Roast cauliflower salad
Boiled cauliflower is watery and smells of sulphur. The same cauliflower roasted to the edge of burning turns sweet, nutty and crisp at the edges — a different vegetable entirely. The condition is a hot tray and space between the florets: crowded vegetables steam in their own water and never brown, however long they stay in the oven.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Roasting 30 min
- Tahini sauce 8 min
- Assembly 10 min
Step by step
0 / 7 doneHeat the tray with the oven
Put the empty tray in the oven and heat everything to 220°C. Cauliflower dropped onto hot metal starts browning straight away; on a cold tray it releases water first and the effect is lost.
Ingredients: 1000 g cauliflower · 60 ml olive oil · 1 tsp ground cumin · 1 tsp smoked paprika · 1 tsp salt
Cut into flat-sided florets
Break the cauliflower up so that every piece has at least one flat cut surface. Flat sides make full contact with the tray and that is what caramelises — round florets touch at one point and stay pale.
Ingredients: 1000 g cauliflower · 60 ml olive oil · 1 tsp ground cumin · 1 tsp smoked paprika · 1 tsp salt
Toss with oil and spices
Toss the florets with the oil, cumin, paprika and salt. Do not be mean with the oil — it carries the spices and conducts heat to the surface of the vegetable. Under-oiled cauliflower scorches in patches instead of browning evenly.
Ingredients: 1000 g cauliflower · 60 ml olive oil · 1 tsp ground cumin · 1 tsp smoked paprika · 1 tsp salt
Spread in one layer with gaps
Tip onto the hot tray in a single layer with space between the pieces. If they do not fit comfortably, use two trays. Crowded vegetables steam and after half an hour are soft but white.
Ingredients: 1000 g cauliflower · 60 ml olive oil · 1 tsp ground cumin · 1 tsp smoked paprika · 1 tsp salt
One layer, gaps — otherwise you get steam, not roasting.Roast 30 minutes, turning once
Roast for 30 minutes, turning after 20 minutes. The edges should be deep brown and almost black in places. It looks like burning, but those are exactly the parts carrying the nutty flavour — pale cauliflower tastes boiled.
Ingredients: 1000 g cauliflower · 60 ml olive oil · 1 tsp ground cumin · 1 tsp smoked paprika · 1 tsp salt
Dark edges are flavour, not a mistake.Make the tahini sauce through the seizing stage
Crush the garlic with salt and lemon, stir in the tahini, then add ice-cold water a little at a time. The sauce will first thicken and look split — this is normal. Keep stirring; with the next spoonfuls of water it loosens and turns silky.
Ingredients: 80 g tahini · 80 ml water · 1 pcs lemon · 1 clove garlic · ½ tsp salt
It thickens and looks wrong first — keep stirring.Assemble while warm
Arrange the still-warm cauliflower on a flat platter, spoon over the tahini, and scatter pomegranate, almonds, parsley and sumac. Warm vegetables absorb the sauce; cold ones merely carry it on top.
Ingredients: ½ pcs pomegranate · 50 g almonds · ½ bunch parsley · 1 tsp sumac
Before you start
Roast the leaves too
The green leaves around the stem caramelise faster than the florets and go crisp like chips. Add them for the last 12 minutes — they are the best part of a cauliflower and most people throw them away.
The sauce thickens in the fridge
Tahini stiffens overnight. Loosen the sauce with water before serving and season again with lemon — after a day it always tastes flat, even though it was fine the day before.
Warm or at room temperature
Never straight from the fridge. Cold tahini hardens and loses aroma, and roasted cauliflower stops smelling of anything. If made ahead, take it out half an hour before serving.
