by Melissa Hemsley from Real Healthy: Unprocess your diet with easy, every day recipes (Ebury)
Photography: Lizzie Mason
I’ve always loved cauliflower in curries. This traybake is an easy way to get a hands-off beautifully flavoured and warming spiced veggie dinner. Pickled green chillies give nice brightness to the coconutty richness, but red chillies work just as well. Deseed the chillies if you don’t fancy too much of a kick.
Feeds 2
Takes 1 hour (lots of hands-off time)
Ingredients
2 tbsp coconut oil
1 cauliflower
1 brown onion, cut through the root into 6 wedges
4 garlic cloves, unpeeled
Thumb of fresh ginger, finely chopped
2 tsp medium curry powder
1 x 400g tin of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 x 400ml tin of full-fat coconut milk
Sea salt and black pepper
FOR THE QUICK-PICKLED GREEN CHILLIES
1 green chilli, thinly sliced
Juice of 1 lime
DELICIOUS WITH:
Flatbreads, naan and/or rice
Method
To make the quick pickled chillies, mix the sliced chilli, lime juice and a pinch of salt in a small bowl. Set aside to quick- pickle as you get on with everything else.
Preheat the oven to fan 200°C/gas mark 7 while you put the coconut oil in a large roasting tray (one with sides, as you’ll be adding in coconut milk later) and pop it in the oven to melt as the oven comes up to temperature.
Trim the cauliflower and remove any especially tough outer leaves but leave on the paler green, thinner leaves. Cut into quarters through the root. Add the cauliflower wedges, onion wedges, garlic cloves, ginger and curry powder to the roasting tray containing the melted coconut oil. Season with salt and pepper and toss really well so that everything is nicely coated. Roast for 15 minutes, then remove the tray and pour the chickpeas and coconut milk into the base of the tray (try to avoid the cauliflower as you want the tops to stay dry so they go crispy). Fill the empty coconut milk tin a quarter of the way up with water, swill the water around to get every last bit and add this to the tray too. Return to the oven for another 25 minutes or so until the tops of the cauliflower wedges are crispy and lightly charred and all the veg is tender.
Serve by topping the cauli with the quick-pickled chillies, along with all the chilli-lime juice for spooning over, with your choice of flatbreads, naan and/or rice alongside.
Sunshine Tea
Makes 4+ mugs
Takes 15 minutes
Ingredients
1 lemon
1 clementine, satsuma or ½ orange
Thumb of fresh ginger, peeled if it’s not organic
1 tsp ground turmeric
Small pinch of chilli flakes, cayenne or black pepper
1 cinnamon stick or ½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 litre just-boiled water
Honey, to taste
Method
My go-to drink all year round. Enjoy hot or cold. Make a big batch of this citrus ginger tea to brighten up your kitchen. You can keep topping it up with hot water to get as much flavour as possible from the ingredients. The black pepper is said to activate the turmeric’s health benefits and it adds a little kick. It’s also a good one if you’re feeling a little under the weather.
Slice the lemon, clementine, satsuma or orange, and the ginger. Add the citrus, ginger, turmeric, black pepper, chilli flakes or cayenne and the cinnamon to a teapot or heatproof jug. Pour in the just-boiled water and stir. Leave to steep for 10 minutes, then strain into mugs with honey to taste. Keep topping up the pot or jug with water throughout the day.
Sunshine iced tea for sunny days: brew the tea as above. Allow to cool, then either strain over lots of ice and enjoy straight away or pour into ice-cube trays and freeze to later add to glasses of sparkling water.
Drinks tasted on air alongside the dish
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