Spicey Roasted Cauliflower

Warming Winter Spiced Roast Cauliflower with a Nut Crunch

There I am, the middle of a chilly winter Sunday, feeling somewhat peckish and cooking for one has never much inspired, me so my home cooking, well, lets just say the recipes tend to be rather simple.

A quick recce of the fridge yields a not very impressive collection of random ingredients. They only things I will always have in there are wine, sparkling water, yogurt, and the usual mandatory collection of random pickles and sauces, some probably out of date, and many that will probably never be used again, I think there is a subject for a whole Blog post: A Journey Through the Sad Jars in the Fridge.

I settle on cauliflower florets, the new potato, post the, let’s not eat carbs anymore movement.

Oven at around 180 C, my oven thermostat is not very accurate, but it really doesn’t matter for this kind of dish.

I grab a baking dish large enough to hold all the cauliflower bits in a single layer, tossed in a couple of glugs of olive oil, for those like my Dad who would say “but how big is a glug?!” I would say it’s about two tablespoons, low carbers would take this opportunity to increase the glugs and get their fat quota in.

A scratch through the cupboard offers up a box of Woolies Butter Chicken Spice Mix (surprisingly still in date), any curry mix would work though. I throw a tablespoon or so onto the cauliflower and mix it up well add some sliced red onion, again any onion, you are getting the idea, use what you have. I bake for about 15 minutes and decide it needs to be more saucy (Word says that’s not the right word but lets just go with it). In goes a few dollops of yogurt (about half a cup…yawn, sorry Dad), some crumbled feta (lucky find) mix it up, back to the oven for about another 30 mins, until the pieces are tender, season with salt, dish up, still needs something else, (apart from a steak that is!), further rummaging reveals a packet of mixed roasted nuts, perfect, roughly chopped and sprinkled over they provide the necessary crunch.

Of course, other variations would involve some crushed garlic, chopped Coriander, bacon bits, sliced red peppers (who eats green ones?).

For me that was it but I’m sure it would go with most forms of protein, the steak, lamb roast/chops grilled or baked fish.

I only stock double cream yogurt, used to be called Greek Yogurt until the labeling police came along. For years it was always low fat but these days I figure I’ll go with the low carbers, even if I’m not eating low carb myself.

Pour a glass of wine, and enjoy cauliflower, spiced and with a lovely nutty crunch.

Secret confession: I threw in a packet of Brussel sprouts, not recommended, so I left that part out.

This Blog will be a blend of some recipes, interesting food info, happenings in the shop. I hope you will enjoy it and relax about the cooking style, get used to glugs and dollops, unless we are baking of course then we must be very precise or get disappointed.