Too many wasted meals of grilled vegetable plates for the vegetarian diner at restaurants had left me a little cynical. That changed this summer as we experimented with grilling. There was lots of grilled corn, grilled stuffed tomatoes, grilled potato kebabs and this grilled cauliflower with a spicy tomato sauce.
I tried to cut the cauliflower into “steaks”. Does that sound hard? It is. I salvaged two “steaks” from one head of cauliflower and then tried to cut the rest into about 1 inch thick large pieces. Then I drizzled them with olive oil and a generous shower of sea salt. Onto the grill they went. Grilled cauliflower has a crunchier bite than sauted, and it gets a nice char that’s unobnoxiously smokey and gives it this great, deep balance to the fresh cauliflower-ness.
The spicy tomato sauce was the best Indo-Italian fusion I’ve experienced since this Roasted Tomato Vindaloo Sauce.
In case you’re wondering, we had this with Paneer Makhani and Crunchy Whole Spiced Potatoes.
This spicy Indo-Italian tomato sauce is as tasty over pasta as it over grilled cauliflower.
Ingredients
- 1 head of cauliflower
- 1 onion, coarsely chopped
- 2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1/2 inch piece ginger. peeled and chopped
- 1 jalapeno, chopped (remove seeds for less spice)
- 3 juicy tomatoes, coarsely chopped or a 28 ounce can of stewed tomatoes
- 1/4 teaspoon garam masala
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
- 1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Attempt to cut the cauliflower into 1/2 inch thick steaks. Fail and then cut in 1/2 inch thick smaller pieces.
- Drizzle with olive oil and a generous shower of sea salt.
- Grill or roast in oven until edges are crisp. (If you use the oven, I suggest broiling for a few minutes towards the end).
- In a blender or food processor, puree onion, garlic and ginger.
- Drizzle about a tablespoon of olive oil in a tall stockpot. Add the onion-garlic-ginger puree and cook on medium heat stirring frequently to make sure it doesn\'t burn. Cook for about 5 minutes.
- If using fresh tomatoes, puree the tomatoes. Add to the tomatoes to the stockpot. Mix in the spices.
- Cook uncovered on medium low heat for about 25 minutes.
- Plate the cauliflower and drizzle the sauce over and serve hot.
- Add water if the sauce is too thick. Add a sprinkle of sugar if it\'s too tart or spicy.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Super recipe…
Nice to see ur blog