Vic at Brighton & Hove Food Partnership has kindly shared this recipe for a seasonal star: the humble cauli.
If you planned ahead and planted maincrop varieties in late spring last year, you can be harvesting right now, and if not, then its also the time to plant early summer varieties under cover. Cauliflowers are notoriously sensitive to temperatures, and can be tricky to grow – but fear not – pop down to your local greengrocer and make the most of the expertise of others!
A nice way to eat raw cauliflower, this transforms the crunchy florets into a lovely salad. This technique also works well with carrots.
Ingredients
| 1/2 | small cauliflower, (200g) |
| 6 | mint leaves |
| 1/4 | lemon, juiced |
| 1 tablespoon | extra virgin olive oil |
| pinch | cumin seeds |
Method
- Pull the leaves from the cauliflower and finely chop the most tender of them along with the mint. (Compost the thicker leaves.)
- Break the cauliflower into small florets and cut the stalk into pieces (peel it only if the skin is tough).
- Blend the cauliflower, in batches, to a fine rice-like consistency.
- Dress with the lemon juice and extra virgin oil, then season with the cumin and some salt and stir in the chopped leaves.
- Serve as part of a lunch or meze, with flatbread and other vegetable salads.
Variations
- Celeriac rice: Follow the cauliflower ‘rice’ recipe using a peeled celeriac, seasoning with caraway seeds instead of cumin. So good. Serves 4 as a side salad.
- Seasame rice: Add spring onions and toasted seasame seeds
Storage
- The cauliflower ‘rice’ will keep in a sealed container in the fridge for three days.
Brighton and Hove Organic Gardening Group 