Roasted Cauliflower Salad

As promised, sharing pictures of Shannon with the world's biggest cauliflower (this is her on the streets of SF meeting up for our commute). In class last night we all got a viewing of this beast (since Shannon was kind enough to bring it in rather than let it stink up my car). When everyone heard about Shannon's blog fame we decided to take a poll to see what she should do with her new beauty. Please cast your votes. Polls close on the 15th at 1:29pm. If you have other ideas or good cauliflower recipes please use the comments section below!

And here's the recipe Shannon's been using for her favorite cruciferous fix... She mentioned you don't have to use all the spices if you don't have them, so this is a general guide. You can also substitute different kinds of nuts or red onion for the scallions. Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 medium head cauliflower, cut in small florets with sliced stems (if desired)
2-3 Tbl coconut oil, melted
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp each sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
1/4 cup thinly sliced scallions, white and green parts
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Directions

Preheat oven to 450F.

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

In a large bowl, toss cauliflower with coconut oil. Add spices, salt and pepper and toss to evenly distribute spices.

Spread cauliflower on baking sheet in a single layer. Roast for 30-45 minutes, until florets are tender and charred to your liking.

Put cauliflower in a shallow dish or on a platter and drizzle with lemon juice and olive oil to taste.

Garnish with pine nuts, cilantro, an extra sprinkling of sea salt and pepper, and serve.

Commuting with Cauliflower

I started to tease Shannon about showing up carrying heads of lettuce by the second week of class. We commute together. She works two blocks from me and lives out my way also, a perfect setup since we come from our offices and drag our disheveled, chef-uniformed selves home after each long day of work and class. Between parking downtown, bridge toll, and gas it's saving us (and the environment) a bundle. But the most valuable part of our setup, to me, is commuting with Shannon herself.

I mean, who shows up constantly carrying lettuce? Shannon is probably the only person I know who is more into farmers markets than me. She frequents the little weekday markets downtown. And during weekend spare hours, Shannon volunteers at the San Francisco Ferry Building Farmers Market. While she was at Stanford, like me, Shannon worked on "The Farm," coaxing vegetables out of the arid campus soil. She's developed a passion for sustainable agriculture, one of the main factors that drove her to Bauman, and makes her a die-hard farmer fan (you'd never find her in the TJs or Safeway produce sections).

But I've come to realize, now that we're really getting to know each other, that Shannon actually commutes with cauliflower mostly. Last week she raved about the price/weight ratio of the one she'd found that afternoon at the market and confessed her addiction. If it were me I'd have half the thing sitting around still after two weeks (I tried to lift it, it was heavier than your average bowling ball), but today she showed up again with a whole new cauliflower.

Commuting with cauliflower is fine if you drive it from one place to the next. But let me tell you, leaving cauliflower in a car for four hours gets stinky (and it was my car we drove today). I do like cauliflower though and I trust Shannon's expertise. So next time I pick some up I will make it the way Shannon suggests... by roasting it in a high heat oven (425 I think) with Indian spices and coconut oil, topped with herbs (cilantro ideally), nuts (especially pine nuts) and onions (either diced red or chopped green work). Maybe Shannon will be kind enough to post the actual recipe since she's the expert!

Coming soon... picture of Shannon with cauliflower (the two pictured separately will have to do for now). And by the way that stuff Shannon is sniffing is white truffle oil, which also happens to go very well with cauliflower.