Roasted Cauliflower, Lentil, and Pomegranate Salad

 

I was so taken with the perfect looking and reasonably priced cauliflower at the markets that two found their way into my basket, and this recipe evolved. The humble but oh so versatile Cauliflower is quite abundant at the moment and deserves to be the star of the show in this salad. However, the pink pomegranate jewels are definitely trying to steal the limelight, but it's not a competition really.

Warm Cauliflower Salad with Sweet Potato Purée

Warm cauliflower salad with Sweet Potato puree, will bring healthy fresh vegetables to your meal table in a delicious and attractive way. Cauliflower loves to be the hero of the dish and combined with sweet potato, feta cheese, chickpeas, red onion and zesty Middle Eastern spices is a meal in itself. We all need to be eating more veges.

In My Kitchen, October 2024

 It's been a while since I posted an In My Kitchen, but we are now home after 3 months away in Cairns in Far North Queensland, so grab a cuppa and make yourself comfortable, I have lots to tell you. It was really lovely to be away and with our family, but there's no place like home.

Very tasty Cauliflower Cheese Steaks

 

Baked cauliflower, dressed in shredded Red Leicester Cheese, more eye-catchingly orange than red, with tasty spices added, and for the finishing touch, a crunchy parmesan crumb strewn throughout. This dish can confidently go solo taking centre stage, for a delicious vegetarian meal, perfect for Meat Free Monday. When baked, cauliflower becomes such a sweet vegetable, and keeps its shape and firmness beautifully. We really enjoyed it just on its own, but feel free to eat it with a salad, or any other side dish of your choice. 

Curried Egg and Cauliflower Salad

Do you remember Coronation Chicken which was served originally as "Poulet Reine Elizabeth"? Well as Yotam Ottelenghi says at the beginning of his recipe, this is what it would taste like if you replaced the chicken with cauliflower and boiled eggs, and I wholeheartedly agree with him. You will need to taste this salad to understand what I am talking about. Beautiful fresh vegetables and boiled eggs lightly coated in a  curry cream sauce is the basis of this recipe. However if you really want chicken to be involved, bake a chicken on the weekend and serve this healthy and delicious salad with it. Cauliflowers are very well priced at the moment so now is the time to buy up big on cauliflower and embrace their versatility. I believe they are one of the most adaptable vegetables to have on hand, and I often eat bits and pieces raw while I am chopping and cooking with them.

Le Cordon Bleu, London is one of the oldest cookery schools in London. Rosemary Hume, the founder of the school and her students, prepared the Coronation Luncheon in January 1953, for Queen Elizabeth and 350 guests in the great Hall of Westminster School. This event made Le Cordon Bleu and the recipe famous and it is still served today as Poulet Reine Elizabeth in some British restaurants.  I remember eating it at a restaurant in Mackay just after we first moved here around 35 years ago. I've never forgotten it, absolutely delicious. Some of you will be aware that Queen Elizabeth then toured Australia the following year in 1954, and I was lucky enough to be able to dress up and catch a glimpse of her, albeit from my pram, but my Mum always loved to tell that story. Anyway enough nostalgia, we need to make this salad.

This  is also one of the more simple recipes that I have cooked, and also absolutely delicious. We ate it over two days. This is my version of Yotam Ottolenghi's recipe from his book "Simple".

Ingredients:

Serves four to six people

1 medium cauliflower, trimmed and broken into 3-4cm florets: keeping the tender green leaves (500g)

1 onion, sliced into 1cm thick wedges (180g)

2 tbsp Extra Virgin olive oil

1 tbsp mild curry powder (I used good old reliable Clive of India) (divide into 2 + 1 teaspoons)

9 large eggs

4 fresh red radishes

100 g Greek-style yoghurt (I use Valia for it's probiotic qualities)

50g mayonnaise

1/2 tsp regular chilli flakes (be brave it isn't too  much), or 1 tsp of Aleppo if you can find them

1 tsp cumin seeds, toasted and roughly crushed

2 lemons, 1 squeezed to get 1 tbsp juice and the second cut into 4-6 wedges, to serve

10g tarragon, roughly chopped, I used a bit more but I have it growing.

salt and black pepper

Method: 

Preheat the oven to 230 deg,C.

Bake the cauliflower, onion and spices. Mix the cauliflower florets and any young tender leaves in tact, in a large bowl with the onion, oil, 2 teaspoons curry powder, 3/4 teaspoon of salt and plenty of pepper. Spread the combined mixture out onto a a baking tray lined with baking paper, and roast for 15 minutes, until the cauliflower is soft and golden brown but still retaining a bite. It needs to be tender enough to eat at this stage without falling apart, as an indicator. I also used a skewer to test it. Stick it back in the oven for another few minutes if you think it needs a bit longer. 

Remove the tray from the oven and place on a cooling rack.

Boil the eggs. Fill a medium saucepan with plenty of water and bring to the boil on a high heat. Reduce the heat to a medium simmer and carefully lower the eggs into the water on a large spoon, and boil gently for 10 minutes, until hard-boiled. Drain the eggs, then return then to the saucepan and fill with cold water so that they chill and stop cooking. This also prevents that dark ring forming around the yolk of the egg. 

When they are just cool, carefully remove the shells from the eggs by peeling them, and place them in a large bowl and break them roughly with the back of a fork to form large chunks. This whole eggy process could be done the day before serving and kept in a lidded container in the refrigerator. I have to restrain myself from not eating the mashed egg there and then on a sandwich with mayo.

Slice the radishes and keep them chilled in the refrigerator.

Make the Yoghurt Sauce. In another separate smaller bowl, mix together the yoghurt, mayonnaise, the lemon juice,  the remaining 1 teaspoon of curry powder, half the chilli flakes, the cumin, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. 

Assemble everything. Combine the eggs, with the cooled cauliflower and onion, the radishes and the tarragon and add the sauce. Mix this together well, and spoon the mixture onto a large serving plate. Sprinkle over the remaining chilli flakes, and little bit of chopped tarragon, and garnish with the lemon wedges. Bon appetit!

I've learned not to be concerned when my day isn't planned. The need to plan is such a spin off from working all of my life, when my days were pretty much planned out, but now it's amazing how unplanned days become some of the best. The simple things in a day can bring me the most pleasure and make me smile. An early morning walk around the garden now that's it's Spring, the discovery of a tomato on our new tomato bush that is ripening, and the flowers emerging on the bean vines with the promise of a good crop to come in the Summer months hopefully. We bought a Cumquat tree last week, a dwarf Nagami, however I've learned that in the tropics dwarf can mean normal sized, normal can mean giant. Given the success of my latest cumquat marmalade, and Mr. HRK's love for jams and marmalades especially cumquat, we invested in a tree. So the unruly pumpkin vines came out and a kumquat tree went in. 

Another early morning discovery, there are buds on the tree, so exciting. Now the million dollar question is should we remove the buds so the tree has a chance to strengthen for 12 months, as we do with lemon and lime trees, or do do we allow it to yield a crop this Summer. Of course I am with letting the buds develop into fruit because cumquats are only a small fruit and surely the tree can handle it?? Anyway I'll do some more research and we will make a decision.

Happy Friday my friends, and I haven't forgotten what a wonderful feeling it was when I was working to reach Friday. If you have a chance to try this Curried Egg and Cauliflower Salad on the weekend, I hope you enjoy it, it's a cinch to make and what I love from a cook's perspective  is that the various stages can be prepared in advance and the dish assembled just before serving. Otherwise, It will be perfectly delicious for Meat Free Monday.

 

There are more Covid lock downs threatening Queensland, will the football finals go ahead? I hope despite all of the inconveniences being experienced by everyone around the world, you still manage to have a great weekend, finding joy in the simplest things.

Warmest wishes,

Pauline

Roasted Cauliflower Curry with Lime and Coriander

 

The pure white cauliflower loves being the hero in vegetarian dishes, and in this curry all we need is cauliflower, curry leaves, a few spices and tomatoes and we have a delicious midweek dish. Browning the cauliflower thoroughly under the grill at the beginning of your preparations gives the curry great depth of flavour. I cooked up some rich homemade chicken stock yesterday,  so I used that as the liquid base, however use vegetable stock for a real vegetarian dish, or using coconut milk would make this dish even more filling, but it definitely doesn't need it. "Did you miss the meat in the curry?" "Not at all," replied Mr. HRK,  "and I loved the Mango chutney you put with it". 

 We have a curry tree, fresh chillies, and fresh ginger growing in our garden, and ground coriander seeds and turmeric root which we have dehydrated and ground ourselves so I already had a lot of the ingredients on hand for this curry. I also used some locally grown organic garlic from Eungella, which is an hour west of Mackay and 686 metres above sea level making it perfect for garlic growing. If you visit Mackay, travelling up to the picturesque township of Eungella through the fertile Pioneer Valley is a must.

This recipe is from Gourmet Traveller magazine, and I urge you to try this dish. It is more aromatic than spicy and I think it is suited to most palates.

Ingredients:

1 cauliflower (about 1.5 kg), cut into 3 cm florets

4 tablespoons rice bran or olive oil (or use ghee if you wish, about 75 grams)

1/2 cup fresh curry leaves (loosely packed)

4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

4 long green chillies, thinly sliced (I used a red one as well)

30 cm fresh ginger, finely grated

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp garam masala

400 grams cherry tomatoes, fresh or tinned

400 ml of liquid, try chicken stock, vegetable stock, water, or coconut milk

To serve, there are many options that you can use:

Steamed basmati rice and coarsely chopped red onion tossed in lime juice (the traditional Indian way)

Lime wedges and Greek-style yoghurt

Fresh coriander

Mango chutney, which I always serve with a curry as I have many bottles of my homemade mango chutney in the pantry. Making chutney is an annual event at the end of the year when the mangoes are still green.

Method:

Chargrill the cauliflower. Turn your oven grill onto high. Toss the cauliflower in  half of the oil or ghee in a bowl, season to taste, and spread the florets onto a lightly greased oven tray. Grill, turning occasionally, until slightly charred. Leave to rest while you make the curry sauce.

Heat the remaining oil in a large frying pan with a lid over a medium heat, I use my Scanpan for this. Add the curry leaves, garlic, onion, and ginger and season to taste. Stir occasionally to prevent burning until the onions and other ingredients are softened and golden. Add spices, and stir until aromatic (1 minute), then add the tomatoes and 400 ml of vegetable or chicken stock, or coconut milk, and simmer until reduced by about a quarter allowing the flavours to develop (8 minutes.) 

Add the chargrilled cauliflower  and stir through the sauce for a couple of minutes until all heated through. Taste to check if any more seasoning is needed and serve.

Cook's observations:

1. The cauliflower could be browned in advance and refrigerated in a container for a day to cut down on the cooking time later on.
2. Frozen cauliflower pieces could be used if you have trouble buying fresh produce.
3. It is well worth buying a can of organic cherry tomatoes for this dish. They bring a lovely flavour to it, or use homegrown ones if you are lucky to have some growing
4. Grind your own coriander seeds in a pestle and mortar for superior flavour and garnish with fresh coriander leaves.
5. If you like eating curries often, buy a curry tree and grow it in a pot, you will use the leaves over and over and they are fast growing and the pot can move with you if you relocate. Ours is really big now, but grows in the ground and is also a good screen tree. Ask around as friends are often growing them and they send out suckers which can be repotted.
6. Use ground ginger if you don't have the fresh stuff.
7. Add a can of chick peas to this dish for some protein and to stretch it even further.
8. Leftovers are delicious for lunch, or for serving with a salad.

The weather here has been magnificent, cold nights, and beautiful sunny mornings so we took Locky to the beach for a walk and a run and he loved it. Bucasia Beach only 15 minutes drive from our home is one of our favourite beaches, dog friendly, only a few other people on the beach with their dogs, and even more importantly  there is a nice little beachshack style cafe across the road from the beach to enjoy a coffee or breakfast, or even dinner after a late afternoon walk. No photos of the cafe this time, but brekkie was delicious. This is Winter in paradise.

Locky loves the Beach

A fisherman trying his luck, not my fisherman though.

Early morning serenity on Bucasia Beach

Thanks for dropping by, 

Warm wishes

Pauline

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Greek-Inspired Cauliflower Stew

Cauliflower you say, for a main meal dish? Yes, this Cauliflower vegetarian dish really earns it's stripes on flavour. It can also reflect the seasons, which is one of the things I love about vegetarian food. This dish is a riff on Jamie Oliver's Cauliflower stew. Because it is all vegetables, depending on what is in season, add quick cooking greens such as spinach, asparagus, and tender broccoli when you add the peas or broad beans. The garnish can also change each time you make it, pomegranate? Why not. The only limit to your imagination is the availability of produce. I had hoped to present you with this recipe for a Meat free Monday meal this week. We ate it on Monday, however things got busy here and I didn't reach ,my self imposed deadline, so here we are, enjoying the simple life, and not worried too much about deadlines, but appointments do need to be made on time and we've had a few of those. I'll try and do better next week though. 

It was beautiful weather here on the weekend, quite balmy, so we took Locky for a walk in the afternoon on the beach, where the dogs are allowed to run leash free. A walk on the beach is such a wonderful pick me up and we are so lucky to be able to do it here whenever we wish. Bucasia beach only 10 minutes from our home by car is a beautiful and interesting beach, and when the tide is out, which it was, there is plenty of sand to explore, channels of little creeks to wade though which Locky loves, and lots of room for everyone.  I'm so glad we took the opportunity to do that as the weather turned very wintry here the following day, overcast and showery, and down to a minimum of 12 degrees. That is how this cauliflower stew evolved, on a cold wintry day. However, it would still be very palatable in Summer.

Look at me, I'm so humble, so perfect, and so versatile

I really enjoy watching Jamie Oliver present his cooking shows on television, so entertaining, and I admire what he has achieved in the cooking world. However sometimes he forgets to emphasize some of the finer details, and also in his VEG cooking book, such as with this recipe, check that your cooking pot which goes from stove top to oven,  will also fit the cauliflower you have chosen,  and also all of the extra vegetables in this recipe. A large pot is needed, or a small 800 g or less cauliflower. You can make that choice. However you could commit a food sin, and just cut your cauliflower in half if it is too big so that it fits, the end result will be the same. I'm sure that Jamie won't be reading my blog, so no harm done. He also suggested using a speed-peeler to strip the lemon zest into the casserole pan. I just used my normal vegetable peeler, is that what he means, or do you have a speed peeler? I'd love to know.

Let's Cook:

 Ingredients:

Serves 4, 1 hour 25 minutes

1 head of cauliflower, ideally with leaves, about 800 g

200 g fresh or frozen peas or broad beans

10 large ripe plum tomatoes or equivalent

1 lemon

olive oil

1 whole bulb of garlic

10 black olives (with stones in)

300 g new potatoes

 2 red onions

500 ml water

Chopped Parsley for garnish

Serves 4 / Time: 1 hour and 25 minutes

Method:

Preheat your oven to 200 deg. C, or 400 deg. F. or gas 6.

Place a large casserole pan on a medium heat on your stove top.  Peel the lemon rind into strips into the casserole pan,  then add 2 tablespoons of oil and the garlic bulb. Peel and quarter the onions, separate into petals, press down on the olives with a large spoon and remove the seeds, and slice the potatoes to 1 cm thick. Add onions, olives and potatoes to the pan.

Pluck in the oregano leaves, and cook the vegetables for 5 minutes. When the mixture is just starting to soften and colour up, quarter and add the tomatoes, then season to your taste with sea salt and black pepper.

Pour 500 ml of water into the pan and bring to the boil, keep stirring well and scrape the sticky bits off the bottom of the pot as you go. That's where a lot of the flavour lives.

Wash your lovely cauliflower and dry it. Remove any of the really tatty outside leaves, then cut across the stalk and push the cauliflower, stalk side down, to the bottom  of the pan. 

Drizzle with 1 tablespoon of oil, cove with a tight fitting lid, then place the pot in the oven for 1 hour, or until golden and caramelized, basting occasionally and removing the lid halfway through the cooking time.

Remove the cauliflower onto a large serving platter.

Pick out the garlic bulb sections with tongs, then place the pot back over a a medium heat on the stove top. 

Stir in the peas or broad beans, and simmer for 5 minutes.

Very carefully, squeeze out all of the garlic out of the skins and stir back into the pan. 

Check the seasoning and add more if needed. Pour the contents of the pot over the cauliflower and finish the dish with a good squeeze of lemon juice to really bring the dish to life.

Serve this dish with brown rice, lentils, or bread to mop up the juices.

Here's Locky below, wishin' and hopin', please let there be something in that pot she's cooking, for me. He probably would have eaten it, but he ate some leftover mashed pumpkin instead, with his dog food. He seems to love it.

I cooked this stew just for Mr. HRK and myself and well there was enough for another two days of eating it as a side dish. However for some variation on the first night I topped it with grilled cheese and placed it under the grill, delicious, and still vegetarian.

Then the third night, I added some chopped cooked bacon, not so vegetarian, but really tasty, and more grated parmesan cheese, placed it under the grill and oh my, what a taste sensation that was. I am lucky that Mr. HRK doesn't mind eating the same dish three nights running, with variations. I thought it might be a bit much, but my man insisted, so bacon and cheese Cauliflower stew it was. My dietician friend would have been so proud of me.

After eating so many vegetables this week, I went shopping this morning for some stewing steak, chuck or gravy beef, didn't matter. What I found was ridiculous. Chuck steak at the supermarket is $18.00 a kilo, the butcher next door was charging $19.99 a kilo, and there was no reduction for buying a large piece. Does anyone know why meat is so expensive now, is it all being exported, or is this the consequence of our drought? Anyway I bought a kilo to support the farmers. A beef stew used to be a budget meal in our house in the 1960s. Now eating meat is an extravagance and the butcher predicts the price is going to rise further. It's another good reason to balance out our food budget with a few vegetarian meals each week, and save the planet as well.

As I write this, Mr. HRK, is working on a new desk and sewing table for me. As a result of our recent retiling and renovations, our living area and dining area has been reorganised and the large sideboard which we removed is now being recycled. It is made of lovely silky oak timber from the North Queensland rainforests we think, which is where his sister bought the sideboard when she lived in Cairns, but apparently it wasn't very well constructed at all according to my craftsman in the garage, so he has pulled it to bits and it is being rebuilt. He sanded the wood back to the original silky oak timber and the wood is beautiful. So no doubt it will be my new office desk with a difference and it remains to be seem if it will double as a sewing table as well. When it's all finished, I'll show you some before and after photos. Have a wonderful weekend.

Take care everyone,

Pauline

Roasted Cauliflower, Lentil and Pomegranate Salad

The humble but oh so versatile Cauliflower is in abundance at the moment and very reasonably priced,  and should be the star of the show in this salad. However, the pink pomegranate jewels are definitely trying to steal the limelight, but it's not a competition really. I was so taken with the perfect looking and reasonably priced caulis at the markets that two found their way into my basket, and that is how this recipe evolved. I roast cauliflower all of the time now with just a little olive oil, it is a very easy way of cooking that accentuates all of the wonderful flavours, and that forms the basis of this salad.

Mint, Ginger and Walnut Cauliflower "Rice"

Cauliflower when cooked as a vegetable on its own can taste rather bland, however, this version of my cauliflower rice, with the addition of the mint, ginger and walnuts was a very enjoyable side dish to accompany a simple chicken curry made in my new pressure cooker pot. It could also stand proudly on its own served cold with a salad. We didn't miss not eating rice with the curry at all. I have tried cooking and eating cauliflower rice a few times when I am concentrating on reducing carbohydrates following a holiday or a delicious dinner party and each time I have felt underwhelmed by the flavour whilst also analysing that it is a healthy option.

So forgive me my friends for adding yet another cauliflower rice recipe to the blog continuum when there are so many versions already out there, but I need this for future reference when we may be travelling and I am cooking away from home. No doubt though when I cook it next time a couple of extra ingredients will explore their way into this very versatile and healthy vegetable option, to replace what not might be available at the time. Variety is the spice of life.

It is hard to believe it is Friday already, but it has been a busy and rewarding week. Mr. HRK and I have tackled some gardening projects together necessitating some pleasurable decision making "meetings" over coffee on our patio. I have fitted in a little knitting whilst still trying to improve my skills, and thankfully I can see some progress there, and there have been all of the other enjoyable things that we do to keep our home a happy place. We have also watched a couple of really good movies which is relaxing but also thought provoking.

My project today is to try and finish a small fleecy cap I am making for little Hugo, our adorable little 7 month old Grandson. He and his parents are travelling to Denmark and France in March, for work and to meet his French maternal family for the first time, and I want to ensure that he has all of the warm clothes he needs for the trip. I am sure his doting Mum is also thinking about his wardrobe as she dresses him beautifully and sends us lots of photos of him in his little outfits however I help wherever I can.

I would love to hear from anyone who may be reading my blog if you have a favourite cauliflower rice recipe to share, or if you are thinking of cooking it for the first time.

If you have space in your garden to grow them, having ready access to mint, chillis, fresh ginger, chives and green onions means you have a ready supply of many essential ingredients to make your cooking interesting. Chives, green onions, chillis and mint can also be grown very successfully in pots on a sunny balcony. However, in summer I grow my mint in the bush house.

Happy cooking and gardening!

Mint, Ginger and Walnut Cauliflower "Rice"

Ingredients:

1 cauliflower
2 tablespoons roughly chopped walnuts (or substitute with other nuts)
1-2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
1 red chilli, seeded and thinly sliced (optional depending on who you are cooking for)
2 cm piece fresh ginger, peeled
2 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon coconut oil
2 tablespoons desiccated coconut
5 green onions ( amount depends on the size of your cauliflower)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives (preferably garlic if you have them)
Salt for seasoning
1 tablespoon coconut oil or extra virgin olive oil

Let's Cook:

1. Process cauliflower florets finely in your food processor
2. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a moderate heat and add the chilli, finely chopped ginger, and finely chopped garlic and the whites of the green onions.  Cook until all of these are softened and  their fragrance becomes obvious to you.
3. Add the cauliflower and the desiccated coconut. Cook on a low heat stirring occasionally for about 20 minutes until the cauliflower starts to turn golden and tenderise.
4. When you are happy with the look of your cauliflower, add the mint, walnuts, green onion and chives.
5. Serve in a colourful bowl and garnish with a flourish of extra green onions and mint and a dash of ground pepper.

Enjoy a relaxing and rewarding weekend everyone, and I hope you can put your feet up and do something you really enjoy.

Warm wishes, Pauline

Cauliflower Pickles

Click here for recipe


Cauliflower  Pickles are perfect to prepare now as cauliflowers are in season, reasonably priced, and of beautiful quality. This is my version of a recipe which I found on the ABC website, and which won first prize in the Best Pickles category of the ABC Gardening Talkback Great Home-made Pickles and Jam Challenge. However, I like my pickles just a bit sweeter, with less vinegar, so I adjusted the quantities accordingly.The pickle is a beautiful golden colour in the jar, and I added Bay Leaves to the bottles for texture and contrast. This will be a delicious  warming pickle during winter.

However, the original winning ABC recipe is the traditional Mustard Cauliflower style recipe which is also very popular.

Cauliflower and Potato Curry with Chick Peas

Cauliflower and Potato Curry with Chick Peas (recipe)

Cauliflower must be in season again, as they were very cheap at the supermarket yesterday. So, abiding with my self sufficiency philosophy to try and cook and eat what is in season, as well as from my garden, without being obsessive about it, I decided to adapt this recipe which I found in the  latest Feast magazine. Cauliflower is quite a bland vegetable when cooked and along with potato, needs lots of Indian spices to bring it in an exciting way to the table.. By adding fresh curry leaves, fresh turmeric, and fresh ginger from my garden, along with a tin of chick peas, to the cumin seeds and other ingredients it is a healthy and exciting vegetarian Indian dish.

I will be serving it with a lamb Raita curry and some great mango chutney.