Roasted cauliflower and potato warm salad
Another recipe riffing on Jerusalem, I'm afraid. Near the beginning of the book, there's a roasted cauliflower salad with handfuls of herbs and hazelnuts. It looks great, but I'm no huge fan of hazelnuts, and wanted something rather more substantial. So I dicked about with it:
This eats well enough either partly cooled after roasting or chilled later, and if you want to give it a kick, you can toss some harissa through it. It would also take chorizo if you felt meat was required.
Ingredients:
- Cauliflower (a small-ish one)
- New or baby potatoes (I think I used 5 or 6)
- An onion
- feta cheese
- Garlic
- Flat leaf parsley
- Olive oil
- Cider vinegar (maybe lemon juice instead?)
- Fennel seeds
- Cumin seeds
- Caraway seeds
- Optional spring onions
Instructions:
Break the cauliflower into small florets, and halve or quarter the potatoes so they're a similar size. Toss them in an oven dish with plenty of oil and a good pinch of each of the spices, and try to distribute the veg pieces so they're a single layer.Roast on a high heat for 10-15 minutes, until the cauliflower browns in spots and the potatoes are heading towards done.Chop the garlic, quarter the onions, and add both to the cauliflower and potato mix. You can add more spices at this stage if you think it'll need it. Return the veg to the oven for another 10-15 mins, at a slightly lower heat, until the potatoes are done and the onions soft.When it's all cooked, remove from the oven and let it cool a bit.Chop the parsley and the spring onions if you're using them, and mix them through the warm veg with a splash of cider vinegar, salt, pepper, and crumbled feta.
I ate this this on its own, warm, as a light evening meal yesterday. But I reckon it's go well with dal as something more substantial. It would go nicely, too, on the side of simple grilled meat (or fish). A dollop of something spicy at the end would give it a kick - harissa as mentioned or even grain mustard.Roasting the cauliflower until it browns a little gives it a richness you just don't see if you boil or steam the stuff. Plus, it retains a crunch. There's something almost umami-ish lurking in there that goes well with the fennel/cumin combo. I would absolutely do this again, but I'd probably cut down the relative quantity of potato, and just let the cauliflower stand out.