Roasted Cauliflower Steaks
All recipes provided by Louisa Chapman-Andrews from Cook Folk
Cauliflower is a such an underrated vegetable – wonderfully meaty in texture, if you cook it right, its flavour stands up well to strong spices and it makes a real show stopper of a centre piece if you cook it whole or in steaks.
• Turn your oven to 200C (180C fan) and find your largest flat baking sheet and line with baking parchment
• Take one cauliflower and cut off the stalk removing the outer green leaves, leaving just a few small pale ones intact
• With a sharp heavy knife cut the cauliflower in half from top to root, then cut inch thick steaks from the middle out – you should get four steaks and some florets from a medium/large one
• Take two large table spoons of ghee/clarified butter or rapeseed oil and warm gently in a pan with a large heaped teaspoon of Ras El Hanout spice mix, (I like the one from Spice Mountain), a smashed garlic clove or two and a very generous pinch of flaky sea salt and black pepper
• Pour and paint (I like to use a silicon pastry brush) this spiced oil onto the cauliflower steaks, remembering to coat both sides
• Roast in the oven for around 20 minutes, carefully turning once – setting a timer and checking regularly to make sure nothing is catching
• Once everything is golden and smelling wonderful then use the steaks as a side dish or as part of a warm salad, or my favourite; to top a dahl (you can replace the Ras El Hanout with Garam Masala or a good curry powder if you want to take it to the next level with a curry) with some of the Slow Roast Tomatoes, a scattering of roasted chopped almonds and a dollop of Greek yogurt
