I’m completely in love with cauliflower. It’s so versatile, but everybody thinks the opposite is true. OK, so I do make a lot of cauliflower soups (latest one here) and, of course, the obvious cauliflower cheese appears quite often on our dining table. But really, honestly, there are so many more things to do with a cauli’. Here, I’ve roasted it with a little turmeric and oil, then combined with cous cous, pine nuts, sultana and coriander for a Morrocan style lunch or side dish. It’s dead easy, really rather posh, and extremely healthy. Absolutely delicious too, the crunch of the nuts and sweet sultanas are lovely with the burnished vegetables.
My next idea with this versatile vegetable is to turn it into fritters. I’m thinking cooked, crushed cauli’ mixed with some feta and some cumin… Mmm, watch this space, people. I’m sure you’re all on tenterhooks. It’s lovely in curries too. Not to mention with ice cream!!! OK, the last one was a hilarious joke. But you get my point; there’s more to this veg than we give it credit for! What do you do most often with cauliflower?
I ate this filling salad for lunch, but it would make a great accompaniment to roast lamb. I served it warmish, but it’s good cold too. Try adding a dollop of seasoned yoghurt on top to eat.
Serves: 4 adults as a lunch or side dish
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 35 minutes
Total time: 45 minutes
Ingredients:
1 medium cauliflower, broken into same-ish size florets
1 teaspoon of turmeric
2 tablespoons of olive oil or rape seed oil
1 teaspoon of salt
125g cous cous, cooked in 200ml of a light hot stock
100g pine nuts, toasted
50g sultanas
More salt and pepper, to taste
Squeeze of lemon juice
To serve:
Yoghurt
Sprinkling of paprika and ground coriander
Handful of fresh coriander, roughly chopped
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 180C.
- Break the cauliflower into florets – the bigger ones may need chopping in two so they’re all a similar size. Toss in a roasting pan with oil, turmeric and salt. Make sure they are covered equally in the seasoning. Roast for 30-35 minutes.
- Meanwhile, make the cous cous by pouring hot stock over grains and leaving for 5 minutes. Fork through when all the liquid has soaked in. Season with a little oil, salt and pepper. Set aside.
- Toast your pine nuts carefully in a pan, they should only take a few minutes – watch the pan closely and move the nuts around a lot, as they ben quickly. Set aside once toasted.
- When the cauliflower is done, simply mix with cous cous, sprinkle in the toasted nuts and sultanas too, squeeze some lemon over and season again with salt and pepper.
- Top with fresh coriander to serve and maybe a little seasoned yoghurt too.
I’m entering this recipe into Ren Behan’s Simple and in Season link-up, hosted by Utterly Scrummy. Wish me luck! : )
I have just made this dish and it is truly fab! Never roasted cauliflower before, definitely will be in future. Didn't have any pine nuts so substituted flaked almonds.
Almonds are a great idea to go with this dish – bet it was lovely! Thanks for stopping by! X