Roasted cauliflower and tomato soup

This soup is easy (by my standards), low-carb, low-fat, vegan, and pareve.  You can gussy it up if you want -- some suggestions are below -- but it is fine just as it is.

Roasted cauliflower and tomato soup

Ingredients

• 1 large cauliflower
• vegetable oil spray
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 white onion, finely chopped
• 1 15 ounce can diced fire-roasted tomatoes
• 1/2 teaspoon each ground chitpotle chile, thyme,  smoked Spanish paprika, and cumin
• handful washed chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 quart boiling vegetable stock (I actually used 4 teaspoons of Osem powder in boiling water)

Method

1. Roast the cauliflower according to my recipe for Roasted Cauliflower with Eggs.
2. Meanwhile, saute the onion in the canola oil in a medium (3-4 quart) pot on high heat until it is soft and starting to brown on the edges.  
3. Add the spices and give a few stirs.
4. Add the tomatoes and cook down on high heat until it looks like a sauce, about 5-10 minutes.
5. Add half the cilantro and stir a bit
6. Add the stock and bring to the boil.
7. When the cauliflower is done, set aside a few of the smaller florets for a garnish, and add the remainder to the soup, and simmer for about 15 minutes.
8. Puree the soup using a hand-held immersion blender. (You could use a conventional blender, but then you have to let it cool down and the recipe would not longer be fast and easy.)
9. Reheat the soup, stir in the remaining coriander, and serve with a few roasted florets in each bowl.
10. Serves 6 as a first course.

Other accompaniments:  Although this soup is fine as it is, we had it with a little goat's milk yogurt stirred in.  I am not being precious, it is widely available now.  The sweetness of the goat yogurt counteracted the acidity of the tomatoes very nicely.  You could also serve the soup with a variety of traditional Mexican garnishes:  diced chili, white onion, tortilla strips, cheese, avocado, lime and more cilantro.  This could turn the soup into a main dish for up to four people, especially at lunch.  For more on these garnishes, and on preparing the tortilla strips, see my recipe for Mexican vegetable soup. If you were going to use a lot of garnishes, I would eliminate the roasted cauliflower garnish and just puree it all with the soup.

Roasted Cauliflower and black vinegar, or with harissa vinaigrette

When I was growing up, the only dietary laws that we observed was "no lamb" and "no garlic."  When my parents got married, my mother asked my father's parents if she should keep a kosher kitchen for them, a very typical decision for this generation.  Although my grandmother was a confirmed atheist (of the "What has God done for me lately" variety so perhaps she just thought that he wasn't up to the job) she kept an impeccably kosher kitchen for my grandfather's sake. However, they said that it wasn't necessary, and we had pretty much everything in our house.  (My grandmother ate what my mother prepared, and my grandfather brought his own food, particularly as he got older.)  Everything, that is, except for lamb and garlic which my mother detested. Of course, both my brother and I adore lamb and especially garlic, but that is how life works.

When my parents came for dinner a few weeks ago I was going to make a roasted cauliflower salad with preserved lemon and harissa vinaigrette as one of the appetizers.  But, our harissa is full of garlic -- you can really smell it when you open the jar-- so I decided to try something else.  I had read an online review of Marcus Samuelsson's new restaurant Red Rooster, that mentioned a roasted cauliflower with black Chinese vinegar and sumac, so I tried this.  Not bad....


Roasted cauliflower with black vinegar and Mediterranean seasonings

To see how I prepare roasted cauliflower, click here.  Then, all you do is drizzle the cauliflower with about 2 tablespoons of good, strong olive oil, and season it with large pinches of za'atar, sumac, Maldon sea salt (go light, depending on how much you cooked it with) and Aleppo pepper.  Toss. Sprinkle with about 1 teaspoon of Chinese black vinegar (if you can't find this, Worcestershire sauce is a barely acceptable substitute, but don't use the salt then) and some roasted sesame seeds.  You can substitute roasted pine nuts for the sesame if you want, or use both. Toss again and serve as an appetizer or side dish.

Roasted cauliflower with harissa vinaigrette  

This is what I would have made had my mother not been coming to dinner.  It is really good and a very nice dressing for other roasted vegetables. Remove the pulp from a small preserved lemon, and remove the seeds from the pulp.  Chop the pulp into a paste, put it in a small dish, and mix in a teaspoon or more of harissa. If you want a very Tunisian flavor, mix in 1/2 teaspoon ground caraway seeds.  Drizzle in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 2 teaspoons of red wine vinegar.  Toss with the cauliflower.  Shred the preserved lemon skin and toss it in, along with a handful of chopped coriander leaves.  That's it.

Veal, cauliflower and tahini stew, and how memory works, and doesn't

Multitasking becomes difficult as one ages, and this can lead to culinary disasters, as I have noted in reporting on nearly causing a house fire when making kadaif.  One of the nice things about stews is that they are made for multitasking.  You can leave them simmer while you do other things, something very useful for those of us who work at home.  However, it is a mistake to try browning while multitasking.

The other day, I made this veal stew while working at home on a project that involved comparing several proposals and therefore a lot of attention to detail.  You have to brown the veal well, best done in a few batches so as not to crowd the pan and cause the meat to steam. The first batch of meat came out beautifully, and I got a bit complacent with the second batch and returned to my proposals while I left the veal to brown. I could smell the veal browning nicely from where I was sitting and then forgot about it as I was involved in work. Our friendly fire alarm screaming "Fire! Fire!" reminded me that this was not a good idea.    I removed the meat, which was slightly scorched but not burnt, though the meat glaze in the skillet was to far gone to use.  (The hard gunk that coats a pan after you brown meat is really heavily reduced and caramelized meat broth, and deglazing is the process of dissolving this with liquids to add lots of flavor to your dish.) Even though I couldn't use the meat glaze, and transferred the veal to a new pan while I soaked the skillet, the dish was still pretty good. 

What is funny is that even though I forgot  about my browning meat, this recipe is inspired by I dish that I had some time around 1975.  It was a veal with tahini served by a restaurant called Kineret that I think was located on 7th Avenue and Barrow Street in the Village.  I went with two friends who didn't really get along (I haven't seen either one in nearly 20 years) so it was not a particularly pleasant evening.  But the food was, and I remember it over three decades later.  I just couldn't remember that I had started browning meat in the other room a few minutes before.  Go figure.

Veal, cauliflower and tahini stew

Ingredients

• 2 pounds stewing veal, ideally from the shoulder, cut in 1 inch cubes
• olive oil
• 1 medium onion, very finely chopped
• salt and pepper
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, mashed
• 1 head cauliflower
• olive oil spray
• tahini sauce:  1 tablespoon to 1/4 cup tahini, 1 clove garlic, coarse salt, the juice of one lemon, and some water

Method

1. Heat a large skillet (ideally not nonstick, since it produces better browning and glaze) on high and add 1 or 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
2. Add half of the veal, drying the pieces as you put them in.  Turn with tongs to brown on all sides.  Remove the veal to a bowl and add the rest, adding a little more oil if necessary.  Don't leave the room while browning.  Bring a book if you get bored.  Remove the veal to the bowl with the rest and season it all lightly with salt and pepper.
3. Add a bit more oil to the skillet, and add the onion and a bit of salt and saute until it is just starting to brown.
4. Add the allspice, Aleppo pepper, and about 10 grinds of a pepper mill.  Saute a minute.
5. Add the crushed garlic to the skillet and saute another minute.
6. Return the meat to the skillet, cover, turn heat down to low and stew gently for about an hour. The meat should cook in its own juices, but check it occasionally to stir and if it dries out, add a few spoons of boiling water.  Check it after an hour to see if it is tender and succulent.  It should take between and hour and 90 minutes to get tender.
7. While the veal is cooking, roast the cauliflower.  Preheat oven to 425, separate florets, put on a large baking sheet lined with foil and sprayed with olive oil spray, spray again, and bake 20 minutes.  Broil until nicely browned but not burnt.  (Again, it is a good idea to stay in the kitchen while you are broiling the cauliflower.
8. Make the tahini sauce: smash the garlic with coarse salt to make a puree, and stir in the tahini.  Stir in the lemon juice.  The tahini will become very stiff.  Dribble in the water, a few drops at the time.  The sauce will stiffen some more, and then loosen to the texture of a thick cream. It is hard to tell exactly how much water you will use, but it is usually approximately equal to the amount of tahini, or a little more.  The quantity of tahini you will use is up to you.  A sauce based on 1 tablespoon of tahini will add a certain je ne sais quoi to the stew, but it will not be a noticeable tahini sauce.  The larger quantity will.  Both are good, and it is up to you.
9. When the veal is tender, Add the cauliflower and tahini sauce and cook for 10 minutes more.  Taste and correct for salt.
10. Serves 4 generously.  This is very good with roasted squash, rice, and pita or Uzbek bread.

Make ahead note:  If you want to make this dish in advance, it is a good idea to prepare the components separately. All can be prepared  a day or more in advance.  Combine veal, cauliflower and tahini when you reheat.

Variation with leftovers:  If you have some leftovers, you can try this variation.  Take 1/2 pound of cremini mushrooms, wash and slice.  (To wash mushrooms forget about washing them individually with a damp paper towel.  Just dump them in a bowl of water, swish them around, and when you take them out, dry them with the paper towel.  It is both faster and more effective than the other method.)  Saute the mushrooms on high until well browned in a nonstick skillet with a little olive oil.  Add the leftover stew, cover, and heat until warm.  The dish will have an entirely different character.  

Cauliflower, mushrooms and tomatoes, North-Indian style

OK, another dish based on roasted cauliflower. What can I say? But so did everyone else I served it to. And this one has a few twists.

Cauliflower, mushrooms and tomatoes, North-Indian style

Ingredients

• 1 medium cauliflower
• vegetable-oil spray
• 1-3 tablespoons oil (we have been using canola which is said to be high in Omega-3's and it came out fine
• 1 tablespoon whole cumin seed (my wife informed me after finishing the leftovers that she's not sure how she feels about cumin, so I will probably cut it back to a teaspoon next time, which is probably a more "authentic" amount in any case)
  
• 1 medium onion, quartered and sliced thin
• 5 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 hot green pepper, chopped; seed it if you don't want the dish so spicy
• 1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and chopped
• salt
• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1/2 pound cremini mushrooms (or more if you want)
• 1 small can whole Italian cherry tomatoes (I used the del Valle brand) or 1 cup fresh; if you use fresh, halve them before adding.
  
• about 1/4 teaspoon garam masala or roasted grown cumin seed
• small handful of chopped fresh coriander (if you remember, I forgot)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
2. Cut the cauliflower into medium florets. Be sure to trim the stem of tough parts and use that two. Take the larger leaves strip off the greens, wash very well, and cut the cores of the leaves into 1 inch pieces.
3. Spray a foil lined baking sheet with vegetable spray, put the cauliflower on it, and spray again. Roast about 15 minutes. Then broil on high in the middle of the oven for about 5-10 more minutes until brown, being careful not to overcook. Take it out of the oven and set aside.
4. While this is going on, clean the mushrooms. Don't listen to people who tell you that you need to wipe them clean with a damp paper towel. It's a waste of time. Dump them into a large bowl of water and swish around a bit. This removes almost all the dirt very quickly. Then take them out, and cut the large ones in quarters and the small ones in half, wiping off any dirt that remains. Set aside.
5. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet on high until hot.
6. Add cumin seeds and fry about one minute, being careful not to burn.
7. Add onion, salt, and continue to cook on high until it starts to brown at the edges.
8. Add ginger, garlic and chili and saute another minute. Add turmeric stir a few seconds, and then add coriander. Turn the heat down and cook a minute or two to remove the raw aromas, being careful not to burn.
9. Add mushrooms and more salt. Turn heat up to high, and stir-fry until mushrooms are brown. (They will throw off their liquid, and brown after it evaporates. The bigger the skillet and the higher the heat, the quicker it will go.
10. Add the can of tomatoes with their liquid, and cook on high about 5-10 minutes.
11. Add the cauliflower and cook until it is done to your taste.
    
12. Correct for salt, sprinkle with garam masala, and serve garnished with fresh coriander, if you remember.

Serves 4-8, depending on what else you are serving.

Cauliflower leaves???: You are paying for them, why not use them? When cooked, this way, the cores of the leaves have a nice, juicy-crunchy texture. If you are not roasting, you can leave the greens on too. If you buy a cauliflower in high season at a farmers market, there may be more leaves than you want in the dish, but if you use a supermarket cauliflower you will get about the right amount.

Roasted cauliflower with pasta, roasted cauliflower salad

As long as you are roasting cauliflower, and may have some more on hand, two more recipes. The roasting adds a real depth of flavor that steamed or boiled lacks. My wife hates boiled cauliflower, but practically mainlines it when it is roasted.

Roasted Cauliflower with pasta

1. Roast Cauliflower according to the directions of the last blog posting.
2. Bring large pot of salted water to boil.
3. Heat a few tablespoons olive oil on low heat(I hope I don't have to do a Rachel Ray and specify EVOO......), and add 5-10 cloves of chop garlic, depending on your taste.
4. Saute gently for a few minutes, until they are soft but not even beginning to brown.
5. Add between 2 and 10 anchovy fillets. This is a matter of great argument in our house. Amy wants none, I want 10, so we compromise on two. Add some ground black pepper and a pinch or two of pepper flakes if you like. Saute, stirring, until the anchovies dissolve into the garlic.
6. Add a handful of chopped flat-leaf Italian parsley and stir a bit.
7. Add the cauliflower and saute stirring occasionally, until it is hot. Mash it a bit from time to time as you stir -- this dish is better with smaller pebbles than large florets.
8. As soon as the water boils, add one pound of pasta. Good choices hear are penne, rigatoni, or orrechiette. (Dal Racolto has a wonderful new rusitc orrechiette which would be great.
9. When the pasta is done -- there should be some tooth to it (when we were in Southern Italy there was often some snap to the macaroni pasta!), spoon off a cup of water and drain.
10. Add the pasta to the cauliflower, and mix well to incorporate. Add a little pasta water if it seems dry.
11. Before serving, you have your choice of toppings: nothing, breadcrumbs (unflavored!!!!!!) browned in a little olive oil, or grated pecorino cheese , alone or mixed with a bit of parmiggiano. Though probably not authentic, we often like bread crumbs and cheese together.
12. If there is any leftover, it is great straight from the fridge.

Roasted Cauliflower salad

1. Combine the cauliflower with chopped flat leave parsley, rinsed capers, rinsed and seeded black olives (pre-seeded kalamatas if you are lazy, gaetas or picholines if you are not), and a little chopped red onion or shallot.
2. Dress with olive oil, sherry vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste.
3. If you want a slightly Mexican (Veracruzano) flavor, add about 1/2 teaspoon of Ceylon (true) cinnamon and 1/2 to a full teaspoon of rubbed oregano, ideally Mexican. This sounds odd but it works. True cinnamon is very different from the regular cinnamon that we usually get, which is really cassia and better in desserts, Indian and Moroccan food.

Roasted cauliflower and eggs

If you haven't discovered it yet, roasted cauliflower completely blows boiled or steamed out of the water. Instead of mush, you get a beautifully caramelized vegetable. It is also a cinch, can be varied in interesting ways, and combined with eggs in various forms, makes a nice main dish.

All you do is:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Wash the cauliflower and separate it into medium florets. Dice the center stem as well, and if you want it, the thick ribs from the leaves, pulling off the strings like you would do for celery.
3. Oil a large baking sheet or jelly roll pan with a peanut or olive oil, or spray it with oil spray. (If you want to make clean up a lot easier, line it with foil first. Sprinkle it with coarse salt --we usually use Maldon sea salt for this and much else.
4. Put the cauliflower on the sheet, spray and sprinkle with salt.
5. Bake. How long does it take? It depends (on the density of the cauliflower, how hot your oven really is, the type of pan and how crowded it is, etc.), so taste, but about 15-20 minutes should do it, until the cauliflower is lightly browned. If you are going to cook the cauliflower more later and like it on the crisp side, less is more.
   
6. Broil for a about 5-10 minutes more until done how you want it. Well browned is nice, carbonized is excessive.
7. Serve hot, warm, room temperature or cold. It is great dipped into tahini or hummus, and is even better in one of the following egg dishes.

Variation #1: instead of spraying, toss the cauliflower with oil.

Variation #2: after tossing the cauliflower with oil, sprinkle it with curry powder. (I use a sieve for this to make it a bit more even.) After Madhur Jaffrey's Invitation to Indian Cooking came out in the early 1970s, I did not use curry powder for over 20 years. My loss. Although her opposition to prepared curry powder was a useful corrective to what passed for Indian food inthose days, I hope we have all moved beyond the ostentatious attachment to authenticity.

Cauliflower with eggs, North-Indian style

1. Heat 1-3 tablespoons fat of choice in a very large nonstick skillet on medium-high heat. Peanut or vegetable oil or ghee would be nice.
2. When hot, add 1 tablespoon of whole cumin seeds.
3. When they begin to sizzle and darken a few shades, add a dried red chili or two if you like and then add add 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon turmeric and stir.
4. Add one large onion, cut in half and sliced thin. Salt lightly and cook until soft and at least lightly browned. The more fat, the easier the browning, but you don't necessarily want them crisp here.
5. Add ginger, garlic and green chili to taste. (For example, a 1 inch piece of ginger peeled and chopped fine, 5 cloves of chopped garlic, and a chili or two, seeded if you want the flavor without some of the heat. You can use more, less, or none at all of these).
6. Stir for a few minutes, and if you want add 1 tablespoon ground coriander and 1 teaspoon ground cumin. If you add these spices, you might want to also add a diced tomato or two (canned is better than OK), which will round out the dish and give the spices more time to loose their raw flavor. Stir and cook a few minutes more, lowering the heat so the spices don't burn.
7. Add the cauliflower (or as much of it as you want or can fit) , and if you have any roasted potatoes lying around, add them too (they are worth making for this) and fry together, stirring occasionally, until the flavors are well blended and the cauliflower is hot.
8. Make a well in the center, add a little more of your cooking fat, and add 1-4 eggs, beaten lightly and salted.
9. Cook until the eggs are set, stirring a bit, and then break them up and mix with the cauliflower. Sprinkle lightly with garam masala (Indian mixed roasted spices) or ground roasted cumin.
10. Turn into a serving dish and garnish with a handful of chopped fresh coriander.
11. Serve with flatbreads -- chapatis or parathas best, good pita more than acceptable. This makes a great main dish with a salad (esp a yogurt and cucumber salad). It is often my wife's main dish of choice.

Cauliflower Kookoo (Iranian fritata)

We had this the Friday night for dinner when we were having Persian Jewish food and a number of the guests were vegetarian and therefore missed out on some of the best Chicken with Quince we have ever made (not our skill, but the quince were incredibly flavorful). It is extremely simple.

1. Brown a medium-large halved sliced onion in olive oil.
2. Mix the onion, 6 or seven beaten eggs, and a handful of chopped fresh together. Stir in some cauliflower -- we used about half a head here.
3. Heat a 9 inch nonstick skillet on medium high heat.
4. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Heat until it shimmers.
5. Add the egg mixture and shake the pan to even it out.
6. After about a minute, when you start to see sizzling around the edges, turn the heat to low and cook about 20 minute until the eggs are almost set.
7. Broil 5 minutes to finish cooking and brown the top.
8. Good hot, warm cold, and reheats well.

Shakshuka with Cauliflower

Shakshuka is a Tunisian Jewish dish served in a lot of Israeli restaurants. It is just eggs poached in spicy tomato sauce. We found that it is very nice with roasted veggies, cooked the sauce before you add the eggs. Here is our variation with cauliflower:

1. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil on medium heat in a 10-12 inch skillet with a cover.
2. Add 5 or more cloves of chopped garlic. Do not brown.
3. When soft, as a chopped jalapeno, leaving seeds in if you want it hot and stir a bit.
4. Add a handful of chopped flatleaf parsley and stir a bit, then add 1 tablespoon tomato paste and stir.
5. Add a 15 oz can of chopped tomatoes -- I am partial to the chopped cherry tomatoes from Italy under the del Valle label. Add salt to taste.
6. Cook about 15 minutes until the oil begins to separate, adding a bit of water if it is too thick.
7. Add a cup or two of roasted cauliflower and heat through.
8. Turn heat to medium low, make 4 depressions, and add 4 eggs. Cover the skill. Cook gently about 4 or 5 minutes. The white should still be set but the yolk soft.
9. Serve with pita bread for dipping. (I like thick pita with this -- the kind produced by Pita Express in Brooklyn in excellent here.) It tastes best when you eat it together from the common skillet, but these days of H1N1, you may want to serve it on plates. Use a spatula to take the eggs out so they don't break.