Indian inspired roasted cauliflower

Perfectly tender Indian style spiced cauliflower steaks with a fresh herby chutney the perfect vegetable side dish.

Cauliflower is often overlooked or overused in the same few dishes (cauliflower cheese I’m looking at you!) However I am about to show you how wonderful cauliflower can be with a little love and creativity! This beautifully spiced roasted cauliflower dish is everything you could want in a veg based dish. It makes for a perfect side dish but also has enough personality and flavour to be a main dish! The chutney is an Indian street food inspired sauce often served with samosas but goes beautifully as a base layer of this dish. Give this one a try to really make you fall in love with cauliflower.

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Ingredients and substitutes-

· Cauliflower- Make sure to use the biggest cauliflower you can find for this recipe as we’re going to make them into cauliflower steaks and a smaller cauliflower will break too much.

· Chutney- This chutney is based on an Indian style street food chutney. Traditionally this chutney would be made with coriander rather than parsley however I am one of those people where coriander tastes like soap so parsley is a fair substitute for me.

· Spices- The spice blend I use in this is just a guide. Feel free to use whatever you have in your cupboards however I would say my holy grail of Indian cooking- garlic and ginger paste- must still be used to get that aromatic base flavour.

· Oil- Again feel free to use whichever oil you like. The part that oil plays is to make all those lovely spices into a spreadable paste and to give the cauliflower a slight crisp.

· Cashew cream- If you’d like to make this recipe nut free or your blender is not powerful enough you can swap the cashew cream for another vegan cream such as soy cream.

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Top Tips!

Spice-

As with all of my recipes the spice levels can be scaled, I use 1 deseeded chilli in this chutney but if you love spice feel free to go as spicy as you like.

Blender-

To make sure your chutney turns out smooth you’ll need to use a powerful blender. I use this one. The cashews will not blend unless you use a high speed blender so if you don’t have one you could use a tbsp of yoghurt or vegan single/double cream to provide that creaminess that the cashews would provide.

Baking-

To save your roasting dish from having the seasoning paste burnt on be sure to use some baking paper.

And now for the recipe!

Indian inspired roasted cauliflower

​Serves- 2 Time- 45 minutes

Ingredients-

• 1 large cauliflower

Seasoning blend-

• 1 tbsp garlic ginger paste

• 30ml olive oil

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 tsp cumin powder

• 1 tsp fenugreek powder

• 1 tsp coriander powder

• 1 tsp turmeric powder

Chutney ingredients-

• 35g cashew nuts

• 30g fresh parsley

• 1 tsp garlic ginger paste

• 1 tsp cumin powder

• 5 fresh mint leaves

• 1 green chilli

Method-

1. Pre heat the oven to 200C.

2. Place the cashew nuts in to the cup of the high speed blender and soak in boiling water- just enough to cover the cashews. After 15 minutes of soaking blend this into a cream ensuring that no lumps remain.

3. Remove the leaves from the cauliflower (you could also roast these and serve with the cauliflower steaks) then cut the cauliflower in to thick steaks. Don’t worry if they break apart a little but try to get all of the cauliflower down to a similar thickness

4. To make the seasoning paste to give that cauliflower an amazing flavour boost pour the olive oil into a bowl and add the garlic ginger paste, salt, cumin, fenugreek, coriander and turmeric and mix until well combined.

5. Place the cauliflower steaks onto a baking tray and with a pastry brush- brush on the seasoning generously making sure to get into all of the cracks. Then turn over the steaks and brush the other side.

6. Put these in the oven and bake for 30 minutes flipping over after 15 mins. Before removing the cauliflower make sure they are fork tender by testing the hardest thickest part of the vegetable.

7. Now to make the chutney combine all of the ingredients and half of the cashew cream in a high speed blender.

8. Now to plate up cover the bowl or plate in a layer of chutney, place the baked cauliflower on top and top with the cashew cream.

9. Enjoy!

FAQ-

· Can I use another vegetable?- The cauliflower works really well with this spice paste but it will also work on other vegetables. Just prepare your veg as normal and coat in the spice blend. Bake until fork tender.

· Can I air fry this?- I would recommend to par boil the cauliflower before brushing on the spice blend if you are going to air fry this just to make sure that even the toughest parts of the cauliflower are baked until fork tender.

Why not try these other delicious recipes?

• Cashew tempeh

• Spicy red pepper and 'feta' dip

• Butter bean curry

Did you make this recipe?

Snap a photo and tag me on Instagram @theplantbowls I'd love to see it!

Click here to watch the recipe video

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