Colourful Cauliflower Wraps
Song suggestions
Love Is Not Hard to Find - Yendry
Mamela - Mi Casa
Ingredients:
To serve:
Wraps
Hummus
Salad leaves
Pickled red cabbage (optional)
Parsley (optional)
Sriracha (optional)
Cauliflower:
1 head of cauliflower
40ml olive oil
squeeze of lemon juice, slightly less than 1/2 a lemon
1.5 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp ground fennel
generous sprinkle of salt
2 red peppers
Recipe:
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Remove the cauliflower leaves and keep them to one side. Turn the cauliflower upside down and cut out the stem from the inside. Prepare the florets by snapping or cutting them off. Slice the leaves. Deseed and chop the peppers into halves.
Lay the cauliflower and leaves in a baking tray, preferably not cramped and ideally in a single layer (to make it extra crispy).
In a small bowl, combine the olive oil, lemon juice, cumin and ground fennel. Whisk until combined and pour most of the liquid over the cauliflower. Generously season with salt. Mix to make sure everything is very well coated.
On a separate baking sheet, lay the peppers facing down. Brush the back of the peppers with the remainder of the olive oil mix.
Roast both trays in the oven for 45 mins at 180°C. Check that the cauliflower is crispy enough and the peppers soft enough. Alter times accordingly.
Top tip:
When I buy cauliflower from the market, the leaves are often much thicker and a darker shade of green; from the supermarket, the leaves are thinner and considerably paler.
When I have thin and pale leaves, I roast them in with the cauliflower just so that I don’t have to throw them out (I hate food waste and if I roasted them separately they’ll just burn). But, if I have thicker leaves that are a darker green, I roast them separately (same process, just drizzle a little olive oil mix on top and generously salt), because they go much crispier and add an incredible flavour to the wraps.
So when shopping for a cauliflower, aim for one with thick and dark green leaves that you can roast separately. If you can’t get one then you can decide whether you roast the paler leaves with the florets or whether you just throw it out!
A Bite Out of Life
My Grandma is socially, like most people in Portugal, very well networked, supported and connected. She has spent most of her adult life living in this house and has a very close friendship with the lady next door. Living in the countryside, they both have pieces of land and grow a fair amount of their own food; ‘sharing is caring’ is this neighbourhood’s motto. My grandparents grow the most delicious oranges, amongst other things, and on this day my grandma sent me next door with a heaping bag of fresh oranges (there’s often a surplus of the golden goodies lying around so sharing is caring). In true neighbourhood fashion, our neighbour didn’t let me leave empty handed so we walked up to her land and she cut off one large head of cauliflower and one large head of broccoli (pictured). This is my grandma’s face after having received them. It’s these bonds that keep them both active, with purpose and mentally well. Lessons to be learned all around.
