Serves 4
For the cauliflower
1 large cauliflower
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp sumac
2 tsp cumin
2 Tsp sesame seeds
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp flakey salt
½ tsp cracked black pepper
¼ cup olive oil
1 tsp lemon juice
For the coconut raita
1 cup coconut yoghurt
1 cucumber
Small handful of fresh mint
1 lemon — zest and juice
Small pinch of cayenne pepper
1 tsp salt
Garnish
Mint, dill, parsley — Use all of these or whatever you have available and lightly chop to garnish for serving.
Chilli oil
I highly recommend the Lao gan ma chilli oil. If you don’t have any already, you can find this at most Asian stores and Woolworths in the international section.
Method
Preheat your oven to 190°C. Make sure you have a medium to large roasting dish or tray greased and papered ready to go.
To start with, take most of the outer leaves off the cauliflower. This doesn’t have to be all the leaves — some of the smaller leaves can stay on when they’re roasting. They will go nice and brown and crispy. Once the leaves are off, slice the cauliflower long ways to make larger sized cauliflower looking steaks. Set these aside and make your rub.
To make the rub, add all the spices, juice and oil together in a bowl. If you feel it’s a little too dry add some more olive oil. Using your hands, rub the spice mix all over the cauliflower steaks, making sure they are nice and covered. Lay them flat on the roasting dish and place in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes. Flip them over and back in the oven for a further 10 minutes until fully cooked. You want to get a good amount of colour on the cauliflower but still have some crunch to the middle so that it doesn’t go soggy.
While your cauliflower is roasting you can prepare your coconut raita. Start by grating your cucumber into a medium bowl, cover this in salt and sit for 15 minutes. This will help to remove the excess water from the cucumber that could make your raita quite runny. Once the cucumber has sat in the salt, pour the cucumber into a clean towel or cloth and over a sink or spare bowl squeeze the cloth and remove all the excess water from the cucumber. There should be no need for further salt in the raita because the saltiness will now come from the cucumber.
In a bowl, add your coconut yoghurt, cucumber, lightly chopped mint, lemon zest and juice and cayenne. Mix all this together to make your raita and set aside in the fridge for later.
To serve
On a serving dish, spoon on your raita and cover to be the base of the dish, layer your roasted cauliflower across the dish and garnish with chilli oil and freshly chopped herbs. I also top the plate with a little extra sumac to give it that extra wee tangy kick.
