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%.
Tom’s Roasted Cauliflower with Hazelnut Sauce
Tom Hunt
Featuring:
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
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.
Engaging Kids
Kids who engage regularly with veg through veg-themed activities, such as arts and crafts, sensory experiences, growing and cooking are shown to be more likely to eat the veg they engage with. Encouraging kids to engage and play with veg is the handy first step to them developing a good relationship with veg and life-long healthy eating.
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.
Activities
While getting kids to interact with veggies for real and using their senses to explore them is best, encouraging hands off activities like arts & crafts, puzzles & games or at-home science experiments can be a great start, particularly for those who are fussier eaters or struggle with anything too sensory. Use these veg-themed activities as a stepping stone to interacting with the veg themselves. We have loads of crafty downloads here, puzzles here, and quirky science with veg here.
Sensory
Once you feel your child is ready to engage a little more, you can show them how to explore the veg you have on hand with their senses, coming up with playful silly descriptions of how a veg smells, feels, looks, sounds and perhaps even tastes. Find ideas, videos and some simple sensory education session ideas to get you started here.
Serving
The moments before food is offered can be a perfect opportunity for engagement that can help make it more likely a child will eat it! Giving children a sense of ownership in the meal can make a big difference to their feelings going into it and the pride they take in it. You know your child best, but if you aren’t sure where to start, we have some fun and simple ideas for easy roles you can give them in the serving process over here.
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