Roasted Cauliflower with Dates, Olives, Rosemary, and Red Pepper

As I've noted before, cauliflower gets sadly overlooked.  This recipe from running with tweezers pulls out all the stops in redeeming it, however, and I think it succeeds.

I didn't really change anything; I just upped the olives and reduced the rosemary.  In the end, roasted cauliflower is its own reward.

Roasted Cauliflower with Dates, Olives, Rosemary, and Red Pepper

(from running with tweezers)

Ingredients

1 medium (4-5″ in diameter) head of cauliflower, tough stems/leaves removed & cut into florets

1 TB extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp fresh ground black pepper

1/4 c earth balance

10 Medjool dates, pits removed & roughly chopped

15 green olives, pitted and roughly chopped

1-2 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves removed from the stems then roughly chopped

kosher salt, to taste

red pepper flakes, to tase

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 F. In a large roasting pan or baking sheet, toss the cauliflower florets with the olive oil and the fresh ground black pepper. Once the oven comes up to temperature, roast the cauliflower for 20-25 minutes (depending on your oven) until tender with some caramelized brown spots. You’re not looking for char – just nice touches of golden brown.
2. About 2 minutes before you’re going to pull the cauliflower from the oven, heat the earthbalance in a large saucepan over medium heat. Allow to start to bubble and brown ever so slightly. Throw in the chopped rosemary, dates and olives and saute until heated through – you don’t want the rosemary to get black, though. Pull the cauliflower from the oven. You can either drizzle the butter/date/olive mixture over the cauliflower in the roasting pan and toss….or you can put the cauliflower in the butter mixture if your saute pan is big enough. Either will work. Taste a tiny floret & season with salt and red pepper accordingly. Serve immediately.  Serves about 4.