower as the main dish but you can also serve it as a shared side for dinner parties or weeknight meals!
An umami-rich sweet and spicy peanut butter miso gochujang glaze with fresh ginger adds tons of flavor to the cauliflower. It has miso peanut butter and Korean gochujang to make up a deep complex flavor profile! Serve this whole roasted cauliflower with veggies, some steamed rice, or a side salad.
This is really the best roasted cauliflower head I have ever tried and I can’t wait for you to try it out! If you like the concept of whole roasted cauliflower, but with more traditional flavors, you might also want to try my simple oven-roasted herbed cauliflower.
More Cauliflower recipes on the blog:
- Cauliflower in Double Onion Sauce
- Baked Gobi Manchurian
- BBQ Cauliflower Wings
- Diwani Handi Vegetables
- whole Roasted curried cauliflower
- Sticky Sesame cauliflower
Recipe Card
Spicy Miso Peanut Butter Whole Roasted Cauliflower
Ingredients
- 1 small head of cauliflower
- 1/2 cup (64 g) carrots
- 6-8 ounces (170.1 g) mushroom like crimini or white quartered or sliced 1/8 inch thick
For the marinade:
- 1 tablespoon sambal oelek or Asian chili sauce of choice
- 1 tablespoon Korean gochujang or you can use more sambal oelek
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce, tamari for Glutenfree
- 1/3 cup (86 g) smooth peanut butter or use almond butter
- 3 tablespoons maple syrup
- 2 teaspoons miso
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar or rice vinegar
- 1/2 inch knob of ginger
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1/4 teaspoon (0.25 teaspoon) black pepper
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1/4 teaspoon (0.25 teaspoon) salt
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1/4 cup (59.15 ml) water
- Green onion for garnish
Instructions
- Prep your cauliflower by removing the hard stem of the cauliflower. Then use your knife or a skewer to poke some holes on top of the cauliflower as well as base/stem side of your cauliflower.
- Slice up your mushrooms and carrots.
- Find a dish that fits the cauliflower but only has 1-2 inches space around the cauliflower.
- Grease the dish and set it aside. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit(200c ). Place the cauliflower in the dish , cover with parchment and bake for 10-12 minutes.
- Meanwhile, prepare the marinade: Add all the ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth.
- Remove the cauliflower from the oven then let it cool for 3 minutes so that you can handle it carefully. Flip the cauliflower and pour some of the marinade through the stem area so that it coats the inside of the florets.
- Then flip it and brush some marinade all over the cauliflower really well. Place the cauliflower in the baking dish again and put it in the oven to bake.
- Remove after another 15 minutes. Reduce the baking temperature to 375 degrees F(190 c)
- Add in the carrots and mushrooms around the cauliflower. Drizzle some of the marinade all over. Also , baste/brush the cauliflower with more of the marinade. Add 3 tablespoons of water in the blender to rinse out the blender and pour that on the side of the cauliflower over the mushrooms and carrots.
- Place the dish in the oven and cover it lightly with a foil and continue to bake for another 20 minutes.
- Check if your cauliflower is done to preference. Otherwise, you can bake for another 5 minutes or so.
- Then let it sit uncovered in the oven for a few mins then take it out of the oven. Remove the foil, garnish with green onion and serve it with rice or some dinner rolls.Refrigerate leftovers for upto 3 days.
Notes
Nutrition
Ingredients:
- 1 small head of cauliflower – I prefer small heads as they cook quicker and more evenly
- along with the cauliflower, I like to add carrots, and mushrooms, like cremini or white button mushrooms to the baking dish – those make for great sides
- For spicing up the marinade, I mix sambal olek and gochujang, you can use more sambal oelek or other Asian chili sauce if you don’t have gochujang, I would recommend you get some though as the flavor is very different with it and it lasts years
- peanut butter and sesame oil along with garlic and ginger add an Asian twist to this recipe
- soy sauce and miso glaze up the umami in the glaze
- maple syrup
- white vinegar or rice vinegar balances out the rich peanut butter
Tips & Substitutions:
- Serve this with a side of rice, some dinner rolls and the roasted veggies from the casserole dish.
- Let the cauliflower cool down a bit – the flavors are more intense when it’s not piping hot.
How to make this recipe:
Prep your cauliflower by removing the hard stem. Then use your knife or a skewer to poke some holes on top of the cauliflower as well as the base/stem side of your cauliflower. Slice up your mushrooms and carrots.
Find a dish that fits the cauliflower but only has 1-2 inches of space around the cauliflower.
Grease the dish and set it aside. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit(200c ). Place the cauliflower in the dish and bake for 10-12 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare your marinade mixture. Add all the ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth.
Remove the cauliflower from the oven then let it cool for 3 minutes so that you can handle it carefully. Pour some marinade into the stem area.
Then flip it and brush some marinade all over the cauliflower really well. Place the cauliflower in the baking dish again and put it in the oven to bake. Remove after another 15 minutes. Reduce the baking temperature to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Add in the carrots and your mushrooms around the cauliflower. Drizzle some of the marinade all over. Also , baste/brush the cauliflower with some of the marinade. Add 2-3 tablespoons of water in your blender to rinse out the blender and pour that on the side of the cauliflower over the mushrooms and carrots.
Place the dish in the oven, cover it lightly with a foil, and continue baking for another 20 minutes. Check if your cauliflower is done to preference. Otherwise, you can bake for another 5 minutes or so.
Remove the foil. Then let it sit for a few mins then take it out of the oven. serve it with rice or some dinner rolls. Top it with some green onions then serve it.
Caro
I made this dish for dinner tonight and it’s absolutely beautiful. Thank you for all your beautiful recipes and posts, your page is always my ‘go to’ when I want to cook. Whenever vegans ask where to find vegan recipes, I always say ‘Vegan Richa’! Thank you for all you do.
Vegan Richa Support
🙂 so great to hear, thank you for sharing!
Ellen
This was so amazingly delicious. The sauce recipe now has a coveted spot on the inside of the kitchen cabinet door for quick referral as I see how it can be used in many different ways. Thank you! My kid even ate the mushrooms!
Vegan Richa Support
Wow! Yay, glad it was a hit
Donna
I baked the tray (sided corningware dish) with cauliflower, carrots, red pepper and put frozen broccoli on last 10 minutes.
Vegan Richa Support
Great!
Holly
What type of miso do you use? There’s quite a few options and each has their own flavor profile.
Vegan Richa Support
White miso will have the most mild flavor.
Cass
WOW! Richa!
This was INCREDIBLE! I made the marinade exactly as written and it was perfect. I used potato, carrot and zucchini with the cauliflower. I’m glad to be single so that I can eat this all myself!
Thank you!
Vegan Richa Support
So glad you enjoyed!
Jan
I cook for just one. Would this freeze well?
Vegan Richa Support
I’ve never tried but mushrooms and cauliflower have mositure. the texture wouldn’t be equal. you could try
Christina
I went with the try bake option and my family LOVED this meal. The sauce is so incredible that my teenager scavenged the tiny amount left in the blender cup.
Christina
*tray bake
Richa
Awesome!
Kim Phillips
This is so easy and out of this world delicious! Thank you, Richa! 💕
Richa
❤️❤️❤️
Beth
Delicious over the cauliflower and also as a side sauce with plain roasted vegetables. I used the stated amount of Sambal Oelek but only about 1/3 the quantity of the gochujang paste fir a mild-moderate spicy sauce.
Vegan Richa Support
yay , nice side option
Cath
This is a great recipe. I’ve made it with peanut butter once,and this time used almond butter…both delicious, but beware the chilli. 1 taste was plenty for my palate, so start small and work up
Vegan Richa Support
good advice
Alena
We LOVED this!! Definitely will go in the rotation. We made it as is & with a side of tofu with the marinade as well. For some reason it took about 20 minutes longer than the recipe time for the cauliflower to cook than expected. Any idea why that might be? It was fresh from the store. Some of it could be altitude, but I don’t think that would account for all of it?
Richa
Probably larger cauliflower, more stem was left or not deep enough holes, the recipe also has oven opened a couple of times so depending on the oven and heating it might add a few mins every time, along with some the above , 20 mins seem ok.
Cover the cauliflower with parchment when baking the first time. Also poke more holes( I use a knife and stab the stem area 🙂
Lauren Valencia
Wow this was delicious! I loved the sauce and it’s a pretty dish. Served over rice and it was a great meal.
Vegan Richa Support
excellent
Linda Griffith Crayton
This was my Thanksgiving centerpiece, and it’s amazing. The cauliflower was like scooping into butter–so creamy and soft–and the sauce…. It’s like pot roast on healthy, tasty steroids. Yes! Thank you! It’s in my forever recipes and I’ll be taking liberties to put a bunch of different foods into this mix.
Vegan Richa Support
lol Linda – thank you!
CathyJ
I made this and it was SPECTACULAR. The flavors are so layered! I could taste the sweet, salty, spicy, umami, all at once. I even made more sauce and put it on tofu, and WOW, that was the best tofu I’ve ever had!
QUESTION – I wanted to make this for my parents but my Dad can’t eat spicy foods. He needs a “baby spice” version. If I remove the sambal olek and gochujang, is there anything flavorful I could replace those with for him? Or will that just ruin the recipe. THANKS…
Richa
Omit the sambal and black pepper (pepper also adds latent heat), and use much less gochujang as it adds amazing flavor. Even without it will be flavorful , but definitely try just a teeny bit gochujang
Beth
First time I tried this recipe, delicious but spicy; I used less Korean chili paste, but all other ingredients in the proportions given. Would definitely make this again with other veggies too.
Vegan Richa Support
thanks Beth!
Sherry
Made this tonight for dinner, and once again, your combination of flavors is simply sublime! This will now be in our regular dinner rotation. Thank you Richa, you are amazing!
Vegan Richa Support
that’s great Sherry, 🙏 thank you
Karen
So good!! The marinade was awesome and I am going to try it on tofu next. I ate way too much cauliflower…
Vegan Richa Support
that would work nicely on tofu.! & it’s healthy =). all good 😆
Cynthia Chapman
Flavorful and delicious! I didn’t read through the directions first so I didn’t cook exactly like the recipe. It didn’t matter though, I love the sauce, it is spicy! My vegetables were still a little crunchy, not overcooked.
Vegan Richa Support
al dente is best
Tess
The whole family loved it. I just toned down the spice a bit. Delicious sauce, nice finish on the cauliflower, fun presentation. Next time I will cut my carrots more thinly to match cooking time with mushrooms (my mistake, not the recipe’s).
Richa
Awesome!!