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This Cauliflower Parmesan recipe is a favorite meatless dinner of mine! It features breaded and roasted cauliflower steaks layered with melty cheese and marinara, then served over your favorite pasta.
This Italian-style dish is gluten-free, grain-free, vegetarian, and so delicious!
Easy Breaded Cauliflower Steaks
This Cauliflower Parmesan recipe is one of my favorite recipes to whip up when I’m craving a vegetarian meal! It perfectly emulates classic chicken parmesan using big pieces of breaded cauliflower.
Just like my homemade chicken parmesan, these cauliflower steaks are breaded in our homemade gluten-free breadcrumb mixture, baked until deliciously crispy, then topped with marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese.
These cauliflower steaks are tender, meaty, savory, cheesy, saucy, and so delicious—a meal even meat lovers will enjoy!
Why is Cauliflower Steak Often Called Steak?
Cauliflower steak gets its name because it’s often served as a vegetarian substitute to steak! When sliced, it also takes on a shape similar to that of a piece of steak.
Ingredients Needed
- Cauliflower: You’ll need two heads of cauliflower to make the 4 steaks.
- Egg Wash: Our egg wash is made with mix of egg, water, and salt. This helps the breading stick and makes the exterior nice and crispy.
- Breading: The breading is made with a combination of almond flour, Italian seasoning, garlic granules, sea salt, and optional red pepper flakes.
- Toppings: You’ll top your baked cauliflower with marinara sauce, mozzarella cheese, fresh basil, and red pepper flakes for the perfect vegetarian chicken parmesan fake-out!
How Do You Cut Cauliflower Steaks So They Don’t Fall Apart?
The cauliflower falling apart at least a little bit is pretty much unavoidable. You will definitely end up with some spare florets.
Here’s the slicing method that works best for me:
- Start by carefully removing the outer leaves of the cauliflower.
- Resting the cauliflower on the stem, cut off any rounded edges.
- Once the edges are all flat, slice what is left of the cauliflower into 1/2″-thick “steaks”.
Save the spare cauliflower florets and use them in any of my healthy cauliflower recipes! They freeze great and are tasteless in smoothies, FYI!
How to Make Parmesan Roasted Cauliflower
This cauliflower parmesan recipe is so simple. Just a few easy steps until it’s going in the oven!
- Cut the cauliflower: Slice each head of cauliflower into two cauliflower “steaks” as instructed above.
- Bread and bake: In a shallow bowl, whisk together the eggs. In a separate bowl, whisk together almond flour and seasonings. Dredge the cauliflower first in the egg followed by the flour mixture. Place onto a greased baking sheet, drizzle with oil, then bake at 400ºF for 10 minutes, flip, then continue to bake for another 12 minutes.
- Add the toppings, broil, and serve: Once the cauliflower is nice and crispy, remove the baking sheet from the oven and top each of the cauliflower steaks with marinara sauce and cheese. Place them back into the oven and broil until the cheese is melty. Serve hot over the pasta of your choice!
Watch the cauliflower closely as it broils! The cheese can quickly go from perfectly melty to burnt.
Serving Suggestions
The roasted cauliflower steaks are best served hot right out of the oven. I love to serve them over gluten-free pasta, zucchini noodles, or spaghetti squash and with extra marinara!
As-is, this meal is totally satisfying. However, it pairs beautifully with so many of your favorite side dishes too. Here are some recipes you can whip up to bulk up your meal:
- Gluten-Free Garlic Bread
- Garlicky Blistered Green Beans
- Air Fryer Broccoli
- Restaurant Worthy Caesar Salad
Tips and Notes
- Leave space for roasting. Make sure that the cauliflower steaks have room on the pan as they roast. If they’re touching, the exterior will get soggy rather than crispy.
- Check the texture. Before adding on your toppings, check that your cauliflower steaks are nice and tender. You should be able to easily pierce them with a fork. If there is still resistance after baking, then they need more time.
- Prepping ahead of time? Get ahead on prep by slicing the cauliflower and storing it in the fridge. It will last for 3-5 days.
How to Store Them!
Leftover cauliflower parmesan can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 4-5 days.
To reheat, simply pop the cauliflower back in the oven on a baking sheet and bake at 350ºF until warmed and re-crisped.
More Cauliflower Recipes:
Grab a full list of Healthy Cauliflower Recipes, too!
- Everything Bagel Topped Cauliflower Rolls
- Cauliflower Baked Ziti
- Cauliflower Pizza Bites
- Chickpea and Cauliflower Curry
- Air Fryer Buffalo Cauliflower Nuggets
Cauliflower Parmesan Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 small cauliflower heads *see notes
- 2 egg
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
For the Breading:
- 1 cup almond flour
- 2 teaspoons Italian Seasoning
- 1 teaspoon garlic granules
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- Optional: Sprinkle of red pepper flakes
For the Toppings:
- 1 cup marinara sauce of choice
- 1 cup fresh mozzarella cheese grated
- Fresh basil for garnish
- Red pepper flakes for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400ºF.
- Remove outer leaves of cauliflower. Resting cauliflower on stem, cut off rounded edge and slice two 1½”-thick “steaks”, reserving remaining cauliflower florets for other use. Repeat with remaining cauliflower to create 4 “steaks” total.
- In a shallow bowl or plate, whisk together the eggs and water
- In another shallow bowl or plate, whisk together almond flour and seasoning and salt.
- Dredge cauliflower in egg mixture, then into breading mixture.
- Place on greased baking sheet and drizzle oil over cauliflower “steaks” and bake for 10 minutes.
- Take out baking sheet and carefully flip cauliflower “steaks”, drizzling olive oil on the other size and bake for another 12 minutes.
- Take out baking sheet and turn on broiler.
- Top cauliflower with marinara sauce and cheese and return to oven to broil for 3-5 minutes, watching closely so that it does not burn.
- Serve hot with pasta of choice (gluten free pasta, zucchini noodles or spaghetti squash).
I make this at least twice a month! My family and I love it!
This looks delicious! Is it possible to premake the cauliflower “steaks” for a quick week day meal?
These were amazing! Better than I could’ve hoped for! Thank you Lexi!
This was absolutely positively amazing!
I am so glad!
I am not seeing any breadcrumbs in this recipe, you mention gf breadcrumbs and the picture looks like breadcrumbs, am I missing something?
Hi Jane. If you look at the recipe you’ll see “breading”. Our gf “breadcrumbs” is almond flour!
Cauli-FOWL-er Parmesan?
(looks wonderfully savoury and tasty. Going on my list to try next week! Thank you!)
Cauliflower Parmesan?! You are AMAZING!
Wow! I need to make these! These look soooo amazing! XO