This spicy cauliflower is something special. Imagine a skillet of caramelized onions cooked down with fragrant cumin, ginger, garlic, sesame seeds and chiles. Add cauliflower and cook until tender. Vibrant, spicy, sweet earthiness cooked in a single skillet, served on one plate.
Spicy Cauliflower with Sesame: The Inspiration
The inspiration for the recipe comes from Reza Mahammad’s lovely cookbook, Rice, Spice and all Things Nice. I bought a copy and slipped it into my suitcase the last time I was in Portland. I’m finally(!) getting around to cooking from it. This book is full of great ideas and beautiful photos, part of the reason it jumped out at me. I’ve found that with a tweak or two, I can turn a good number of the recipes into one-pan weeknight meals. For example, with this cauliflower, you might toss in a couple handfuls of grilled or pan-seared paneer cheese or tempeh, or top with a fried egg.
Variations
I love this recipe using cauliflower as the base, but if you love the spice profile and caramelized onions, the sky is the limit as far as ways you can tweak and riff on the recipe. Imagine a potato version. Or a broccoli version. Or skipping the veg and toss with cooked noodles or pasta. A couple other ideas from the comments:
- Sam turned this into a soup. She says, “I had some vegetable stock on hand. I simmered the leftovers with the stock, pureed, added some chopped cilantro to the top and ate it with some garlic naan from Trader Joe’s. Absolutely delicious! It might have been even better with some coconut milk in place of some of the stock or topped with raita.”
- Another soup take. Sam’s version is similar in spirit to a version I ended up making, make the cauliflower into a pureed soup, and drizzle with an oil infused with the cumin, turmeric, garlic, and chiles. Finish topped with toasted sesame seeds and some sort of flatbread croutons. Similar component and flavors, remixed!
- Meg did what sounds like an amazing version, “This is delicious! I used nitter kebbeh, an Ethiopian clarified butter, and I substituted fresh red chilies from the garden for dried. The butter was infused with many of the spices already used in this recipe, along with cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, and nutmeg. It was so amazing, I was sad after we ate it all.”
Give this a try, even if you don’t think you’re much of a cauliflower fan. It’s that good.
More Cauliflower Recipes
- Simple Weeknight Cauliflower
- Cauliflower Caponata
- Pickled Cauliflower
- Chickpea Cauliflower Korma
- Beer-Roasted Cauliflower with Pasta
- Simple Cauliflower Soup
- Rainbow Cauliflower Rice Bowl
- all cauliflower recipes
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