Forage's Roasted Cauliflower
Editor's note - I have patch notes for this recipe at the bottom, but I'm leaving the main text mostly alone
Wash and butcher a medium-large cauliflower, then chop into roughly equally sized florets. I tended to cut the big chunks into 3 or 4 florets--some of them would end up having 2 flat sides and one bumpy, and some would be like tiny slabs of cauliflower. The goal is for them to cook mostly at the same rate, but I also tossed in the real tiny pieces :)
Preheat oven to 425 at some point
Mix together 2tbsp melted butter with 3tbsp olive oil (reduce oil if your cauliflower is small), then add your spice mix. Mine was paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, Greek seasoning, MSG, salt, pepper, and a scoop of minced garlic.
**This is what I did because I was riffing off of my mum's garlic butter recipe! You could do basically any mix of spices you want, just measure with your heart and taste the oil mix occasionally to gauge whether it's as flavorful as you want it. Notes on this in the patch notes.
Put the oil-spices over all the florets, toss to coat best you can, then lay them out on a half sheet tray (18x13 inches) with parchment paper. Try to get it into one layer as best as you can. (The parchment paper isn't required, but will help make cleanup much faster.)
Put them into the oven! (It should be at 425F, I did not use convection but I think that would improve texture if you have it)
I put on a timer for 15 minutes and checked/tasted them every couple minutes after that went off. Taste a piece for texture every few minutes after the timer until they're at the doneness you want. Mine ended up going for around 25-30, I'd do a little less personally. "Doneness" in this case will be the cauliflower softening, so it's up to the texture you want.
Best served immediately and shared with a loved one to tell you just how good you did, eating straight from the tray. :)
You can eat the cauliflower leaves too--I haven't learned how to prep them yet, but a couple months back when I roasted broccoli I added some of those leaves to the tray and it was delicious. So I only assume if you roast the leaves, they'd be yummy and crispy. Just use your cauliflower relatively quickly so the leaves are still good, unlike me!
Patch notes after making this again and following my instructions:
-If you want intensely flavorful cauliflower, flavor your oil mixture until it alone tastes way too strong; I went too light this time. Still absolutely delicious because I like cauliflower, but not quite the taste that my mom and I ate a whole tray of.
-Also I'd go with the full amount of oil unless your cauliflower is particularly small, mine definitely needed it
-15 minutes at 450F results in a firmer cauliflower with more tooth and some color, which was great; if you want it softer, I'd probably go lower and slower in temp unless you're okay with a decent amount of char on some pieces