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Jamaican Jerk Cauliflower is inspired by the popular Jamaican Jerk dishes. Cauliflower florets are seasoned and baked, then smothered in homemade Jamaican Jerk Sauce that is full of bold and indulgent flavors.
Growing up in Jamaica, Jamaican Jerk chicken was very popular. It was sold mostly as a street food, enjoyed by the locals and tourists alike. 19 years ago, I stopped eating meat so I had to resort to making my own jerk sauce to add to tofu or vegetables.
This version is my own, I tried to make it as natural as possible using fresh ingredients. From memory, the sauce has several variations to it. The main base ingredients are allspice, thyme, green onions and scotch bonnet peppers.
Interestingly, I asked my hubby about how they made jerk sauce where he lived on the island and he said he rarely ate jerk chicken so he couldn't tell.
For this recipe, I'm going to use tomato sauce and orange juice, but I have used pineapple juice and ketchup before. If you don't like a lot of heat, feel free to leave the scotch bonnet pepper out.
Substitute your favorite sweetener as well to taste, maple syrup would taste great. While I was making this batch, I whipped up extra and added it to baked tofu and it was delicious as well.
I love to serve it with Jamaican Rice and Peas and Oven Baked Plantains.
I baked the cauliflower florets using a slight variation one of my popular Cauliflower Nuggets recipe, you are also free to saute your florets instead. While the florets were baking, I made the sauce using a food processor. I then cooked the sauce for 5 minutes then smothered the baked nuggets in the sauce. At this point, I served mine but you can put it back in the oven for another 5-10 minutes.
It tasted so good, took me back to Jamaica, where life is laid back and as we say, "Jamaica No Problem."
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- Energy:
- 95 kcal / 397 kJ
- Fat:
- 1 g
- Protein:
- 5 g
- Carbohydrate:
- 21 g
Ingredients
- 1 medium head cauliflower, cut into small florets
Batter
- 1/2 cup unsweetened non-dairy milk, (I use almond milk) or vegan mayo
- 1/2 cup brown rice flour, or other gluten-free flour
- 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast flakes
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- Pinch of turmeric
- 1 teaspoon salt
Jerk Sauce
- 2 spring onions, roughly chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, chopped
- 2 teaspoons grated ginger
- 6 allpice berries
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, (optional)
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, (optional)
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/4 Scotch Bonnet, or habanero pepperseeds removed and discarded (optional)
- 1/4 cup Bragg's liquid aminos, Tamari soy sauce (gluten-free)
- 1/4 cup tomato sauce
- 1/4 cup orange juice
- 1/4 cup raw cane sugar, or more to taste
- 2 tablespoons molasses
- 1 lime, juiced
- spring onions, for garnish
- Preparation:
- 10 min
- Cooking:
- 30 min
- Ready in:
- 40 min
Instructions
Preheat oven 400 degrees. Lightly grease and line baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside
Combine batter ingredients in a bowl and whisk to form a loose batter, may need to add some water.
Dip florets into batter one by one and place onto the baking sheet. Spray or brush with oil. Bake for 30 minutes until golden brown and crispy, turning halfway.
While cauliflower is baking, prepare the sauce.
Place all the ingredients for the sauce in a high speed blender or food processor. Process until smooth.
Pour sauce into a medium saucepan on medium heat. Cook stirring constantly until sauce thickens, about 3-5 minutes.
Toss cauliflower florets with sauce.Delicious served with rice and peas!
Notes
This looks incredible. Please come to my house and cook this for me! 🤣
Hahaha, thank you Debbie!
I’ll have to put this through the myfitnesspal app to see how much sodium it contains. I’d like it to be low and this sounds amazing. Perhaps, avoiding the salt will be enough. This looks like such an explosion of tastes that I don’t think the salt will be missed
Sounds like a wonderful idea Kate, please enjoy!
Hi, Can I make this ahead of time and reheat it ?
Rosemary, personally I prefer to make this recipe the day of. I love the idea of the cauliflower itself being on the firm side by just having the sauce poured on the baked cauliflower florets right before serving. It will be soft and soggy when reheated after the cauliflower have been soaking in the sauce overnight.
Absolutely delicious! Will definitely make again. Really loved the flavor, thanks so much for creating and sharing this wonderful recipe!
I”m happy you enjoyed it Anne, you are welcome.
If I could give This a 6th star, I would! This recipe was AMAZINGGGG!!!! I know a recipe is good when I start dancing while eating and I was DANCINGGG! THANK YOU!!!
Deanna you make my day, thank you very much for your feedback. I love that you are dancing, a great way to burn calories.
Hello
I’m sorry but how do you make the batter?
Sha, I have edited the recipe and added the section for the batter.
URGENT! Hey, me again – just wanna point out that you haven’t specified which ingredients are the batter ingredients and which are the sauce ones! We are making this tomorrow – can you please tell us! Adele :)
So sorry Adele, just seeing this. Will edit now!
Hey!! Can you please tell me how many serving this makes?
Thank you
Adele
Adele, going through the recipe I realize that I didn’t transcribe the method properly so I’m going to revisit it today and make an update after I’m finished making it and reshooting photos. Myfitnesspal is a great app to use for nutritional info but this recipe. A 2 lb head of cauliflower is about 6 servings.
I’m going to make these for my hubby tonight!:) Thanks so much for this recipe! I’ll have to substitute some of the ingredients, but i’m looking forward to making it. Thanks again!
This is a great idea, a new recipe for cauliflower!
Awesome Tamara, hope you enjoyed it!