However hard we try, we cannot live on sweet things alone. I’ve been enjoying working on a glut of new recipes for granola, brownies and smoothie bowls, but finally my palate has rebelled and I’ve needed some nutritious savoury dishes to reset the balance.
Like most of my favourite recipes, this roasted cauliflower dish is both simple and flexible. You can use different spices, different herbs, different oil, creme fraiche (I use oatly) instead of yogurt and just generally mix it up to suit your taste and the ingredients that you can get hold of (and you can always comment and ask if you need tips on this).
Despite the fact, a lot of us are at home and have the time to cook, it can be hard to find the motivation – but it’s so easy to get started with this one: Just brush the cauliflower with oil and spices and put in the oven and everything else can be done while it’s cooking (including the washing up).
Eating properly is a positive step that we can take in uncertain times and I always feel better for it. I also recommend making double so you have a meal for the next day (there’s just two of us so we follow the recipe as is, but if you’re a family then it’s very little extra work to roast two or three cauliflowers and scale up the yogurt and dressing).
Hope you enjoy this one and please do get in touch with feedback for the blog – including what you’d like to see more of. Stay safe and healthy!
Serves 4
INGREDIENTS
Cauliflower
- 1 large cauliflower head
- 3-4 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp harissa
- 1 tsp paprika
- salt and pepper
Tahini Yogurt
- ¾ cup/195g dairy-free yogurt
- ¼ cup/60g tahini
- zest of 1 lemon
- ½ Tbsp lemon juice
- salt
Herb Dressing
- 1 cup (loosely packed)/28g herbs (I used half parsley and half coriander)
- ¼ cup/60ml olive oil
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- 1 Tbsp capers
- ¼ tsp mustard powder
- salt and pepper to taste
To Serve
- toasted pine nuts
- pomegranate seeds
METHOD
- Preheat the oven to 180C.
- Cut any large leaves off the cauliflower head (you can use the leaves to make crispy snacks so don’t throw them away!) and cut off the stalk from the base so that the head can sit upright on a baking tray.
- Stir together the harissa, paprika and 3-4 Tbsps of oil (use the larger amount if the cauliflower head is particularly large).
- Brush the oil mixture over the cauliflower, covering it well.
- Place in the oven for 50 – 70 minutes (will depend on size and how tender you like it). If it starts to brown too much, you can cover with foil (or place a baking tray on the shelf above).
- While the cauliflower cooks, make the tahini yogurt: mix together the yogurt, tahini, lemon zest and lemon juice. Add salt to taste. Store in the fridge.
- Make the herb dressing by placing all the ingredients in a food processor and mixing to a chunky pesto-like consistency. Taste and adjust flavours by adding salt, mustard, capers or garlic powder if necessary.
- When the cauliflower is cooked, remove from the oven and serve straightaway with the yogurt, herb dressing, pine nuts and pomegranate seeds.
- This dish goes really well stuffed into a pitta or accompanied by slices of homemade garlic bread!
