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This roasted apples and cauliflower with dill is a flavorful, sweet and savory side dish that works for weeknights and entertaining!

Roasted Apples & Cauliflower with Dill | Thanksgiving cauliflower recipe
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The magic of *roasted vegetables* was one of my favorite discoveries when we first started exploring cooking. I didn’t love raw cauliflower at the time, but roasted was a whole different matter: rich, almost buttery goodness that I couldn’t help myself from snitching off the roasting pan. Can roasted vegetables be considered a gateway drug to eating nutritious foods? Eating them is one of my earliest memories of realizing healthy foods can be utterly delicious. And speaking of delicious, this roasted apples and cauliflower recipe makes vegetables taste like candy.

Our favorite cauliflower recipe? Perfect Roasted Cauliflower

Roasted apples with cauliflower and dill

Making roasted apples & cauliflower

This roasted apples with cauliflower and dill recipe is an old favorite of ours that we first made as a Thanksgiving cauliflower recipe! It’s so, so flavorful: the sweet red onions and apples are the perfect contrast to savory cauliflower, punctuated by the refreshing, aromatic fresh dill. It’s a family favorite, for sure. If you do try it, make sure to get a hold of some fresh dill; it will likely have to be store-bought since the growing season is over by now in Indiana, but it’s absolutely worth it for the splurge.

Roasted apples and cauliflower is a flavorful, sweet and savory side dish that works for various diets (vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free). This recipe takes about 50 minutes to prepare, but the time is mostly hands off. And for the flavor, it’s worth every minute of the wait. We also love the way the colors turn out: the purple of the onion, the almost bright pink of the roasted apple, and the green of the fluffy dill fronds.

Video: How to cut cauliflower

The most challenging part of this roasted apples & cauliflower recipe is actually how to cut cauliflower! Alex and I have a great new method that doesn’t end up with crumbles all over the cutting board! Watch the video below of me showing how to cut cauliflower in our kitchen.

Roasted apples and cauliflower with dill | Thanksgiving cauliflower recipe

Looking for more fall recipes?

Looking for more outside of this roasted apples with cauliflower? Here are a few of our favorite fall recipes on A Couple Cooks:

Looking for more cauliflower recipes?

Cauliflower is one of our favorite vegetables to work with! Here are a few more of our favorite cauliflower recipes:

This recipe is…

This roasted apples and cauliflower with dill recipe is vegetarian, gluten-free, vegan, dairy-free and plant-based.

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Roasted Apples & Cauliflower with Dill

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This roasted apples and cauliflower with dill is a flavorful, sweet and savory side dish that works for weeknights and entertaining!

  • Author: a Couple Cooks
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 40 minutes
  • Total Time: 50 minutes
  • Yield: 4 to 6 1x
  • Category: Side Dish
  • Method: Roasted
  • Cuisine: American

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 large cauliflower (2¼ pounds whole; 7 cups chopped)
  • 1 large red onion
  • 2 crisp tart apples (like Honey Crisp, Jonathon or Jonagold, Granny Smith, Gala, or Fuji)
  • 2 tablespoons fresh dill (do not substitute dried)
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • Fresh ground black pepper

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 450°F.
  2. Chop the cauliflower into florets (watch the video below). Slice the onion. Core and chop the apples into bite-sized pieces, but leave the skins on. Coarsely chop the dill.
  3. Place the cauliflower, red onion, and apples into a large bowl and mix together with the olive oil, kosher salt and plenty of fresh ground pepper.
  4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the chopped vegetables on the baking sheet, then roast for 30 to 40 minutes until the cauliflower is tender and slightly browned, stirring twice during the baking time. Remove from the oven, stir in the dill, and place in a serving dish. Serve immediately.

Notes

Inspired by The Herbal Kitchen

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About the authors

Alex & Sonja

Hi! We’re Alex & Sonja Overhiser, authors of the acclaimed cookbooks A Couple Cooks and Pretty Simple Cooking—and a real life couple who cooks together. We founded the A Couple Cooks website in 2010 to share seasonal recipes and the joy of home cooking. Now, we’ve got over 3,000 well-tested recipes, including Mediterranean diet, vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, smoothies, cocktails, and more!

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20 Comments

  1. Fred Lee says:

    40 mins at 450 burns everything






    1. Sonja Overhiser says:

      Hi there! The roasting time depends on how small you cut the cauliflower and apples, and also on your particular oven. Check at 30 to 35 minutes for tenderness — we’ve added some notes to the recipe!

  2. Deborah says:

    SERIOUS OMISSION… Did not specify what varieties of apples work for this recipe, just generic “apples”. I used what I had on hand (Northern Spy) and quickly learned that the type of apple is vital to the success of this recipe. At 450° the apples quickly turned to mush and then blackened and burned. This turned the entire dish to an unappetizing mess. Salvaging the cauliflower wasn’t an option because the burned “applesauce” had coated it. I am sure that with the right apples this is a wonderful recipe but please revise it to include suggested varieties before others waste food and time like I did. Many thanks!

    1. Sonja Overhiser says:

      Hello Deborah, we are so sorry to hear this happened! We were not familiar with the Northern Spy apple and did not realize it reacted like that in the oven! We did a little research and it says the Northern Spy can be used for roasting, so it’s interesting that this happened. We just added a note to the recipe to use only crisp tart apples (like Honey Crisp, Jonathon or Jonagold, Granny Smith, Gala, or Fuji). One question: did you happen to peel the apples? The instructions indicate to leave the peel on, which helps to hold the apples together in the oven. Let us know!

  3. Raeanne says:

    I am from Ohio and right now, we are being overwhelmed by all of the dill growing in our yard! We are also vegetarians and I am looking forward to trying this recipe. Thanks!

  4. Amaryah says:

    wonderful, thank you!! Several of your recipes have made their way onto my Thanksgiving menu!

    1. Sonja says:

      Oooo fantastic! We’re excited: let us know what you think!

  5. Amaryah says:

    Can this be made ahead and kept warm and/or reheated? Definitely going to be added to my menu, just wondering how to be strategic… Thanks for all your wonderful recipes!

    1. Sonja says:

      Yes, this can be made ahead and reheated! I would reheat in a 375F oven, and wait to add the fresh dill until right before serving. I hope you like it — this is one of our favorites!

  6. rachel @ athletic avocado says:

    this sounds incredible! I love roasted cauliflower and the addition of apple and dill sound to-die-for!

  7. Katie @ Whole Nourishment says:

    I made this tonight and it was so easy and delicious. And the apple and dill kept it interesting. Added a squeeze of lemon and chickpeas to round it out for a full meal.

  8. Katie @ Whole Nourishment says:

    You know I like roasted cauliflower dishes so I’m anxious to try this one out. I really love the red onion, dill, and apples in this and will definitely be trying when I get home from my US trip!

  9. Kristin says:

    This looks absolutely beautiful! I can’t wait to try it. Thank you for all of your hard work!

    1. Sonja says:

      Thank YOU! Let us know if you give it a try!

  10. Kathryn @ The Scratch Artist says:

    I love simple roasted vegetable dishes like this. Chop, season, send it to the oven, and then you have a magical dish on your hands. It is amazing how roasting deepens and enriches the flavors so dramatically. I’m looking forward to giving this combination a try.

    1. Sonja says:

      I love how you put that: “deepens and enriches the flavors so dramatically”! I couldn’t agree more — I think you’d love this one.

  11. Allyson says:

    This looks so lovely. And I agree with Ksenia- this is the type of thing that I’m most likely to throw together some night. We’re still throwing together our Thanksgiving menu, but I know it’s going to include Molly Wizenburg’s cranberry chutney.

    1. Sonja says:

      That sounds fantastic — we’ll have to check that out too! What else is in the running on your menu?

  12. Ksenia @ At the Immigrant's Table says:

    I enjoyed following your whole veggie Thanksgiving series, but I find that it’s simple dishes like this one that are actually likely to get made, let alone repeated in most households. Thanks for sharing!

    1. Sonja says:

      I agree! This one has been repeated quite a bit in ours too :)

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