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Save time and money by making Roasted Frozen Cauliflower part of your weekly dinner rotation. It’s so easy to whip up this crispy cauliflower for a fast and healthy side dish.
I think we can all agree that getting a healthy dinner on the table during the week can be a challenge. Take the guesswork out of meal planning and use a secret weapon – frozen veggies!
Frozen cauliflower is bonkers affordable and is cheaper than fresh, even when buying organic. Get ready to learn how simple and delicious it is to roast frozen cauliflower.
Once you become obsessed with roasting frozen veggies (it’s inevitable when you realize how easy it is), check out Roasted Frozen Asparagus, Roasted Frozen Broccoli, and Roasted Frozen Brussel Sprouts.
You might also like our tutorial on How to Freeze Cauliflower.
Can You Roast Frozen Cauliflower?
Yes! Roasting frozen cauliflower is pure healthy “fast food”. Someone else already did the washing and chopping. All you need to do is grab a baking sheet, pick some seasoning, and get ready to save a boatload of time and money.
Ready for the best part? You don’t even defrost the cauliflower before you roast it!
Four Key Takeaways For Roasting Frozen Cauliflower
- Do not defrost the cauliflower before roasting.
- Fully preheat the oven. It is so tempting to start cooking the cauliflower while the oven is preheating, but doing so will give you soft and mushy (smushy) cauliflower instead of perfectly roasted veg.
- Preheat the sheet pan. Place the sheet pan in the oven while the oven is preheating. A hot pan will give the cauliflower a jump start on the roasting process.
- Don’t crowd the sheet pan! Give the cauliflower plenty of space to roast. Too much veg all smushed together will cause the water in the frozen cauliflower to steam instead of evaporate. Steaming = mushy vegetables. Try using two or even three sheet pans if you want to roast larger batches.
How to Roast Frozen Cauliflower
*I’ll walk you through it here with some photos and tips, and you’ll also find a printable recipe card at the bottom of the post with exact measurements, etc. You can also click “jump to recipe” to skip down.
Start by fully preheating the oven with a rimmed baking sheet in the oven. Don’t skip this step!
Toss the frozen cauliflower in a medium bowl with olive oil and any other spices you’d like to use.
When the oven is nice and hot, carefully remove the baking sheet and add the cauliflower. Stir it around so that the cauliflower isn’t clumped together.
Pop it in the oven and bake for 15 minutes without stirring it around. After the 15 minutes are up, you can stir it and then put it back in the oven for 2-10 minutes. The total cooking time will depend on how large the florets are and how crispy you like your roasted cauliflower.
Prior to serving, sprinkle the roasted cauliflower with sea or kosher salt, Parmesan cheese, or fresh chopped parsley.
Frequently Asked Questions
Absolutely! Oven-roasted frozen vegetables are delicious and will save you so much time and money.
For more information, check out our complete guide on how to roast frozen vegetables.
Fully preheating the oven with the empty pan in the oven, before adding the frozen cauliflower to it will help give you perfectly roasted cauliflower without it being soggy.
The texture of roasted frozen cauliflower will be slightly softer than fresh cauliflower, but it will still be delicious.
No! Defrosting the frozen cauliflower will lead to mushy roasted cauliflower.
The veggies should go from the freezer to the sheet pan in a matter of minutes.
Most frozen vegetables have been blanched and then flash-frozen. They are partially cooked.
Blanching involves cooking vegetables in boiling water for a short amount of time and then putting the food into ice water to stop the cooking process.
How to Season Roasted Cauliflower
This base recipe gives you so much freedom to add your favorite seasonings and flavors.
I love mixing in garlic powder, Everything But the Bagel Seasoning, Montreal Steak Seasoning, a squeeze of lemon, curry powder, turmeric, smoked paprika, seafood seasoning, or grated Parmesan.
And if you’re looking for a delicious topper for this recipe, check out our Gluten-Free Cheese Sauce recipe.
What to serve with frozen roasted cauliflower
Frozen roasted cauliflower is an awesome side dish for Instant Pot Beef Tips and Gravy, Dry Brine Chicken, Instant Pot Chuck Roast, or Air Fryer Boneless Chicken Thighs.
More Delicious Vegetable Recipes
WEIGHT WATCHERS POINTS
One serving of Roasted Frozen Cauliflower has 1 WW Freestyle SmartPoints.
Roasted Frozen Cauliflower
Ingredients
- 16 oz frozen cauliflower florets {do not defrost}
- 2 tsp olive oil
- pinch of salt {optional}
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 435˚F degrees. Place the pan in the oven while it preheats.
- In a medium mixing bowl, toss the frozen cauliflower with olive oil.16 oz frozen cauliflower florets, 2 tsp olive oil
- Add the cauliflower to the hot pan and bake for 15 minutes. Stir and bake an additional 2-10 minutes depending on the size of the florets and how crispy you like your roasted cauliflower.
- Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and serve.pinch of salt
Notes
- Do not thaw the frozen cauliflower prior to roasting.
- You can reheat your roasted frozen cauliflower, but I find it best eaten within 1-2 days of roasting.
- This base recipe gives you so much freedom to add your favorite seasonings and flavors. I love mixing in garlic powder, Everything But the Bagel Seasoning, Montreal Steak Seasoning, curry powder, smoked paprika, and grated Parmesan.
Don’t crowd the pan! Give the cauliflower plenty of space to roast. Too much veg all smushed together will cause the water to steam instead of evaporating. Try using two or even three pans if you want to roast larger batches.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Looking in my freezer, I found two bags of frozen cauliflower…looking at my schedule I found two children’s sports games. So what did that call for in the recesses of my recipe memory? Roasted cauliflower soup! So yes. The cauliflower was roasted perfectly. The cauliflower soup, including bacon…was, chef’s kiss…perfection!
Way to shop the freezer!! I love those meal wins. 🙂
Yeah, the part where you said once you start roasting veggies you’ll be hooked…was TOTALLY true. I’m addicted and I’m spreading it (there are things that are ok to spread)!!!
Sharing recipes online was the original social distancing. 🙂
So glad you’re hooked on simple tasty veggies!