Cauliflower is now trendier than kale. I am kind of pleased by this. Much as I like kale, I won’t miss that awful ‘cabbagey’ smell you get with cooked kale. I feel like every restaurant I walked into last year smelled of kale. It’s kind of how I imagined Ireland smelled in the 1940’s, when all they had was kale and potatoes as vegetables. Recently though cauliflower has been springing up a lot more on restaurant menus and I wanted to try some cauliflower recipes at home. This salad is a simple combination of roasted cauliflower and onions mixed with grainy mustard, shavings of Manchego cheese, and salad leaves. Cauliflower can be a relatively bland tasting veggie, so roasting is a great way to bring out the flavor. The roasted onions, garlic and mustard add a nice kick. This salad works as a side dish or as a healthy lunch. Long live the reign of cauliflower as king of the trendy vegetables, I say!
Serves 2
Ingredients
- 1/2 head of cauliflower, broken into florets
- 1 medium onion, peeled and sliced
- 4 cloves of garlic, in their skin
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- salt and pepper
- 30g of Manchego Cheese in shavings
- 1 tablespoon of grain mustard
- 1 heaped teaspoon of chopped flat leaf parsley
- 1 small bowl of salad leaves
- 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil, for drizzling
Method
- Preheat the oven to 200 C/400F
- Line a large baking tray with parchment paper.
- Put the cauliflower florets, sliced onions and garlic on the tray.
- Pour the olive oil over the vegetables and season with salt and pepper.
- Roast for 35 -40 minutes, or until cooked and golden brown.
- Once they are cooked, remove and discard the skin from the roast garlic and smash with a fork.
- Add the Manchego cheese, mustard, and parsley. Mix together.
- Taste and season with salt and pepper.
- Serve the cauliflower mix on a bed of the salad leaves, and drizzle with olive oil
