This impressive cauliflower dish can be a midweek dinner, or a fuss-free centrepiece to wow your guests, says Nisha Parmar. Serve it on top of couscous, or wrap it up in a flatbread. It also makes a lovely side dish to accompany roast chicken.
Ingredients
- 1 large cauliflower
- 1 packet of mixed grains or couscous (soaked in hot vegetable stock) or shop-bought pittas or flatbreads, to serve
- pomegranate seeds (optional but pretty), to garnish
For the shawarma paste:
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- 50ml melted butter
- 50ml olive oil
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 tsp sweet smoked paprika
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper (or Kashmiri chilli powder)
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- 1 tsp ground allspice
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- juice of ½ a lemon
For the pistachio yogurt:
- 75g coriander stalks and leaves
- 40g shelled pistachios
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 250g Greek yogurt
- sea salt, to taste
For the salad:
- ¼ red cabbage, shredded
- 2 little gem lettuces, sliced
- 2 carrots, grated
- 1 red onion, finely sliced
- handful of mild Lombardi pickled peppers
- handful of mint leaves
- ½ lemon, for squeezing
- tahini, to drizzle
Method
- Preheat the oven to 200°C. Remove the outer leaves from the cauliflower, keeping some back. Bring a large pan of water to the boil, add the cauliflower and blanch for 5 minutes, then drain and leave for 5 minutes to dry out and cool a little.
- Mix all the ingredients for the shawarma paste together and rub it all over the cauliflower. Place in a baking tray, with the reserved leaves, and roast for 40 minutes.
- Meanwhile, make the pistachio yogurt. Blitz the coriander (saving a few leaves to garnish), pistachios (save a few, chopped, to garnish), garlic, lemon juice and Greek yogurt together. Season with salt to taste and set aside.
- Mix all of the salad vegetables and mint in a bowl, squeeze over the lemon and drizzle over some tahini.
- Heat the grains (if using), or soak the couscous in vegetable stock, or warm the pittas or flatbreads.
- Serve the cauliflower on a platter, topped with a drizzle of the pistachio yogurt, the reserved coriander leaves and chopped pistachios, and pomegranate seeds (if using).
- Tip: prepare all the elements before roasting the cauliflower for half the given time, finishing the cooking once your guests arrive.
Taken from Share: Asian-inspired Dinner Party Dishes by Nisha Parmar, published by Quadrille at £26. To buy from The Week Bookshop for £20.99 (incl. p&p), call 020-3176 3835 or visit theweekbookshop.co.uk.
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