9 Tasty Ways To Use Cauliflower

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas 4.

Trim the base of the cauliflower, then use a sharp knife to score a deep cross in the stalk. Remove any tatty outer leaves, leaving the rest intact. Carefully place, stalk-side down, in a large pan of boiling salted water. Cook for 6 minutes, then drain and leave to steam dry.

Meanwhile, prepare the topping. Blitz the bread, almonds and herbs in a food processor to a fine crumb and set aside.

For the cheese sauce, place the butter in a large saucepan on a medium heat. Add the garlic, cook for 1 minute, then stir in the flour and mustard to make a thick paste. Slowly add the milk, stirring constantly, to give you a loose white sauce. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer gently for 5 minutes, or until thick and glossy. Grate in 100g of cheese, mix well and season to taste.

Transfer the cauliflower to a 25cm round ovenproof dish and squash it down with your hands to flatten and fill the dish.

Pour over the cheese sauce, then grate over the remaining cheese and top with the breadcrumbs. Bake for 30 minutes, or until golden and bubbling, and serve straight away.

Heat the oven to 200°C/180°C Fan. Mix the pimentons with the thyme leaves and olive oil and rub all over the cauliflower. Sit into a small roasting tin and season well. Add a good splash of boiling water and roast for 40 minutes. Drizzle with the sherry and lemon juice and return to the oven for 10 minutes more.

Meanwhile, bash the almonds and hazelnuts in a pestle and mortar to rough crumbs. Whiz the peppers and olives together with the garlic, vinegar and pimenton. Season and stir in the roughly ground nuts and breadcrumbs. Add the oil.

Serve wedges of the cauliflower on a bed of romesco sauce and scatter with the flaked almonds and parsley.

Preheat oven to 220°C/200°C Fan/Gas 7. Line a tray with baking paper, add the cauliflower and drizzle with oil. Toss with your hands and roast for 15 minutes.

Mix the smooth peanut butter with the rice vinegar and slowly add 100ml of boiling water, stirring it thoroughly until you get to the consistency of double cream. You may not need all the water. Set aside.

Mix the garlic sauce, sweet hoisin sauce, garlic and water together. Toss in the cauliflower and return to the oven, turning it down to 200°C/180°C Fan/Gas 6 and roast for a further 10 minutes.

Remove cauliflower from the oven, garnish with spring onions and serve with cucumbers, peanut sauce, pickled chillies, glass noodles tossed with sesame oil and lettuce leaves.

Place the lentils in a pan of cold water and bring to the boil. Immediately drain and then add the lentils back into the pan and cover with clean water. Bring the lentils up to a simmer, then cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Once cooked, drain, and allow to cool on a tray.

Remove the leaves from the cauliflower and cut into florets. Chop the cauliflower into small pieces. The idea is it should resemble minced beef in appearance and texture.

In a frying pan, add a little cooking oil and fry the cauliflower over a medium high heat. Cook for approximately three minutes. The cauliflower should colour, and char slightly, but still have a slight crunchy texture. Add to the cooked lentils.

Finely slice the spring onions and red onion.

Roughly chop your soft herbs into a large mixing bowl, add the cooked lentils and cauliflower (it’s best if the vegetables are still slightly warm or above room temperature).

Stir in the remaining ingredients along with the sliced onions.

Taste for seasoning, you are looking for a balance spicy, sour and slightly sweet.

This salad is best served with steamed rice to go with the spicy dressing.

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

Remove all leaves from the cauliflower head. Cut cauliflower into florets, roughly equal in size.

Melt the butter and put in a small bowl. Add the garlic and stir it in.

Place the breadcrumbs, salt, pepper and parmesan in another bowl.

Dip each cauliflower piece into the melted butter, then into the breadcrumbs.

Place each breaded piece on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat until you use up all cauliflower.

Roast the cauliflower for 30-35 minutes, or until the breading is golden brown.

Sweat the sliced stems in a pan. When they’ve started to soften, add the shallots and carry on sweating until they start to colour, then add the garlic for 2 minutes.

Once the garlic is cooked, add in the milk and bring to the boil. Once boiled, take off the heat and add in the double cream. Leave to cool for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, fish out the stems and save the liquid – this is your milk for the béchamel sauce.

In a cold pan, start to heat the butter to melt. Once melted add in the flour and cook off until it becomes a roux, to avoid that raw flour taste. Cook for 5 minutes on a medium heat.

Start adding in the cauliflower milk from earlier to the roux bit by bit. Once all the milk is added, boil for 30 minutes. Once you’ve got a sauce-like consistency, take off the heat and whisk in the grated cheddar cheese.

Bring a pan of seasoned water to the boil and blanch your cauliflower florets for 4 minutes. Check to see if they are cooked (no one likes a raw cauliflower cheese). Once cooked, cool down in the fridge or plunge in ice water quickly.

To assemble the dish, mix the cauliflower florets with the béchamel sauce, then add in 100g of grated cheese, season well and place into an ovenproof dish. This can be done the day before and kept in the fridge.

When you’re ready to eat, place in an oven at 190°C for 15-25 minutes

Remove the green stems from the cauliflower, and then cut one into 4 pieces. Wash and thoroughly dry it.

Use a manual box grater to grate the cauliflower into rice (with the grater use the medium side to grate the cauliflower, not the fine side). If you are using a food processor, cut the cauliflower into smaller pieces and use the grater attachment to grate.

Transfer to a clean towel or fine sieve and press to remove any excess moisture, which can make your dish soggy.

Once you have your raw cauliflower rice, it is easy to cook. Simply sauté in a large frying pan over medium heat with 1 tbsp of olive oil, cumin, green chilli and fresh turmeric.

Cover with a lid so the cauliflower steams and becomes more tender. Cook for a total of 4-6 minutes, then season with salt.

Chop the cauliflower and leeks, place on a baking tray with the garlic and drizzle with olive oil.

Place in the oven and roast until lightly browned.

Add 1 cup of water and the cashews into the blender, blend until completely smooth, add the roasted veg.

Add another cup of water and blend until desired consistency is reached, add water as necessary.
Season to taste, add a squeeze of lemon, a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of paprika.

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C Fan.

Break the cauliflower into florets and chop into bite-sized pieces. Roughly chop the sweet potato into cubes, de-seed the pepper and slice into strips. Cut the onion into wedges (about 8). Try to cut all of the veg into roughly the same size pieces so that they cook even.

Arrange the vegetables on two baking trays without anything overlapping and drizzle well with oil, using your hands to toss everything so that it’s all coated well. Sprinkle over the paprika and cumin and season with salt.

Put in the oven for 20-25 minutes (checking and stirring halfway) until everything is tender and starting to char around the edges. Keep warm until ready to serve.

Put the almonds on a separate baking tray and put them in the oven for 5-8 minutes until fragrant and golden. Leave to cool before chopping roughly.

Whisk together the ingredients for the dressing, starting with 5 tbsp of water and adding another if you’d like to thin it a bit more. Taste for seasoning.

Drain and rinse the chickpeas and add them to a large pan with the grains and a glug of olive oil. Heat on a medium heat to warm through.

When you’re ready to serve, toss the warm grain/chickpea mixture with the roasted vegetables and the dates. Put the mix into a serving bowl and scatter over the zaatar, parsley and toasted almonds.

Bring the dressing to the table and let your guests drizzle it generously over their food.