Indian Butter Cauliflower Curry
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Butter Chicken is a popular Indian dish. And for good reason, the sauce is incredible! In this Cauliflower Curry recipe, we’re keeping that same delicious sauce, but ditching the chicken to make a vegetarian dish. Be sure to serve a piece of naan on the side for dipping up any extra scrumptious sauce!
This recipe is gluten free and easily made vegan. If you love my Butter Chicken recipe, then you’re definitely going to love this vegetarian spin on the dish!
Every time I go to an Indian restaurant, I always order the butter chicken, also known as chicken makhani. There’s no denying that butter chicken is one of the most popular Indian curries. The rich, creamy, flavorful sauce is absolutely to-die-for! Dipping it up with a piece of warm naan is my favorite part of eating at an Indian restaurant.
I first recreated this Butter Chicken dish at home, with an easy 29 minute recipe. But I wanted a way to share the goodness of this incredible sauce with all of my vegetarian friends, so I created this delicious recipe for Indian Butter Cauliflower Curry!
It’s the same delicious sauce that we all know and love from Butter Chicken, poured over roasted cauliflower. And it’s also made in just 29 minutes! It can be served over cooked basmati rice or with a piece of naan for dipping right into the sauce. I like to include both options when I make this dish!
Basmati rice can be easily made in a rice cooker, on the stove, or with this Instant Pot Basmati Rice recipe, while you prepare the cauliflower curry. And while homemade naan is totally delicious, if you don’t have the time to make it yourself, you can find prepared naan in the bakery section of your local grocery store.
To kick up the flavor of store-bought naan, I brush it with melted butter, then sprinkle crushed garlic and fresh chopped cilantro over the naan. I place it in the oven under the broiler on low for 1-2 minutes. This freshens up the naan and gives it an extra burst of flavor!
Table of contents
Ingredients
- Spices – garam masala, turmeric, cayenne pepper, cumin and salt. Each of these spices should be easy to find in the spice section of your local grocery store.
- Butter – I use unsalted butter, so that I can control the amount of salt added to the dish.
- Sweet onion – I find that a sweet onion pairs well with the sweetness of the coconut cream in this dish. You can also use a regular white or yellow onion, if that’s what you have on hand.
- Garlic – I recommend fresh minced garlic for the best flavor!
- Ginger – I also recommend fresh grated ginger.
- Quick Tip! I like to keep a knob of ginger in a ziplock bag in the freezer. The ginger will stay good for months in the freezer and you can grate the frozen ginger right into any dish, no thawing required!
- Lemon Juice – fresh squeezed, please!
- Canned tomato paste
- Canned tomato sauce
- Coconut cream – full fat coconut milk can be used in place of coconut cream, but just know that coconut cream is much creamier than coconut milk. Hence the name! Always use unsweetened coconut milk or coconut cream to make this recipe.
- Note: Coconut milk is made from simmering one part shredded coconut in one part water. Coconut cream is made from simmering four parts shredded coconut cream in one part water, thus making it thicker, richer and great for curry dishes!
- Plain yogurt – this can be plain, regular yogurt or greek yogurt, as long it has no added flavors or sweeteners.
- Head of cauliflower – chopped into florets.
- Fresh cilantro – for garnishing the curry.
- Basmati rice – while I prefer basmati rice with Indian food, any type of white rice will work. You could also use brown rice or quinoa, if you prefer.
Instructions
- Prepare the seasoning.
- In a small bowl, combine the garam masala, turmeric, cayenne pepper, ground cumin and salt. This seasoning mix will be used in the sauce and to season the cauliflower.
- Prepare the butter curry sauce.
- Melt butter in a large saucepan, or dutch oven, on the stove over medium high heat.
- Saute onions, garlic and ginger in the butter.
- Stir in more butter, lemon juice, tomato paste and 2 1/2 tablespoons of the seasoning mix that you prepared earlier.
- Add tomato sauce, coconut cream and plain yogurt, bring to a boil.
- Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Prepare the cauliflower.
- Spread the cauliflower out evenly on a baking sheet.
- Toss with melted butter and the remaining seasoning mix.
- Place the cauliflower in the oven under the broiler on low for 4-6 minutes.
- Note: whenever broiling anything, always check it every 1-2 minutes to make sure it doesn’t burn. Oven broiler temperatures vary, so just keep an eye on the cauliflower while it’s under the broiler!
- Remove the cauliflower from the oven and add it to the butter sauce.
- Finish the dish.
- Simmer the cauliflower in the sauce for 5-10 minutes.
- Top with fresh chopped cilantro.
- Serve the cauliflower over cooked basmati rice and/or with a side of naan.
Try it!
Instant Pot Basmati Rice
This easy recipe will make perfect, fluffy basmati rice in an Instant Pot, while you prepare the Indian curry on the stove!
How to make it vegan
Make this cauliflower curry vegan with two simple substitutions.
- Replace the butter with vegan butter.
- Replace the yogurt with plain coconut yogurt, cashew yogurt or a vegan greek yogurt alternative.
What else can I add to this dish?
Peas, sweet potatoes and chickpeas are all delicious additions to this curry.
- If adding peas, toss 1/2 cup frozen peas in the sauce at the same time as the roasted cauliflower.
- To add sweet potatoes to the curry, you’ll want to boil 1 cup of diced sweet potatoes in a pot of water on the stove for 15 minutes. You can then toss the boiled, diced sweet potatoes with the cauliflower, melted butter and seasoning and broil in the oven.
- To add chickpeas, simply drain and rinse a 15 oz can of chickpeas and add it to the curry sauce with the roasted cauliflower.
More cauliflower recipes
Looking for more vegetarian cauliflower recipes to try? Check out these four favorites!
And don’t miss these recipes for Paneer Makhani and Palak Paneer, more delicious Indian vegetarian dishes that I know you’ll love!
Indian Butter Cauliflower Curry
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp garam masala
- 2 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter, divided
- 1 cup sweet onion, diced
- 1 tbsp garlic, minced
- 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 8 oz can tomato paste
- 15 oz can tomato sauce
- 1 cup coconut cream
- 1 cup plain yogurt
- 1 head cauliflower, app 24 oz – cut into florets
- ¼ cup fresh cilantro, chopped
Serving Options
- 2 cups cooked basmati rice
- 1 piece naan
Instructions
- Preheat the broiler on the oven to low.
- In a small bowl, combine the garam masala, turmeric, cayenne pepper, ground cumin and salt.
- Melt 2 tbsp butter in a large saucepan on the stove over medium high heat.
- Add the onion, saute 4-5 minutes.
- Add the garlic and ginger, saute for an additional minute.
- Stir in another ¼ cup butter, 2 ½ tbsp of the spice mix you made earlier, lemon juice and tomato paste, saute for 1 minute.
- Add the tomato sauce, coconut cream, and plain yogurt, bring to a rapid simmer.
- Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
- While the sauce is simmering, spread the cauliflower out evenly on a baking sheet.
- Melt the remaining 2 tbsp butter and drizzle over the cauliflower, toss to coat, then sprinkle the remaining spice mix over the cauliflower and toss to coat.
- Place the cauliflower in the oven under the broiler on high for 4-6 minutes.
- Remove the cauliflower from the oven and add to the butter sauce.
- Simmer for 5-10 minutes.
- Top with fresh chopped cilantro.
- Serve over rice or with naan.
Notes
- The nutritional information provided is only for the cauliflower curry and does not include the serving options.
Nutrition Facts
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3 Comments on “Indian Butter Cauliflower Curry”
I saw the recipe yesterday and decided to make it today. It was simple enough and came out delicious. I forgot the ginger and didn’t have any tumeric so I subbed a little bit of this and that. I also subbed chopped tomatoes for the tomato sauce. Can’t really screw this up, it’s just fantastic. I had 3 servings myself. I realize that I also need to replace my spices and I’m certain it will be even better next time. This is going in my usual rotation from now on. Thank you for making it easy. I have confidence that I never had before when cooking Indian. I resonate with the other comment and am also inspired by this recipe.
Hi Mel, thanks so much for sharing! I’m really excited that you enjoyed the recipe!
This recipe was so easy to make that we were able to have it for lunch!
The taste and smell were so delicious that the “carnivores “of my family were drawn out of their electronic caves (this recipe is definitely an arrow to place into my “quiver” in fighting the COVID-19 stuck at home boredom). The plan was to make your non-vegetarian version of the recipe (https://whitneybond.com/indian-butter-chicken/) for this group for dinner, but they couldn’t wait. The one thing I have to say is that this recipe generates an abundance of sauce and next time I make this recipe, I will be sure to have naan to serve with it so when the cauliflower runs out, I can continue to enjoy the spiciness longer.
As far as an “authenticity” to the taste of the spices, I did some traveling to India (in 2007-2008) as well as hosted several engineers here in San Diego and I must say that the combination of spices is the best that I have had in a long time. For me, this is a big deal since I have Parkinson’s disease, and back in 2007, I was starting to lose my sense of smell. I found that the turmeric, cumin, and garam masala were “healing” when I went to India (the turmeric especially). When I returned, we tried to create the same “feeling” of goodness with the recipes from a vegetarian Indian cookbook my brother had given me.
This recipe inspires me. I can tell because we needed to get some fresh garam masala, since what we had in the cupboard had expired in 2008. The new one is almost empty.