Author: It's finally here, my Vegan Butter Cauliflower recipe! This is my version of butter chicken... but without the butter and without the chicken. This recipe took a lot of testing to make it oh so perfect, and I am so excited to finally share it with you.
Not only was I looking for excellent vegan replacements for both butter and chicken, but after discovering that a lot of traditional butter chicken recipes required an entire cup (!) of butter and additional cups of whipping cream, I cringed, and knew I wanted to make this one a little healthier too.
So I present you my (mostly) guilt-free Vegan Butter Cauliflower. Tah dah!
This recipe happens to be super easy too, in true fuss-free vegan style. Just add raw cashews, tomato paste, and a bunch of spices to a blender, and you've just made your sauce. Then add two tablespoons of vegan butter (I still wanted a bit of that butter taste, but reduced it by a whopping 14 tablespoons), saute up some onion and garlic in a pan, pour in the sauce, add the cauliflower florets, and simmer until tender. Yep, it's that easy peasy!
And oh man does it taste fantastic!! I've been eating this pretty much every day for a week because I'm madly in love. Creamy tomato-y goodness, packed full of spices, just so much deliciousness in a bowl it's difficult to comprehend.
Serve it up with some rice, naan bread, and a little cilantro, and be prepared for comfort food heaven.
To make Vegan Butter Cauliflower: add all of the ingredients to a high-powered blender and blend until smooth and creamy.
If you do not have a high-powered blender, you may want to soften the cashews first by boiling them in water for 10 minutes, draining, and then adding to the blender with all of the remaining ingredients. This will ensure a smooth sauce.
For the butter cauliflower, melt the vegan butter in a large pan or pot. When melted add the onion and garlic and sauté until the onion turns translucent and just begins to brown.
Pour in the prepared sauce and stir in the cauliflower florets. Cover and bring to a simmer. Stir the cauliflower often so the sauce doesn't burn on the bottom of the pan.
Cook until the cauliflower is fork tender, about 10 minutes. Serve over rice with a side of naan and a garnish of cilantro.
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Vegan Butter Cauliflower
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Ingredients
For the sauce:
- 2 ¾ cups water
- ½ cup raw cashews
- 1 156ml can tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon garam masala
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon powdered ginger
For the butter cauliflower:
- 2 tablespoons vegan butter
- 1 yellow onion,, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic,, minced
- ½ head cauliflower,, cut into florets (about 6 cups)
For serving:
- cooked rice
- naan bread
- 1 handful cilantro,, roughly chopped
Instructions
- For the sauce, add all of the ingredients to a high-powered blender and blend until smooth and creamy. If you do not have a high-powered blender, you may want to soften the cashews first by boiling them in water for 10 minutes, draining, and then adding to the blender with all of the remaining ingredients. This will ensure a smooth sauce.
- For the butter cauliflower, melt the vegan butter in a large pan or pot. When melted add the onion and garlic and sauté until the onion turns translucent and just begins to brown. Pour in the prepared sauce, and stir in the cauliflower florets. Cover and bring to a simmer. Stir the cauliflower often so the sauce doesn't burn on the bottom of the pan. Cook until the cauliflower is fork tender, about 10 minutes. Serve over rice with a side of naan and a garnish of cilantro.
Vanessa says
Vegan butter cauliflower is definitely one of my favourite recipes. It is easy and quick to make. I prep everything ahead of time and cook when my company arrives. Left overs, if there is any is great poured on top of homemade fries. Delicious!!!
VeggieDi says
I have made this many, many times, and am FINALLY getting around to saying thanks. Sometimes I add soy curls or even replace the cauliflower with soy curls, and that's good, too. I've tossed in leftover roasted eggplant a time or two with good results, too. The recipe is easy, delicious, and adaptable ... and a staple in my recipe list! Many thanks.
Shannon says
Dang this was good! I always get intimidated making Indian food just because it's been tough to find that complex flavor without adding all of the amazing spices usually used, but WOW this recipe was incredible, easy, and so dang tasty! Sam, you area a master recipe creator - literally everything you create that I've tried has turned out amazing! Thank you!
Lauren Tartaglia says
My sauce was far too watery 🙁
Eve says
I am 80% vegan, family are not. I used 500ml passata as figured roughly the same as water mixed with tomato puree/paste. Needed extra water just to sauce it up a bit at the end. Worked perfectly. Split sauce 1/4 & 3/4, added chicken and b.squash to theirs, the cauli and squash to mine. Next time will add red pepper too....I know that'll work great! great recipe. will defo make again. butter chicken is one of our faves. Really couldn't tell any difference. Great texture to sauce! Thank you!
Jaimee says
Really weird to come to a vegan recipe blog, announce that you are not vegan, and announce that you added dead bird to a vegan recipe. Non vegans can also eat vegan food, you should try making it without adding dead bird next time.
Eve Howard says
Absolutely NO need to be a troll. I'm WELL are that meat eaters can eat vegan food, but my lot want chicken. I do not. I want a tasty vegan sauce that they won't whinge about...they didn't. It's this kind of trolling that makes people not want to be vegan. I'm drastically reducing my animal produce intake, support that. encourage that. maybe then more people will do what I do. if everyone reduced, just a bit, that wud be a massive reduction overall. look at the bigger picture. be nicer.
Jaimee says
Sam Turnbull, the person whose recipe blog you are on, is vegan for the animals. It is incredibly rude to come here and announce that you used her recipe and adapted it to include dead bird. There was no need for you to announce that (doing so, makes you the troll, not me). Just like how there was no need for you to do that to begin with. Please go watch the Dominion documentary. There is even a list of resources on this website for how and why we should be vegan. Be nice to animals.
Kalea says
As a vegan I support you for trying and, I don't see any disrespect in the question you had originally asked...sorry not sorry, Jaimee.
Dee says
Holy smokes! Curry in 15 minutes!! This was delish. Break your florets small! It’s better that way. I added some curry powder and extra salt and lime!! Always have lime with my curry!!!
Thanks Amy!! I just love your books!!
Shell says
Thank you SO much for this delightfully DELICIOUS meal I like trying different recipes for our vegan daughter (your recipes form a BIG part of my repertoire), not expecting my husband to even try it! Guess who went back for seconds
Thanks again
Jess @ IDTLC Support says
That's amazing! We're so happy to hear it!
Christine T. says
This recipe is some kind of crazy alchemy. There is absolutely no way I expected this to taste as complex as it does given the absolute simplicity of the preparation. This came together so quickly and, in spite of my doubts, had full butter chicken flavour. This is going on regular rotation. The only change I made was adding peas as I wanted to fully optimize the fabulous sauce.
Jess @ IDTLC Support says
Yay! We're thrilled you liked it so much!
Kris says
WOW! This was way way better than I expected. My husband loved it too. Will definitely be making this again!
Alexandra Colacito says
I have been vegan for 7 years, and since I'm not a cook, I only use recipes for all my meals. I've been collecting my favorite recipes in a 3 ring binder and it is so overflowing it is about to break. So at this point in my vegan journey, I'm trying to pare DOWN my favorite recipes, get rid of the ones that are only good, keep only the ones that are FABULOUS. I need a special section of my binder for recipes that are even better than fabulous, like top 10 of my multiple hundreds of recipes, ones that never disappoint, that always wow, that are easy in addition to being delicious, plus healthy. Long preamble. This is one of those top 10, in a sea of HUNDREDS of recipes I make over and over. That said, has anyone tried freezing leftovers?
Jess @ IDTLC Support says
Wow, we're so happy to hear how much you love this recipe! We haven't tested freezing it but we believe it should work just fine. 🙂
Josué says
Fantassstik
Saraswati says
Really love this recipe! Tasty and easy to make. Thank you, Sam!
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Jenny says
Love this recipe! So flavorful and tasty!
Sam Turnbull says
Glad you like it Jenny!
Diane says
This recipe is great and has amazing flavor!And we are not Vegan. One thing I would recommend is partially cooking the cauliflower first, as it did take a long time to cook n the sauce.My 24 year old son said it was the best butter chicken sauce he’s ever had and we love Indian food.Thanks!
amy says
This sounds so good and I really want to try it, but the trouble I keep running into with creamy recipes is the cashews. I know they work so well, but my husband is allergic! such a bummer. Any chance this might work with something like coconut cream? or any other suggestions?
Kristal says
You can use equal parts white beans 🙂
Cathie says
Thank you so much for this question and this answer. My. Husband is allergic to nuts, too. I can’t wait to try it with the white beans. It sounds wonderful!
Lucy says
before i go out and buy cashews can i make this using cashew milk and if so how much. i m all out of nuts!
Elaine says
This was phenomenal! So easy and SO delicious - it really tastes like it's way more work than it actually is. I can't wait to try it again (and again, and again...)
Kim from Balto says
This is absolutely delicious!! And sooo easy to make!! I did roast my cauliflower first so it only needed to be blended into the sauce. And I added the chickpeas as suggested by others. Fantastic dish that I will be making again and again! :o))
Sam Turnbull says
So happy you enjoyed it!
Sarah says
Made this last night - super easy and delicious! Leftovers were even better. It took my cauliflower much longer than 10 minutes to soften. The only change I made was adding some chopped spinach (because I throw spinach in pretty much everything). I did think about adding chickpeas (as another reader suggested), but decided to try it first without them. I might even use the sauce recipe with just chickpeas and spinach for a different option. This recipe will go into the regular rotation!