Savory Cauliflower and Potatoes

Ahhh cauliflower...what to do with you?

Last week I got a head of cauliflower with my vegetable delivery.  Cauliflower is not a favorite of mine.  I find it a bit boring. So it sat in the fridge until today’s delivery arrived with yet another head of cauliflower.  At that point I knew I had to do something.  So I started trolling the online food sites and was getting frustrated with all the cauliflower recipes I found – it seemed that the common ingredients between them all, outside of the obvious cauliflower, were copious amounts of cream, butter, half and half, etc.  Since it has started to warm up a bit here, I find that I’ve started craving more fresh and light flavors and with shorts and tank-top weather approaching, I wasn’t about to douse my cauliflower in creamy fat (as delicious as that may have been).  So I was excited to stumbled upon this recipe from Smitten Kitchen – one of my favorite cooking sites.  It ended up being both delicious and healthy!  Yay!  Plus, Scotty absolutely loved it and had two HUGE servings.  Here’s my adaptation of the recipe because I couldn’t leave well enough alone.  And I should warn you that this makes a lot, but you should be able to cut the recipe in half if you don’t want to eat this for the next few days.  Also, I’m not really good at following recipes and accurately measuring ingredients – I’m a lot more of a “pinch of this, dash of that” sort of cook.  Which, incidentally is why I’m not a good baker, bakers have to be much more precise than I am.  So, if you’re ever going to follow one of my recipes, feel free to adjust and adapt to your own tastes.

Savory Roasted Cauliflower and Potatoes

• 2 small to medium heads cauliflower, cut into 3/4-inch-wide florets
• 4-6 medium red-skinned potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1 red onion, cut into small wedges
• olive oil
• 1-2 teaspoons cumin seeds
• 1 teaspoon salt, plus extra to flavor finished dish
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 5-6 garlic cloves, pressed
• 3 thinly sliced red chili peppers (I used sweet ones but it would be just as good with spicy ones – just adjust the amount of cayenne you add later)
• 3 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger (next time I make this I would probably use more because I loved the ginger flavor but thought it could be stronger)
• 2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon cayenne (you can use less if you don’t want it quite as spicy)
• 1 cup vegetable stock (I think I ended up using around 1.5 cups, but you can adjust as you go)

Serve With: Cool Cucumber Yoghurt Sauce (recipe follows)

Preheat oven to 400 with roasting tray in oven so that it warms up with it.

Toss cauliflower and potatoes together in a bowl with a little olive oil to coat.  Sprinkle with cumin seeds and 1/2 teaspoon salt.  

Chopped veggies

Spread in hot baking dish and roast.  Stir occasionally.  Roasting should take around 20-25 minutes and cauliflower will be tender and somewhat browned.  Potatoes should be just tender. 

Veggies starting to roast.

Meanwhile, cook onion, garlic, red chilis, and ginger in some olive oil in a large skillet over low to medium heat until tender.  Don’t rush this – it will probably take around 10-12 minutes but it’s essential that the temp be pretty low so that the garlic and ginger don’t burn but become really aromatic.  The smell here is delish!  

Red chili peppers

Lotsa garlic!

Once everything is soft, add ground cumin, coriander, cayenne, and  1/2 teaspoon salt and cook, stirring constantly, 2 minutes.  

Adding the spices to onion, garlic, chili, ginger mixture.

Add vegetable broth and cook scraping up any brown bits from bottom of pan.  Bring to a simmer and allow to cook for about 5 minutes, stirring often.  When the cauliflower and potatoes are done roasting, stir into the sauce.  Stir until well coated. Cover and cook over medium heat, stirring regularly, for a few minutes.  Serve with cucumber sauce.

Top with yoghurt sauce and you're good to go!

 Cool Cucumber Yoghurt Sauce

• About 1 cup finely chopped cucumbers
• 4-5 finely sliced green onions
• 1 cup plain yoghurt – I like using Greek style yogurt for sauces as I think the texture is better, but any ol’ plain yogurt will do just fine
• salt to taste
• grated lemon zest (optional)

Mix all ingredients together.  The lemon zest adds an extra zing to the sauce but is not necessary.  

Voila!