Vegetarian Smashed Cauliflower and Roasted Asparagus Sandwich
This smashed cauliflower sandwich bring back memories. Back in my restaurant days, for the longest time the restaurant had made its mark serving just two meals a day. Breakfast and lunch. It was perfect for a vegetarian place since so many dishes for those two meals can naturally be vegetarian and no one thinks twice. Poached eggs, oatmeal, salads, eggplant parmesan. We’d have regular customers come for years and never realize it was a vegetarian place until they were craving a tuna sandwich and found out after asking that their beloved cafe was a vegetarian place.
Smashed Cauliflower Sandwich
Then one summer we decided to try adding a third service, dinner. A two meal service was easy logistically to run lean and mean staffing and prep wise, but a third meal threw a huge wrench in the operations. But we all put our heads together, everyone pushed and worked hard to make a new system. Even worse than the logistics was to create a unique vegetarian dinner menu that would be special enough to attract even non-veg heads to our humble but stylish establishment. Fortunately the owner’s mom was brilliant in the kitchen. She always had a hand in developing most of the amazing recipes we served, and for the dinner menu she came up with some beauties.
Out of all the amazing dishes, there was one that was a hands down staff favorite: this cauliflower sandwich or basically a cauliflower toast. An open-face sandwich with cauliflower puree, asparagus, and a poached egg. This wasn’t a sandwich trying to convert a regular carnivore treat into a vegetarian substitution. It was a brilliant sandwich which happened to be vegetarian. So many things about the sandwich were great, but for most of us it was the cauliflower puree which sent it over the top. We could, and would, eat the cauliflower puree straight up or on some crostini. Cooked in milk with garlic until soft then pureed up. Oh so good.
You’d think the poached egg would have been the star on this cauliflower sandwich, but so many times we would make it up for ourselves without the egg. Just the cauliflower puree balanced by the asparagus. Most of us had already been working 10-12 hours by dinner time and it was nice to have something a little less rich before going home and passing out. So that’s how we’ve re-created the sandwich now here at home, staff meal style. Toast up our favorite bread, a nice thick layer of the cauliflower, which we’ve smashed instead of pureed to give an added texture. Some roasted asparagus and finished off with the sweet refreshing slices of tomatoes.
-Todd
Cooking Method:
chop cauliflower
brown the garlic
add cauliflower…
then add milk….
cook cauliflower in milk till soft
hello asparagus
roasted asparagus
voila! now assemble the cauliflower sandwich
now you can eat! and share this veggie cauliflower sandwich
Recipe was originally published in 2012 and republished in 2017 with updated photos. And here’s more cauliflower recipes for vegetarian inspiration.
Smashed Cauliflower and Roasted Asparagus Sandwich
Ingredients
Sandwich Ingredients
- Rosemary Olive Oil Bread , or your favorite bread choice
- Smashed Cauliflower , see below
- Roasted Asparagus , see below
- Tomatoes , sliced or cut into wedges
- Arugula
Smashed Cauliflower
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) Olive Oil
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons (25 ml) crushed Garlic (about 4-6 cloves)
- 2 lbs. (910 g) Cauliflower , roughly chopped (about 1 medium head)
- 2 cups (480 ml) Milk
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) Sea Salt or Kosher Salt
Roasted Asparagus
- 1 lb. (455 g) Asparagus
- a few sprigs fresh Thyme or Tarragon
- 3 Tablespoons (45 ml) Olive Oil
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) Kosher Salt
- fresh cracked Black Pepper
Instructions
- Make smashed cauliflower: In a large pot, heat olive oil on medium heat. Add garlic and cook until light golden, stirring very frequently.
- Add cauliflower and milk. Increase heat to bring to a simmer, then lower heat back to medium (should be a vigorous simmer without boiling over).
- Simmer until cauliflower is tender, about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat.
- Mash cauliflower to break down the bigger chunks. Season with salt.
- Make roasted asparagus: Preheat oven to 400º F (205º C).
- Toss asparagus, thyme, and olive oil on a sheet pan. Season with sea salt and black pepper.
- Roast in oven for 10 minutes, toss the asparagus, then continue roasting for 10-15 minutes, or until lightly browned and tender.
- Make the sandwich: Toast bread. Spread a 1/4" layer of smashed cauliflower. Lay a few spears of asparagus. Add a couple slices of tomato and arugula. Cut in half and serve.
I’m dying to try this! The asparagus sounds great. I recently made a cauliflower sandwich myself (http://kaleeats.blogspot.ca/2012/06/cauliflower-olive-tapenade-sandwich.html) and it’s my new fave. I love when an unexpected veggie shows up in a sandwich.
Wow, what a great idea! I am always looking for ways to use cauliflower. It’s absolutely not a favorite vegetable of mine and I always get it in my CSA. I even tried broccoli and cauliflower potstickers!
So pretty! What a great dish, love the colors!
Looks good, I love cauliflower. One quick question, though: once the cauliflower is soft, do you drain the milk off? Thanks
If cooked at the right temp, the milk should be mostly absorbed into the cauliflower so you won’t need to drain any off. It will be perfect after mashing.
This sandwich is just perfect without the egg! Smashed califlower sounds like something I’d want to eat again and again.
Absolutely beautiful – mashed cauliflowers on toast. I think I do have one or two heads lying around in the fridge. Will definitely try this out, with a good drizzle of garlic infused olive oil and a hearty slice of sourdough rye bread. 🙂 Thanks for sharing.
Didn’t find any cauliflower and the weather was too gloomy I simply couldn’t force myself to drop by the groceries. Tried the recipe out with pumpkin instead – very nice on whole meal toast with some Dijon mustard. The pumpkin was probably a tad sweeter than cauliflower so I increased the quantity of salt by a generous teaspoon. Consistency was good although I prefer it a bit thicker. I noted the milk curdled a bit with prolonged simmering (perhaps my pumpkins require a longer time to soften enough for mashing?) – next time I may try cooking the pumpkins the usual way, mash, and thin it out with a bit of milk at the end. Thanks again for the inspiration.
Cauliflower is one of my favorite vegetables. Once I started roasting it I can’t seem to eat it any other way because it’s so good roasted – but this sandwich is certainly tempting me to branch out again with my cauliflower preparations. Plus, we have local fresh asparagus available right now!
What a great flavor combination: cauliflower and asparagus. The genius of combining the two into a sandwich is most impressive.
A big pat on the back for the whimsical “Hi”! Very clever!
Jackie- Hi. 🙂 thank you.
Roasted asparagus? Have to try this, looks very yummy!!
This is my kind of meal. I love the asparagus Hi 🙂
Never had cauliflower on a sandwich before but suddenly have the urge. Beautiful!!
This looks really good and so unique! I made some rosemary wheat bread that it would probably be good on, too. Mmm.
This is an excellent summer sandwich for vegans. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
yum – this looks amazing you guys!
This is a lovely dish. I would not have thought of this combination. I love cauliflower and also asparagus but have never had them together. Love your “Hi” note. Very cute!
Kim – lol, thank you. The ‘Hi’ was kinda random. Glad you like it. xoxo