Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Spicy Cauliflower Florets in 6 easy steps

Spicy Cauliflower Florets in 6 easy steps

Bite size cauliflower florets coated with spices

Served with a yogurt dip

Spices from Turkish MarketDuring our last trip to Turkey, we purchased a red spice mix from the market. We’re not sure what’s in it, but it’s really versatile for all recipe’s you want to add a kick too.Turkish spices

I love cauliflower, and there’s a mediterranean restaurant round the corner from my Corporate Castle, that does a Fried Cauliflower dish, served with tahini, in a pitta wrap. It is delicious.

I decided to guess at the ingredients, tweak it a little, and make it my own.

Below is my recipe for Spicy Cauliflower Florets served with a yogurt dip.


IngredientsSpice Coating Ingredients
  • 2 Medium sized heads of cauliflower
  • 150ml of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • Juice of 1/2 lemon

  • A couple of heaped t-spoons of Red Spice Turkey Mystery Mix
  • 1/4 t-spoon Ground Turmeric
  • 1/4 t-spoon Curry Powder or Coleman’s English Mustard Powder
  • 1/2 t-spoon of Smoked Paprika
  • Sprinkle of Poppy seeds
  • Salt and Pepper to taste
  • Couple of drops of Truffle Oil

Depending on you spice-tolerance, you can adjust these spice quantities as desired, or replace them with your favourites.


Step by Step Instructions:

Heat oven to 400

1

Cut the Cauliflower into floret-size pieces. Cut the florets off the stalk with a sharp knife, rather than pulling it apart manually. TIP – small ping-pong ball size:

  • Make them too small and they’ll disintegrate in the oven.
  • Make them too big and it’ll take ages to bake.
Cutting a cauliflower

2

Pour spices in a bowl, and add 1/2 of the oilSpices in a metal bowl with olive oil

3

In small batches, toss the cauliflower in your bowl and coat it with the oil and spice mix. Once they’re coated, move them to another bowl. Continue coating the rest of the cauliflower in small batches.

Add the remainder of the oil as needed.

Coating cauliflower in spices and oil

4

When all of the cauliflower is coated. Place it on a baking tray, and sprinkle it with the lemon juice.(I just dip my [clean] fingers in the lemon juice and drip and flip it onto the cauliflower — save a little bit for your yogurt dip.) If you prefer, you can add the lemon juice to the oil & spice mix — but I prefer the more sporadic lemon taste I get from the flicking, rather than a uniform lemon taste on it all.Cauliflower ready to bake covered in spices

5

Bake the Cauliflower in oven for 45 minutes to an hour.Shake the baking tray up a bit every 15 minutes or so. After 45 minutes, check for done-ness, and continue cooking until tender.

6

Serve with a yogurt dip (great to balance out the fiery nature of the cauliflower):

  • 8 oz of Turkish or Greek Yogurt
  • 1 spring onion, chopped really fine
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • Little bit of the lemon juice left over from the cauliflower
  • Couple of pieces of chopped roasted red pepper (if you have it)

Chop onions and roasted red peppers. Mix all ingredients into the Yogurt. Pour into a small dish, and serve with the cauliflower

Spicy Cauliflower coated in spices with yogurt dip

Enjoy.

We just finished eating 2 cauliflowers! Yum!


Spicy Cauliflower Florets in 6 easy steps