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The original recipe comes from this site (Roasted Saffron Cauliflower with Date Dressing) but I changed things slightly, such as soaking the date in hot water, straining them, then adding them and water to the dressing. It made no sense to me. Also the excess liquid from the saffron water went into the vinaigriette dressing. It seemed a waste not to use it all. I also didn't have medjool dates so just use what I had and more of them, plus I didn't need to soak them having a vitamix blender. If you don't have a high powdered blender, may I suggest that you do soak the dates, or use 1-2 tbsp of date syrup instead.
Ingredients
1 large cauliflower
2-4 red onions (depending on size)
good pinch of saffron strands, ground
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 heaped tbsp cumin seeds
olive oil
1 bunch of parsley
1 bunch of mint
Vinaigrette
5-10 dates (medjool are suggested, but I didn't have those so just went with what I had)
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard or 1 tsp Coleman's mustard powder
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Method
- Preheat your oven to 200°C/400F or fan assist 180°C.
- Having ground your saffron threads, set them soaking in about 200ml near boiling water.
- Trim the cauliflower, cut the florets into bite sized pieces. Keep everything to the same size for an even cooking time. What size you choose is up to you. The cauliflower stalks and stem are all edible, so whilst the stems do not need peeling you'll see that the stalk benefits from it. If you cut the end off, you'll see what I'm referring to. Cut that away and slice into rings or sticks as you prefer. The smaller leaves are also edible. I must use them as is for the small ones, the larger ones, I'll cut in half. Big ones I don't bother with.
- Depending on the size of your red onions, cut them into 8ths or smaller and scatter them onto your roasting trays. You'll need 2 of them.
- Add some of the cauliflower florets to the saffron liquid, and get a good coating over the entire surface. There's no harm in letting them soak a little off you have the time. Add enough that you can toss the cauliflower florets in the saffron liquid, using salad tongues or similar to extract the florets from the saffron liquid, and add to the roasting trays. Repeat until all it the cauliflower has been dunked and turned yellow!
- Once all of the cauliflower and onions are on the roasting tray scatter the cumin seeds over the 2 trays, drizzle with olive oil, or any other you prefer to use and lightly salt and pepper the veg. Roast for around 20 minutes or until the florets are cooked and just starting to brown.
- Strain the saffron water that's left over from above with a tea strainer and keep the liquid. You'll use it to thin the vinaigrette as needed.
- If you don't have a high powered blender, soak your dates in the minimum amount of hot water possible. Extract any stones as needed and add the dates (minus liquid) to the blender bowl. Add all of the remaining ingredients and process until you have a thick smooth and creamy sauce. Mine very definitely needed thinning, so I added the saved saffron water until I had a consistency close to double cream thickness.
- Finally assemble and serve with the baked veg, and sprinkle with the chopped mixed herbs.
I ended up adding more ground saffron and neat boiling water to a much bigger bowl. Australian cauliflowers tend to be very big (+1.25kg or so).
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