Cauliflower pasta

This is a simple and very satisfying dish. Also very easy to make. The anchovies melt down into the oil and mix with the cauliflower to make a tasty sauce. It doesn't look like much, but it is delicious. 

The recipe gives enough for four people but I find I can share with one other, happily sharing eating a whole cauliflower, just reducing the amount of pasta by half. 

Cauliflower pasta 

Ingredients 

1 cauliflower 

250g penne 

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped 

1 tin anchovy fillets in olive oil 

1 fresh chilli (sliced) or generous pinch of dried chilli flakes 

2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped 

ground black pepper 

Method 

• Take a large frying pan and pour the oil from a tin of anchovy fillets into it, put it on a low heat, put the garlic and chilli along with a few grinds of pepper into the oil to infuse for a few minutes 
• Don’t add salt, as the anchovies are already salty 
• Fill a large pot with water and bring to the boil, put in the cauliflower whole or in pieces, and cook the cauliflower until cooked or about 5 minutes, then pick out the cauliflower and set aside, saving the water to use for cooking the pasta 
• Keep the water boiling and add the penne, while the penne are cooking finish the sauce. 
• Add the anchovy fillets to the pan 
• Add the cauliflower and stir and mash them into the oil then cook for 5 minutes, stirring in some parsley, adding water from the pasta cooking liquid if mixture seems to be getting dry. 
• Once the pasta is cooked, mix into the pan with the cauliflower. Season to taste, sprinkle over the rest of the chopped parsley, then serve.

Baked charmoulah vegetables

This is an easy way to make delicious vegetables, brilliant for summer.

3 tbsp honey

3 tbsp olive oil

2 crushed garlic cloves

1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander

1tsp chilli seeds

1tsp ground coriander

1tsp ground cumin

for mixed sliced vegetables such as 

Cauliflower

Aubergine

Sweet potato

Courgette

 

Method

preheat the oven to 220C/200C Fan/Gas 7

Mix the ingredients in a bowl 

brush onto the vegetable flesh. 

lay in single layer in oven dish

Bake for 40 minutes, turning midway, until cooked through and golden. 

This is Cauliflower Soup

In this strange period between Christmas and New Year the mind wanders. Mine has wandered to soup. I'm going to post a soup a week for a while. This week's soup is made from cauliflower. I'm recycling it from an earlier post... 

Cauliflower Soup

I like soup all year round, and in the winter I like it even more. The variety of consistencies of soup is also a delight, minestrone types - mixed finely chopped veg is great, but sometimes what is wanted is a smooth soup. Thanks to hand blenders these soups are very easy to make. When I can't lay my hands on a blender I have been known to scoop out some of the cooked vegetables so that I can mash them with a fork. The mashed veg then lend variety to the texture of the soup, and act as a thickener as well.

This recipe for cauliflower soup is very easy. I use leftover cooked cauliflower, but it would be worth cooking it especially for the purpose. Pureed cauliflower is very smooth indeed, velvety, like chocolate. Ok, I know that chocolate afficionados out there may be outraged, but it really does give the same pleasure when you eat it, at least from the point of view of texture. Mouth feel as it is called by some.

I am not oblivious to the fact that some people don't like cauliflower. Obviously, they are nuts. The low, slightly rooty and a little bit cabbagey flavour is wonderful, as far as I am concerned. I have converted people to cauliflower by cooking it in pieces (steam or boil) and then sauteeing in butter with plenty of black pepper and a pinch of salt. The sound as it rolls around the frying pan is great, the smell is terrific, it looks so tasty, with the little browned patches and when it comes to the taste, it is glorious. Rooty, nutty, peppery, buttery and sweet - and it hardly needs chewing. 

Recipe

Ingredients

 

a large bowlful of cooked cauliflower

1 onion

1 potato

1 clove garlic

large handful of parsley, chopped

three mugfuls of water/stock

pepper and salt

nutmeg

Method

• Prepare the onion, potato and garlic - peel and chop up quite small - and cook in the water until soft
• Add the cauliflower and chopped parsley, pepper and salt (to taste, but make sure there is lots of pepper) and a pinch of nutmeg, simmer for a couple of minutes
• Blend the lot and serve

If you're greedy and organised you could accompany your soup with a nice samosa and pea fritter, or similar.

Cauliflower soup

I like soup all year round, and in the winter I like it even more. The variety of consistencies of soup is also a delight, minestrone types - mixed finely chopped veg is great, but sometimes what is wanted is a smooth soup. Thanks to hand blenders these soups are very easy to make. When I can't lay my hands on a blender I have been known to scoop out some of the cooked vegetables so that I can mash them with a fork. The mashed veg then lend variety to the texture of the soup, and act as a thickener as well.

This recipe for cauliflower soup is very easy. I use leftover cooked cauliflower, but it would be worth cooking it especially for the purpose. Pureed cauliflower is very smooth indeed, velvety, like chocolate. Ok, I know that chocolate afficionados out there may be outraged, but it really does give the same pleasure when you eat it, at least from the point of view of texture. Mouth feel as it is called by some.

I am not oblivious to the fact that some people don't like cauliflower. Obviously, they are nuts. The low, slightly rooty and a little bit cabbagey flavour is wonderful, as far as I am concerned. I have converted people to cauliflower by cooking it in pieces (steam or boil) and then sauteeing in butter with plenty of black pepper and a pinch of salt. The sound as it rolls around the frying pan is great, the smell is terrific, it looks so tasty, with the little browned patches and when it comes to the taste, it is glorious. Rooty, nutty, peppery, buttery and sweet - and it hardly needs chewing. 

Recipe

Ingredients

a large bowlful of cooked cauliflower

1 onion

1 potato

1 clove garlic

large handful of parsley, chopped

three mugfuls of water/stock

pepper and salt

nutmeg

Method

• Prepare the onion, potato and garlic - peel and chop up quite small - and cook in the water until soft
• Add the cauliflower and chopped parsley, pepper and salt (to taste, but make sure there is lots of pepper) and a pinch of nutmeg, simmer for a couple of minutes
• Blend the lot and serve

If you're greedy and organised you could accompany your soup with a nice samosa and pea fritter, or similar.