I was looking for something to serve as a vegan main course and found this beautiful dish from the English book, Hemsley and Hemsley, the art of healthy living.
It’s a whole cauliflower so when you serve it, you need to cut it like a steak. Your guests will be impressed, but more so when they taste the sumptuous spice mix that gives this dish layers of depth and takes you back to the last time you walked through a souk in the middle east, or more likely these days, the spice aisle in wholefoods.
If you’d like a cooling dish to compliment this, make a little yogurt and cucumber mix to go with it. Simplicity at its best.
I served this with a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, which is a Mr. B favourite, but also holds up nicely to this dish, given it’s own complexity of juicy acidity and fruity sweetness.
Ingredients
- 1 large cauliflower
- 2 tbsp. pistachios
- 2 tbsp. coconut oil
- 1 tsp. cumin
- 1 tsp. smoked paprika
- 1 tsp. sumac
- 1 tsp. thyme and a few twigs to serve
- 2 garlic cloves, grated
- virgin olive oil to finish
- Juice of ½ lemon
- Sea salt and pepper to serve
Method
- Preheat oven to 180c/250f
- Toast the pistachios in a dry pan for a minute, then crush them with a rolling pin or chop
- In the same pan, gently melt 1 tbsp. coconut oil
- Sit the cauliflower on the baking tray, pour over the melted oil, sprinkle on the sea salt and roast in the oven for 30-40 minutes
- Melt the remaining tablespoon of coconut oil and stir in the spices, herbs and garlic
- Remove the cauliflower from the oven and pour over the flavoured oil
- Roast the cauliflower for a further 10 minutes
- Serve whole, drizzled with virgin olive oil, squeeze over the lemon, then scatter with parsley some extra salt and the pistachios
