Gordon Ramsay’s cauliflower steak from Ramsay in 10 is braised in butter with garlic and bay, then topped with toasted almonds and salsa verde. The whole thing is on your plate in 10 minutes. The salsa verde uses mint, dill, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard and brown sugar, which is what separates this from every plain roasted cauliflower recipe.
He made this because his family went vegetarian. “On steak night it can be a lonely night” he says in the Ramsay in 10 episode. Teaches Cooking II has a second cauliflower steak with harissa, porcini mushrooms and olive pistou, which I cover below.
The technique is a fondant baste, the same method he uses on a rib eye. Braise it covered for 6-7 minutes, then remove the lid and spoon the butter over the top until it glazes. “No colour, no flavour, even when I’m talking about cauliflower” he says, and that golden crust really does make or break the dish.
Gordon Ramsay’s Cauliflower Steak with Salsa Verde
Course: DinnerCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy2
5
minutes10
minutes620
kcal15
minutesFrom Ramsay in 10, a centre-cut cauliflower steak braised in butter then topped with toasted almonds and a piquant green sauce made with mint, dill, red wine vinegar and Dijon mustard. Serve with roasted new potatoes and a bitter green salad as Ramsay suggests in the cookbook.
Ingredients
- For the cauliflower:
1 cauliflower
40g (1½ oz) butter
1 bay leaf
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed with the side of a knife
100ml (scant ½ cup) water
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- For the toasted almonds:
30g (⅓ cup) flaked or chopped almonds
1 tsp cumin seeds
- For the green sauce:
2 tbsp mint leaves
2 tbsp dill
1 tbsp oregano leaves (or ½ tsp dried)
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tsp dark brown sugar
2 tsp Dijon mustard
80ml (scant ⅓ cup) olive oil
- For the garnish:
1 banana shallot or 2 regular shallots, sliced into rings
3 tbsp flat-leaf parsley leaves
Directions
- Cut the steaks: Slice two thick steaks from the centre of the cauliflower. Save the remaining florets for cauliflower cheese, soup or couscous.
- Braise: Place the steaks in a shallow frying pan with a lid. Add half the butter, the bay leaf, crushed garlic and 100ml water. Cover and cook over high heat for 6-7 minutes until just soft.
- Toast the almonds: Meanwhile, put the almonds in a separate pan with the remaining butter and cumin seeds. Cook over medium heat for 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until golden brown. Set aside.
- Reduce and glaze: Remove the lid from the cauliflower pan. Turn the steaks and let the liquid reduce. Spoon the butter over the steaks to glaze them.
- Make the green sauce: Blitz all the green sauce ingredients in a blender until smooth. Season to taste.
- Assemble: Mix the parsley and shallot rings with 2 tbsp of the green sauce. Plate the steaks, spoon the almonds in butter over the top, add the parsley and shallot mixture, and drizzle with remaining green sauce.
FAQs
What goes in the salsa verde and why chop the herbs only once?
Mint, dill and oregano blitzed with 2 tbsp red wine vinegar, 2 tsp brown sugar, 2 tsp Dijon mustard and 80ml olive oil. The cookbook says to blitz it all smooth, but in the video Ramsay chops the herbs by hand.
He’s very specific about this: “chop the herbs once, because I want the freshness left in the herb.” Over-chopping makes the board turn green, which means the flavour is bleeding out instead of staying in the sauce. The blitzed version is smoother, the hand-chopped version has more texture and brighter pops of mint and dill. His Italian salsa verde adds capers and anchovies for a sharper take on the same idea.
Should you sear the cauliflower first or steam it?
The book and video actually disagree on this. In the cookbook, cauliflower goes in with butter, bay leaf, garlic and water, lid on, high heat, 6-7 minutes. In the YouTube video, he sears it in oil first to get colour, then adds liquid and steams.
Searing first gives a deeper golden crust but you risk the steak breaking apart. The book method is gentler. I use the book method and add an extra minute uncovered at the end to get some colour, which gives the best of both. You can watch him make the seared version in his Ramsay in 10 episode.
What is the harissa version with mushrooms?
Teaches Cooking II has a completely different version: charred cauliflower with harissa, served with olive pistou, porcini mushrooms, shallots, capers and mint. Ramsay says “this is bringing cauliflower into the 21st century, gone is that cauliflower mornay, gone is that gray, boiled cauliflower.”
You can marinate the steaks in olive oil, harissa and seasoning a day ahead. He bastes them with browned butter, just like a rib eye. The olive pistou uses green olives, orange juice, lemon and parsley, so the flavour profile is completely different from the salsa verde above. His lamb steak uses the same butter-basting method if you want the technique on meat.
Is it cumin seeds or caraway seeds?
The book says cumin seeds but in the YouTube video Ramsay clearly uses caraway seeds. They look similar but taste different: cumin is warmer and earthier, caraway is more anise-like.
The caraway pairs better with the dill in the salsa verde since both have that slight liquorice note. If you can only find one, use whichever you have and toast them in the butter with the almonds either way.
What do you do with the leftover cauliflower?
Ramsay mentions in the video that the offcuts make “cauliflower and cheese, soup, purée” or even a cauliflower couscous. You only get two proper steaks from one head, so there will be plenty left over.
The Ramsay in 10 cookbook actually has a Bacon Cauliflower Cheese on Toast recipe that uses those exact offcuts. So buy one cauliflower and get two meals out of it. His roast potatoes are the side dish he suggests in the cookbook headnote, and his ratatouille is another quick vegetarian main if you want to keep the whole meal meat-free.
