Roasted cauliflower and hazelnut salad

This salad was originally published in Jerusalem by Yottam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi. I had no idea what it would taste like as it uses some spices I don’t often cook with but it is an absolute winner. I do make a few minor tweaks in that I like to add a bit more celery, a bit more parsley, I omit the pomegranate and I use a bit less olive oil, but otherwise I don’t mess with this recipe hugely. I’ve tried a few different versions using different vegetables or adding cous cous or feta  but whenever I do mess with the quantities and ingredients I find the salad doesn’t quite live up to the original. I’d suggest you follow this recipe closely for the best results, though I have commented in italics below where I adapt the recipe and method.

Serves 2-4

Time: 1 hour

Ingredients

• 1 head of cauliflower (around 660g), leaves removed and broken in to bitesize florets

• 5 tablespoons olive oil (though I reduce this to 3 tablespoons)

• 1 large stick of celery (around 70g), cut on the angle in to 0.5cm slices (I prefer to use 2 sticks)

• 30g hazelnuts, skin on

• 10g flat leave parsley leaves (I prefer to double the quantity)

• 50g pomegranate seed from about half a pomegranate (I don’t really like pomegranate and rarely have it at home, so tend to omit this)

• 1/3 tsp ground cinnamon

• 1/3 tsp ground allspice

• 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar (or I substitute it for red wine vinegar if I don’t have any)

• 1 ½ tsp maple syrup

• Salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 220c/200c Fan/gas mark 7

2. Mix the cauliflower with 3 tablespoons (I only use 2 tablespoons) of the olive oil, ½ a teaspoon of salt and a good grind of black pepper. Add to a roasting tin and roast on the top shelf of the oven for 25-35 minutes. The cauliflower should be starting to catch on the edges, it should have some decent golden colour and even some quite dark bits (it all adds to the flavour). Place the cauliflower in a large mixing bowl and leave to cool.

3. Reduce the oven temperature to 170c/150c fan/gas mark 3 ½ .

4. Line a baking tray with parchment and spread the hazelnuts out on the tray. Roast the nuts for about 17 minutes. (Sometimes to save time I roast the nuts with the cauliflower but you need to keep an eye on them as the oven is so hot, 5-10 minutes should do the trick).

5. Once the nuts have cooled, roughly chop them and then add to the cauliflower along with the celery.

6. Add the remaining olive oil, the cinnamon, allspice, sherry vinegar, maple syrup, parsley, pomegranate seeds and stir. (I usually mix the oil with the vinegar, maple syrup, cinnamon and allspice in a separate small bowl, just to make sure it’s all thoroughly mixed before adding to the salad. As mentioned above I tend to skip the pomegranate).

7. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve at room temperature.

I think this salad is good enough to eat as a light meal on it’s own, but it would also work well as a side.