THE BEST WAY TO COOK CAULIFLOWER

#4 - The only steak you'll need this summer, a trip to Monaco + more major life updates!

Jun 20, 2025

Welcome back to The Veg Table, my brand new newsletter here on Substack. This is the place to be if you want to take the vegetables on your table to the next level.

For our third edition, we turn our attention to a vegetable I find myself cooking with an awful lot these days. It is of course the iconic cauliflower. And today, we’re focusing on a particularly special recipe of mine you may well have seen, or even made yourself before. It is a SERIOUS showstopper of a dish and absolutely delicious.

I’ll also be taking you with me, behind the scenes, on a recent work trip I made to Monaco (it is cauliflower related, don’t worry). And finally, I’ve got a couple more real life bits to tell you about - for those interested!

So! Grab yourself a cauliflower, and let’s get into it - happy cooking (and reading!)

Alfie x

HELLO FROM SUNNY NORTH LONDON!

Hey guys! How’s it going? I hope you’re all well. I’m currently sat typing away at a local coffee shop, feeling rather grateful for the cooling waves of air con given the sweltering 30 degrees heat outside. In North London! I’m not one to complain about the weather, but when it gets this hot, London can feel a wee bit ‘suffocating-y’.

I just wanted to apologise for my absence last week. A Veg-Less Table I suppose! Life has been LIFEING, which meant I didn’t find the time to write for you guys. We’ve had the builders, the tilers, the plasterers, the door installers, the kitchen installer, the electrician, the plumber, the architect, and the decorators in over the last couple of weeks. Which, whilst wonderful and incredibly exciting, has also demanded a fair bit of my time and attention. Whack that on top of a weeklong work trip to Monaco, keeping up with content, and a couple of milestones to celebrate - BASICALLY, life is just very busy and quite intense currently…

ANYWAY, here we are. The sun is shining. And it’s time to welcome one of my favourite vegetables to The Veg Table….

CAULIFLOWER O’CLOCK

Now I don’t mind admitting, but prior to the last year or two, cauliflower was never really a vegetable I found on my table too much. My only real (and reluctant) experience of cauliflower growing up was cauliflower cheese (which I love these days of course), or simply being served it boiled as an afterthought of a side dish. Point is, I thought cauliflower was BORING, tasted BLAND, and wasn’t worth much fuss. I think we can safely say my experience and opinion of this beautiful brassica was perhaps not entirely correct…

The thing I love about cauliflower now is how creatively you can cook with it. Whether simply marinated and roasted until tender and crisp, then served in a flatbread packed with pickled veg and smothered in tahini sauce. Or blended into a silky smooth Cream of Cauliflower Soup. Or snapped into florets and transformed into Sticky Cauliflower Wings. Basically, the possibilities for cauliflower cooking really are endless. But today, we’re going to focus on recipe that is a particular favourite of mine. And there are many reasons for it…

At this point, it might make sense to tell you a bit more about a recent work trip (it is cauliflower-related, I promise). As I mentioned earlier, I was in Monaco a couple of weeks ago. I’ve just started working with Novotel Hotels, and to kickstart our relationship, I helped host an event at their Monte Carlo hotel to celebrate all things plant-forward food - which is something they are focusing on big time over the next year or so. Among other things, they asked for my help developing some dishes which I thought would go down well with guests, and highlight the best seasonal and local ingredients on offer. So that’s what I did in the week or two leading up to the event, for which we had 30-40 guests to entertain and feed!

As you can see, we were working with the most wonderful produce - all local, seasonal, and selected with the intention to create dishes that showcase how wonderful the vegetables at our table can be. SO, after arriving on the Monday, I spent the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday working closely with the kitchen team to help direct canapé preparation stations. Think Green Gazpacho, Panzanella, Courgette and Cream Cheese tarts, Asparagus and Pistou Crostini. Alongside the canapé service, I also hosted a ‘dip making masterclass’, where guests made both my ‘Confit Garlic, Artichoke + White Bean Dip’ as well as Chef Ramos’ (Novotel Monte Carlo Head Chef) Pistou (basically French pesto, made without cheese on this occasion).

Then finally (and this is where the cauliflower connection comes in), I demonstrated how I like to cook a cauliflower steak. Served on a zero-waste cauliflower velouté that one of chefs prepared, and drizzled with chimichurri. Very similar, in fact, to a recipe you might recognise (and one that you’ll find below).

CAULIFLOWER STEAK - IT’S LOVE OR HATE…

Allow me to introduce, or reintroduce, perhaps the most iconic way of cooking cauliflower. It is of course CAULIFLOWER STEAKS. I’m pretty sure the majority of people will be familiar with the term ‘cauliflower steak’, but if you aren’t, it’s essentially describing what happens when you cut the cauliflower lengthways into thick, flat slices. One of my favourite debates to have with people on social media is when they moan “BUT YOU CAN’T CALL A CAULIFLOWER A STEAK!!!! IT’S NOT MEAT”. And look, I get it, part of the fun of calling cauliflower a steak is to wind up certain corners of the internet. I know that some people would prefer I call it ‘a piece of seared cauliflower’ or something like that. But honestly, just take a look at one of The Cambridge Dictionary definitions below:

The key is that the cauli is sliced into its cross-section - so a big old piece - and then in this case, cooked as if you were cooking a steak - by searing, then basting with butter and garlic. You could absolutely roast in the oven too, but I find doing it in the pan means it’s done quicker, and you end up with a really tender piece of cauliflower, that’s infused with buttery, garlicky notes As you can see below, in Monaco we working with some VERY pretty cauliflowers indeed. Yellow, purple, plus some green romanesco in there too! But of course, your classic cauli works wonderfully.

Now I cooked my first cauliflower steak early last year, and have remade variations of this dish time and time again. I’ll give you a rundown of how the recipe came together. I was about to head away on holiday, and had an old cauli sat at the back of my fridge. I get very excited about transforming old, forgotten-about vegetables into tasty plates of flavour-packed food, so wanted this recipe to showcase just that. And what I came up with really was something special - and I think / hope the 100 million or so viewers on social media would agree!

THE OG CAULIFLOWER STEAK

It really is mad to think that this recipe reached 100 million people around the world. But what it boils down to is that this is a dish that just works so well. It looks great, tastes great, and is actually very straightforward to put together. All you need is a cauliflower, some beans, some fresh parsley and a couple more bits - and that’s it. You’d probably be able to get all the ingredients you needed for about £5 or so. And for a meal that’s this good, it’s also packed with fibre, healthy fats, and got some good plant protein in there too.

I’ve left a detailed method for each of the elements that bring this dish together below, but it’s basically a bean purée (very simple, very tasty, very quick to do). Then a chimichurri (again, something that packs so much flavour by using just a few ingredients). And of course, the cauliflower steak alongside a scattering of its leaves - which make a great zero-waste garnish.

INGREDIENTS (serves 2)

STEAKS

1 large cauliflower

1 tbsp smoked paprika

3 garlic cloves

2 tbsp butter

CHIMICHURRI

30 g fresh parsley

1 garlic clove

½ red chilli

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

100 ml extra virgin olive oil

BEAN PURÉE

500 g butter beans (jarred best)

1 lemon

1 garlic clove

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

Salt + Pepper

METHOD

First, make the chimichurri. Finely chop the parsley, chilli and garlic. Add to a mixing bowl with vinegar, then stream in the oil whilst mixing until combined. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Set aside.
For the butterbean purée, if using jarred beans, simply pour with their liquid into a blender with the juice of ½ a lemon, salt, pepper, 1 minced garlic clove and the nutritional yeast. If using canned, separate the beans and their liquor. Follow the same steps above, except blend each time you add 1 tbsp of the liquor until you get a creamy consistency.
Chop two flat steaks out of the middle of the cauliflower, about 2cm in width, by slicing from the stalk up to the top of the cauliflower. Save the extra florets for another recipe or roast with salt, pepper, paprika and olive oil to serve on the side. Chop up the leaves and stems and set aside.
Season the steaks with salt, pepper and paprika on both sides, drizzle with oil and massage well. Get a frying pan up to a medium high heat, then add 2 tbsp olive oil. Once hot, add the steak. Allow to cook for 2 minutes, then press down a press or another pan carefully to get a good sear. After several minutes, flip and cook the other side until golden brown.
Bash the remaining garlic cloves, add with the butter and baste continuously for 1-2 minutes. Once cooked (golden-brown and tender) remove from the pan. Add the chopped leaves and stems with a splash of more oil. Cook until golden and crisp, about 3 minutes.
To serve, spoon the bean purée into the middle of a plate and smoosh outwards. Place the steak on top, drizzle with chimichurri, scatter over the cauli leaves and enjoy!

CAULIFLOWER STEAK 2.0

Naturally, after the popularity of my first cauliflower steak recipe, I decided to play around with some different flavour and ingredient combinations. This was a recipe I developed for Pub In The Park last year. Very similar to the above, but with some simple, colourful additions. I added some fresh herbs into the bean purée to get things gloriously green. Then, I landed on a harissa tahini for drizzling purposes, alongside a scattering of pomegranate seeds and coriander for garnish.

Colourful, fresh, and full of flavour, this one is another show-stopping way of doing cauliflower steaks. So if you’ve tried the OG recipe, why not give this variation a go - and as always, let me know how it goes in the comments below.

INGREDIENTS (serves 2)

(follow above for cauliflower preparation)

HARISSA TAHINI

4 tbsp tahini

1 tsp harissa paste

1 garlic clove

1 lemon

3 tbsp water

BUTTER BEAN PURÉE

500g butter beans (jarred best)

60g fresh green herbs (I used mint + parsley)

1 lemon

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

+ pomegranate seeds for garnish

METHOD

(Follow above for cauliflower steak preparation).
For the bean base, strain the beans (reserve liquid), then pour into a blender with the green herbs, a grating of lemon zest, nutritional yeast + olive oil. Blend until smooth, adding a splash of bean liquid to adjust consistency. Season with salt, pepper + a squeeze of lemon juice if you like.
To make the sauce, pour the tahini into a mixing bowl. Add the harissa, lemon juice, then grate in the garlic clove. Whisk to mix, adding water gradually to loosen until desired consistency is reached. Season to taste with salt + pepper.
(Follow cauliflower steak recipe above), then to plate up, spoon the bean purée into the middle of a plate. Place the steak on top, drizzle with the tahini, scatter over the cauli leaves, then garnish with pomegranate seeds + fresh green herbs.

MORE ON MONACO…

Whilst cauliflower is of course the star on The Veg Table this week, shout out to the other wonderful vegetables AND people I was working with in Monaco. Thanks to Elly (@ellysplate), Jesse (@adip), Phillip (@phitzee), Rhi (@rhi.scran), Mia (@twistedgreen) and Christina (@christinasots) for flying out to partake in the event - it made the evening all the more enjoyable. It also helps that all of us just LOVE our vegetables. A really lovely group that I was so grateful to have with me!

As I mentioned earlier, the evening consisted of a canapé service featuring a selection of dishes I helped develop. Here, you can see the Green Gazpacho and Panzanella - which were refreshing in all the right ways. The idea was that once you make Panzanella, you can easily use the leftovers and turn it into a Gazpacho by blending and chilling it. I love this sort of recipe, as it showcases the versatility of vegetables, and encourages a zero-waste approach to cooking we should all be striving towards. Chef Ramos also served a selection of small bites, which were to die for - think stuffed courgette flowers, beetroot hummus, and all sorts more.

Not counting Edinburgh, this was actually my first work trip abroad, which is pretty exciting! Working with Novotel and my wonderful group of creators was such fun, and the wonderful evening we had, celebrating all things vegetables and delicious plant-forward food, really was the icing on the cauliflower cake. Stay tuned for plenty more exciting updates on my work with Novotel in the not too distant future…

TURNING 26 + CELEBRATING 7 YEARS

Yep - I turned 26 a couple weeks back - happy birthday me! Amidst the mayhem of the new place, Angelica treated me to a lovely day out - we had matcha, ate some very tasty pastries, went for a swim in the London Fields lido, enjoyed ourselves a drink in Borough Market, and went for dinner at the delicious Brother Marcus in Angel - very tasty Mediterranean food, would highly recommend. It really was lovely to take the day off work, have a quiet day away from everything, let off some steam, and spend some quality time together. Speaking of together…

The day after my birthday, Angelica and I celebrated our SEVEN year anniversary. It was a Tuesday, so after Angelica had finished up at work, we headed to Sen Viet in Kings Cross. And my GOD was it good. Properly authentic Vietnamese food and a great selection of meatless options too. You’ve got to go and visit. Anyway, in keeping with the theme of today, here’s a photo of us when I cooked her - you guessed it - a cauliflower steak. Geli, if you’re reading (I think you would have stopped at this point) - I LOVE YOU!

UNTIL NEXT TIME…

It is really just absolutely mad that we are now approaching the end of June. Where HAS the time gone? Anyway, it’s baking in London this week, so plenty of salads and simple meals for me. It might even be time to make some gazpacho (my absolute favourite).

I know last time I promised you more updates on the state of affairs in our new place. The good news is that we are making GREAT progress - plastering has been finished, tiling is almost there, decorators have started, and builders are pretty much done too. But quite honestly, it’s just been a bit intense living in half a building site, so haven’t felt like documenting things too much over the last week or so. In any case, I’ll dive deeper into things next time once things have calmed down a bit. Hopefully by that point we’ll have a shower haha! Then after that, we’ve just some shelves and extra storage space to organise with the joiner and architect. Oh, and the wardrobe. And buying furniture. Oh and sorting out the garden. And doing upstairs floors. Look, there’s ALWAYS more to do hey - but that’s all part of the fun.

Anyway, I’ll leave it there for today. Enjoy your cauliflower. Enjoy the sunshine, if it’s sunny wherever you’re reading. Thank you for being here, and have a lovely weekend - until next time!

Alfie x