What we talk about when we talk about cauliflower

As the UK approaches the ‘hungry gap’ in the year’s produce, I’m still way over excited about something you can grow and eat almost year-round, and that’s cauliflower.

So forget what you thought you knew: maligned to the sloppy cheesy roux sauce dishes of the world, cauliflower is actually one of the easiest and cheapest vegetables I’ve found that transform into a different beast entirely with just a little curry powder and oil.

Although I guess many think of the cauliflower as a traditionally British staple, most accounts cite it as originating from the Arab world. It’s high in vitamin C and B6, and maintains its nutrients better if you don’t boil it. For once cheese can take a back seat, because cauliflower truly shines when it is roasted, teamed with spices, oil and lemon juice.

Serves enough for 2, or maybe 3, but it’s really moreish. I’m saying 2.

Ingredients

1 cauliflower, curds (the florets) cut into large bitesize pieces

Sunflower or vegetable oil for roasting

1 tsp curry powder

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp turmeric

Juice of one lemon

Salt, pepper

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. Lightly coat a roasting dish with oil, then place in the chopped cauliflower. Sprinkle over the spices and seasoning, and mix well so it is lightly covered. You don’t want to lose the clean taste of the cauliflower beneath the curry spices.

Roast for around 30-40 minutes until the cauliflower pieces are soft and a little sticky at the edges. Squeeze over the lemon juice and serve hot. This tastes great added to a larger biryani dish or just with dahl and rice. Hell, it even tastes great with air. 

Super-warming sweet potato, red lentil and chickpea soup

Back from a blustering three-hour bike ride last week, my boyfriend went out to buy the best loaf of bread he could find, whilst I gathered everything tasty in the kitchen into one massive pot. Seasonal, ridiculously filling and warming, this sweet potato soup would make a perfect low-key Sunday lunch- add the spiced soy yoghurt and some warm sour dough bread if you've got hungry friends in tow.

Makes enough for four servings

Ingredients

One sweet potato, peeled and chopped

1 potato, peeled and chopped

1 large onion, chopped small

200g red lentils

1 tin (drained) chick peas

Pinch cayenne pepper

Pinch of paprika

Pinch of tumeric

Around 300-400ml vegetable stock

One chili, chopped small

Handful of coriander, roughly chopped

Seasoning

Few glugs of olive oil

To serve: warm bread and soy yoghurt topped with any remaining coriander and cayenne pepper.

In a large pan, sweat the onion for a few minutes, before adding in both types of potato. Add in the red lentils, chili, spices and seasoning, and mix so all the flavours can begin to combine. Pour in the vegetable stock and allow to simmer for around 20 minutes.

Once the potatoes and red lentils are cooked through, take off the heat and blend with a hand blender or food processor. Now add in the chick peas and half the coriander (saving the rest to garnish on top or to mix in with the yoghurt), season to taste, and serve up.

P.S. If you're on Pinterest, pop over to the Guac & Roll page, where I'll be pinning lots of the recipes I come across, along with plenty of my own photos and works-in-progress from the blog. (Makes for perfect browsing with a big bowl of sweet potato soup too!)

Chapatis from scratch

For five years now, Wednesdays have been Curry Wednesdays. It was the first thing we decided as new flatmates and somehow it's just always stuck. We used to plot the menu for an entire week, often not finish making it until way past midnight and rarely even make a dent on the masses we'd cooked.

I've finally managed to scale down productions to just one, or maybe two (who can say no to dahl?), but after discovering how to make chapatis, I feel I might still be cooking into the small hours for quite a few more Wednesdays to come. It's not that they take long to make or are fiddly in the slightest, they're just really fun and one is never enough for me.

The recipe below is the simplest form, and then once you've mastered that, just add whatever you feel like- maybe a little curry powder, plain soy yoghurt (works just as well as dairy yoghurt) cumin, chopped coriander...or whatever takes your chapati fancy.

Makes enough for 12

Ingredients
2 cups of wholemeal flour or chapati flour
1 cup warm water
Pinch of salt
2 tbsp sunflower/vegetable oil

Sift the flour into a mixing bowl, then gradually add in the warm water. Next add the salt and any flavourings you wish to add also.  Work the mixture until it is all combined in a soft dough, and if you have time, leave aside this for 10-30 minutes. If you're making a curry along side this, I would get all the ingredients cooked now, until you are just waiting for the curry to reduce- then everything should be ready at the same time.

Chop the dough into segments- you should be able to get 12 from this recipe. On a well floured surface, roll the chapati out until it is as thin as you can handle it. The dough seems to absorb a lot of flour so keep the rolling pin and surface well covered if it starts to stick.

With a dry frying pan on a medium high heat, add the chapati and heat until it starts to puff up- then flip it over and do the other side. In this time it's easy to roll the next chapati, as long as you keep an eye on the pan.

Stack all your chapatis on the side, and while this is going on check on your curry if you are making one. I chose sweet potatoes, green lentils, spinach and chickpeas for last week's curry night.

Once you have finished all the chapatis, serve up warm or with a soy yoghurt dip. These also taste great the next day microwaved along with any curry leftovers- so remember to hold a few back!

Easy peasy biryani

So the sunshine caught me a little off guard with my bowl of spicy biryani on the rooftop... but I'm not complaining.

This vegetable biryani was the first recipe I tried from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage Veg Everyday! cookbook. I didn't have all the ingredients to hand, so instead just used whatever was left from the Growing Communities vegetable bag. It's a little re-jigged, and A LOT amazing. The new potatoes add a creamy taste that counteracts with the chili and curry powder, while I love the texture of the almonds, chickpeas and rice mixed together. It might not be the most traditional recipe, but when it comes to biryani, I think the only rule you need is to always make double. I was so upset when I finished eating this.

Makes enough for four meals

 Ingredients
2 cups of rice
2 onions, one diced small, the other left in larger chunks
2 cloves of garlic, diced
2 carrots, sliced
2 handfuls of new potatoes, sliced
1 handful of toasted, sliced almonds
1 handful of parsley or coriander
1 tin (drained) of chickpeas
3 tbsp of your favourite curry powder
1 chili, chopped small
1 juice of lemon
Seasoning
2 tbsp vegetable or sunflower oil


Heat the oil in a large saucepan, and add the onions and garlic, and cook for a few minutes making sure they don't crisp. Boil the kettle with about 300ml of water and add the carrots and onions to the pan, pouring in the boiling water to just about over the vegetables. Put a lid on the pan and allow this to simmer away for about 5 minutes, until everything is coming up to parboiled.

Remove the lid and add in the curry powder and chili. You want the biryani mix to begin reducing now, so add in the chickpeas and stir occasionally, making sure it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. In another saucepan, prepare the rice, as there's about ten minutes until the sauce is ready.


Once the vegetable curry mix has reduced, add in the almonds, lemon juice and fresh herbs, and any seasoning if you think it needs it. When the rice is ready, drain and stir into the curry mix. This will keep for two days but be sure to reheat the rice properly for leftovers- even if the temperatures outside are soaring!

The London sky. For real.

Chana Masala

I'll be frank- I was making this at half eleven at night, which is why it is in my lunchbox the next morning and not on a plate. This chana masala is slightly re-jigged from the citrus-y affair you get from a take-away, this is a little warmer, moreish, and with about half the ingredients. I'm in an honest mood it seems!

The addition of spring onions takes way that strong onion taste, and instead is mellow and sweet with a tender texture like it's been simmering away for hours- when really this only takes 20 minutes.

This is the best dinner when the sky falls in and you just want to eat a huggggeee curry. Everyone feels like that at least once a week yes?

Serves 4....or 3.... or 2....

Ingredients

2x tin of chickpeas
2x garlic cloves, sliced small
2x large spring onions (these have a larger bulb, similar size to a shallot), sliced into circles
1 carton of chopped tomatoes
1 chili, chopped
3 tablespoons of vegetable curry powder
2 tablespoons sunflower/vegetable oil
Handful of parsley chopped loose or fine, however you like

Heat the oil and add your chopped garlic and spring onions. Keep the heat low, and let them cook without burning for about five minutes. Add the chickpeas and chili and allow everything to fry in the oil for about two minutes, before adding the carton of tomatoes.

Allow this to cook away with a lid for about five minutes, then add the curry sauce and reduce for another five minutes. Add the chopped parsley and you're done.