Cauliflower Chaat Recipes

Steps:

• For the tamarind-cacao chutney: Stir together the coconut sugar, tamarind concentrate, cacao powder, cumin and 2 cups water in a small saucepan. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then turn heat down to medium-low so that sauce is simmering. Cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until sauce is thick enough that when you dip a spoon into it and run your finger on the back of it, it holds a line, for about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.
• For the cauliflower chaat salad: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
• Toss the cauliflower with the avocado oil and cornstarch. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour onto a baking sheet. Tumble the chickpeas onto another baking sheet. Drizzle with a little more avocado oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pop both baking sheets into the oven and roast, tossing halfway through, until cauliflower is golden brown and chickpeas are darkened and crispy on the outside, 25 to 30 minutes. Allow to cool slightly. Then add the cauliflower and chickpeas to a large bowl.
• Add the lime zest and juice, chaat masala, shallots, cilantro, mint and ginger. Toss gently to combine.
• Arrange radicchio in a large shallow bowl. Drizzle with a little tamarind chutney. Add a few dollops of yogurt.
• Gently tumble cauliflower and chickpeas over the top, stopping to drizzle with chutney and yogurt every now and then. Finish with more chutney, yogurt and sev noodles. Serve immediately.

Steps:

• Sprinkle the cauliflower with the chilli powder. Put a steamer on the hob or place a colander in a pan with 5cm water in the bottom and steam the cauliflower for 5 mins until just tender.
• Blend all the marinade ingredients in a food processor, rub them over the cauliflower, then leave to marinate for 1 hr.
• Cook the cauliflower on a medium-hot barbecue with the lid on until cooked through (check by inserting a small knife into the stem), making sure the cauliflower doesn't directly touch the flames and burn. (Or heat oven to 220C/200C fan/gas 7 and cook on a baking tray for 10-15 mins until cooked through.)
• Put the cauliflower on a plate and coat all over with the yogurt. Zig-zag the green chutney over, then sprinkle the pomegranate seeds, coriander and fried shallots on top.

Steps:

• Cook the cauliflower: Heat the oil in a sauté pan on high heat, until the oil starts to smoke in small wisps. Add the cauliflower florets and lower the heat to medium-high. Sprinkle with salt and allow the florets to brown in the pan, then stir and turn the heat down to medium. Cook for another minute, then add ginger and jalapeño. Stir well, add cilantro, lemon juice and chaat masala, and stir again. Remove pan from heat.
• Prepare the sauce: Place all ingredients plus 2 tablespoons water in a small food processor and purée until smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides and get everything incorporated. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
• Drizzle sauce over the cauliflower and sprinkle with almonds. Serve with rice or flatbread.

Steps:

• The success of most all dishes hinges on the quality and freshness of the ingredients involved, and cauliflower's no exception. Before you cook, you must buy, and buy well. Here's what to look for as you shop. A member of the brassica family, which includes broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage and kale, cauliflower is pretty much always available, with stunning consistency in quality all year long. But farmers' market shoppers may notice them start to show up in early fall and last until early winter. Cauliflower heads at commercial grocery stores look fairly identical, often weighing about 1½ to 2 pounds with a uniform, ivory color - and almost always wrapped in plastic. But once you break out into smaller specialty groceries and farmers' markets, size, shape and color can vary drastically - don't be afraid! Orangey-yellow (or "Cheddar" cauliflower for its color, and not, unfortunately, because it tastes like cheese), purple and neon green specimens taste almost the same as the white ones and can be used interchangeably. Regardless of color, size or where you're buying them, choose heads of cauliflower that seem heavy for their size (fresher produce has higher water content and therefore weighs more) with tight, compact leaves and clusters of florets. Avoid any that feel soft or spongy or have dark spotting on the top, a sign they are past their prime. A fresh head of cauliflower should last in your kitchen about a week, wrapped tightly in plastic or stored in a resealable bag in the refrigerator. Cauliflower's shape lends itself to being intuitively broken down from one large floret into smaller and smaller florets with your hands or a knife. The size of floret desired will depend on preparation, but if you want steamed or roasted cauliflower florets, they should be relatively bite-size for even cooking and practical eating. While many recipes call for them to be removed, the core and leaves are not only edible, but delicious. The core has a meatier, firmer texture than the florets, but its flavor is the same and should absolutely be included in all preparations. The tender, pale-green leaves, which taste almost like cabbage with a texture to match (they are from the same family, after all), should not be discarded. They can be left on or included in any preparation. For some preparations (roasting, gratins, searing, grilling), it's nice to slice the heads lengthwise through the core to keep the center-cut florets together, creating a thick slab. When doing this, nearly all the first attempted slices will crumble, but that's O.K. (Save those crumbles to roast for extra-crunchy bits, or save them to throw into a salad.)
• The phrase "steamed cauliflower" sounds almost like punishment, but it can be delicious. Steaming cooks the cauliflower quickly, gently and without diluting its delicate flavor (as opposed to blanching, which can waterlog and strip the vegetable of all nutritional value).To steam your cauliflower, break the cauliflower into large, but still bite-size, florets, and place them in a steamer basket set inside a pot of simmering salted water. Season the florets with salt and pepper, and cover the pot. Let them steam until the tip of a knife or fork can be inserted easily without resistance, 8 to 10 minutes, depending on size. The ideal steamed cauliflower should read al dente, never mushy. From here, the florets can be broken down more by crushing them with a fork or potato masher, ricing them through a ricer for a proxy of creamy mashed potatoes, or simply breaking them up by hand. Since there has been no caramelization, the flavor will be more subtle than in other preparations, which means there are plenty of opportunities for dressing it assertively for both flavor and texture. A blank canvas of sorts, it takes kindly to plenty of tart lemon juice, loads of olive oil or browned butter, chopped crunchy nuts and a generous grating of hard, salty cheese.
• Sautéing cauliflower allows for quicker cooking and more surface area for caramelization, bringing out some of its natural flavor. The results can be eaten on their own, or even mixed with raw cauliflower to add texture.To sauté, break down a head of cauliflower into small pieces. Heat a bit of olive oil in your largest skillet (to avoid crowding, which leads to steaming), and cook the cauliflower hot and fast, working in batches, if needed. If adding aromatics, like thinly sliced onion, smashed garlic, herbs, spices or anchovy fillets, give them a brief sauté in the olive oil first, so they soften and caramelize before the cauliflower is added. You'll know it's ready to eat when the florets are nicely browned and have a firm, yet tender texture. While a whole bowl of raw cauliflower can be tough for some, adding a bit to sautéed cauliflower is a good way to return some crunch to a dish. From here, it can be served warm or room temperature with nearly anything in your kitchen, whether a creamy yogurt sauce or crunchy chopped almonds. It is also excellent dressed almost like a pasta salad, with vinegar, a few briny, salty things like capers or olives, and loads of herbs.
• Something magical happens to cauliflower when it's roasted for long enough at a very high temperature. It transforms - from raw to soft and tender, to kind of mushy, to deeply caramelized and almost crisp. Your patience is rewarded here: The flavors deepen in a way they don't with any other preparation.To roast an average-sized cauliflower, break it into medium to small florets, or slice it into ½-inch-thick slabs, drizzle with 3 to 4 tablespoons olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Add any spices or aromatics you like (a pinch of ground turmeric, whole cumin or fennel seed, red-pepper flakes) and roast at 450 degrees until browned and caramelized, 20 to 30 minutes. A common pitfall when roasting is either doing it at too low a temperature or stopping once the cauliflower is tender: You have to stick with it, continuing to roast until the color goes from creamy white to deeply, impossibly golden brown (think: the color of a well-baked pastry). Sure, it will be technically cooked through before it gets to that stage, but pushing it helps it reach its full potential. Because it's so versatile, cauliflower pairs well with nearly anything you want to roast alongside it: aromatics, such as crushed cloves of garlic, spices, chiles or sprigs of hearty herbs, as well as more substantial ingredients like sliced fennel or canned, rinsed chickpeas. You can also sprinkle it with a light dusting of Parmesan in the last 10 minutes of roasting for a very good, very cheesy result. Just make sure that you coat it in plenty of olive oil, so it almost sizzles. It'll aid its transformation.It may come as no surprise, but cheese loves cauliflower. The two are already fantastic paired on their own. But adding heavy cream, simmering it until it reduces and the florets caramelize at the edges, bubbling and crisped on top - well, that's truly spectacular. It's not necessarily better than macaroni and cheese, but it definitely hits similar pleasure receptors. While you certainly could go by the book, with a béchamel and bread crumbs, simply cooking it in heavy cream and topping it with a shredded Cheddar or Gruyère will get you there in a fraction of the time. (This recipe will get you there, and fast.) Herbs, like picked thyme leaves, or an allium, like thinly sliced onion, garlic or leeks, are great additions, but if you want to keep things pure and simple, a gratin made of 100-percent cauliflower would still be very good.
• Once you have a few of the most popular preparations of cauliflower down, you can explore some of the more obscure ways to make it. Here are a few more ways to turn your cauliflower into something truly special.The flavor of raw cauliflower isn't much to write home about, but if you're a fan of crunchy vegetables for dipping, you might consider including tiny florets in your next crudité platter. Broken down in a food processor or finely chopped, raw cauliflower has also been known to take the place of grains for those abstaining. For a tabbouleh-esque dish, dress finely chopped raw cauliflower with a ton of freshly chopped herbs (parsley, cilantro, mint would be good), lots of acid (fresh lemon or lime juice or a mild vinegar), olive oil, some finely grated garlic, maybe a chopped cucumber or two and a good amount of salt and pepper. Cauliflower doesn't absorb flavors as quickly raw as it does cooked, so let it sit for a few minutes and reseason before serving. Cauliflower is a key ingredient in the popular sweet-tangy-spicy pickled condiment piccalilli, but it can also be pickled on its own in a simple vinegar brine. The vegetable's cruciferous aroma tends to be enhanced when pickled, but the flavor is actually quite mellow and will absorb any aromatics, like mustard seeds, crushed garlic and turmeric. Use small florets in place of cucumbers in any pickling recipe.Deep-fried cauliflower is fantastic for obvious reasons (Crunchy bits! A golden-brown exterior!), but perhaps most practically, it doesn't need to be battered or coated before being thrown into a pot of hot oil. It can be deep fried, then tossed in a spicy sauce (à la Buffalo cauliflower) or dipped into any sauce of your choosing. To fry cauliflower, fill a medium pot about halfway with neutral oil and bring it to 375 degrees. Working in batches and using a slotted spoon, drop florets into the hot oil and fry until deeply golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove and let drain on a paper towel-lined plate and season with salt.Cauliflower is an excellent choice if you're looking for a vegetable to turn into sauce or soup. It becomes incredibly creamy, tasting like you've added a quart of cream, even if there's no dairy. To purée cauliflower, simmer florets in chicken or vegetable stock (of course, you can also use milk, if you want) until the cauliflower is extremely tender. Use a slotted spoon to transfer cauliflower to a blender, along with enough of the cooking liquid to get the blender going. How much more cooking liquid you add depends on your taste: Less will give you a thick purée for serving beneath roasted chicken or braised short ribs; more will give you a silky soup for topping with croutons and chopped herbs.