Skip to content

Tom’s Roasted Cauliflower with Hazelnut Sauce

Tom Hunt

Featuring:
cauliflower
Cauliflower
Effort:
Complexity:
Cost:
In season now

Serves: 4

Prep time: 10 mins + soaking time

Cook time: 35 mins

Ingredients:

1 small cauliflower, leaves still attached

glug light olive oil

80g hazelnuts, soaked for a minimum of 4 hours or overnight if possible

1 large clove garlic

50ml extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for serving

2 teaspoons sherry or red wine vinegar

25g stale bread

2 sprigs mint, leaves torn or whole, stems finely chopped

Veg Portions / Serving: 1

Share:

Kitchen Ninja

Recipe donated by Tom Hunt for Veg Power. Photography by Neil White | neilwhite.co.uk

Cauliflower is an environmental hero in my eyes. It grows in the harshest British climates sturdy and strong, is so affordable – and when you eat the leaves, even more so. This dish demonstrates my environmental philosophy of “Root to Fruit Eating”: eating for pleasure, eating whole foods from the whole farm, eating the best food we can, indulging in seasonal foods that are tasty, nutritious and inherently restorative for ourselves and the planet.

This dish makes a great vegetarian centrepiece. Cauliflower leaves are quite delicious and roast incredibly well alongside the cauliflower steaks. The hazelnut sauce is as moorish as it sounds working well alongside the toasty, sweet flavours of the roasted cauliflower.

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4.

To roast the cauliflower: first pull off the larger leaves from the cauliflower, cut them in half – through the middle of the stem – and place into a medium sized roasting tin. Cut the cauliflower into 3cm thick slices or steaks from top to bottom and add to the tin. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 25-35 minutes until the cauliflower chars slightly and softens inside.

To make the hazelnut sauce: Place 50g of the soaked hazelnuts in a high powered blender with the garlic, olive oil and vinegar. Soak the bread in 120ml of water for a few seconds or until soft, add both the water and the bread to the blender. Blend to a very smooth paste for several minutes.

Serve the slices of roast cauliflower and crispy leaves drizzled with the hazelnut sauce, the remaining hazelnuts, crushed and sprinkled over the top and torn mint leaves.

Kids in the kitchen:

Get the kids to take charge of the hazelnut sauce, from soaking the nuts, peeling the garlic, measuring the vinegar and soaking the bread. Then they can be the one to push the blender button, too.

Tom Hunt

Tom Hunt is an award-winning chef, food writer and food waste campaigner. His Bristol restaurant Poco attained the Sustainable Restaurant Association’s highest ever score of 96%.

www.tomsfeast.com/

Similar recipes

Simple Cauliflower “Steaks”

Effort: 2
Complexity: 2
Cost: 1

Claire Wright

Stuffed Courgettes | Veg Power

Stuffed Courgettes

Effort: 1
Complexity: 1
Cost: 1

Claire Wright

Leftover Veg Salad | Veg Power

Leftover veg curried salad

Effort: 1
Complexity: 1
Cost: 1

Claire Wright

Microwave Cauliflower “Rice”

Effort: 1
Complexity: 1
Cost: 1

Claire Wright