Growing up in an all vegetarian household, we ate a lot of vegetables.  Afternoons snacks sometimes were bowls of freshly boiled peas, lima beans or brussel sprouts topped with butter and showered with salt and pepper.  Cabbage, broccoli, beans – you name it, we ate it.  And we enjoyed the pure vegetable taste of it.  This roasted cauliflower recipe is an adult version of those simple vegetable sides.  This recipe leaves the cauliflower bare enough for you to taste the nuttiness that comes out from the roasting with just a slight of hint of spice and tanginess.  See below for what I recommend serving this with.

I would definitely serve this at a dinner party.  Would you?  Rajat would probably tell me it’s too simple, but I disagree.  The paprika and the chili powder give the cauliflower a beautiful red hew and the roasting makes it all golden. The vivid colors and the nutty, spicy taste masque how simple it is to make. And, you can make it, toss it into the oven and go about your business of prepping the rest of the dinner without any worry. I suggest serving this along with Palak Channa or Mattar Paneer as the main dish and some Daal Makhani.

I folded my aloo gobi patty between an onion kulcha, covered with a smear of lemon pickle and raita and accompanied by a side of Trader Joe’s dhal makhani.  For those of you that haven’t had kulcha before, it’s like a stuffed naan.  Yum.  

Raita: There are a lot of different varieties of raita, and that is usually R’s area of expertise.  I went for basic raita – take about a cup of yogurt and whisk it with a fork.  Add salt, about 1/4 tspn. chaat masala (or to taste) and a sprinkle of salt and lal mirch.  Mix well. 

Add the leftover sabji to an oiled, heated pan and use a flat, wooden spoon to break up and mash the sabji together.  After its well heated, remove from the pan.  Take the onion kulcha out of the freezer (I used onion kulcha this time but garlic naan is delicious as well) and heat it in the pan, flipping it when it browns on one side.  Cut it down the center. If you use garlic naan, put the side with the garlic facing down so the garlic doesn’t fall off.

Spread a layer of lemon pickle on one side of the kulcha using just the relish part – not the actual pickles.  Pile the sabji onto one side kind of trying to press it into place, drizzle raita over the top and cap it off with the other half of the kulcha.  Put it back in the pan to reheat. 

As an aside, the Trader Joe’s dhal makhani is delicious and passess R’s healthy test (I don’t really know how to read nutrition labels but I’m trusting him on this one).  It comes in a silver pouch which you’re supposed to boil in water – we always just pour the contents of the pouch into a bowl and microwave it.  We’ve tried some of their other Indian packaged food, and it hasn’t been great (the eggplant was downright bad) but we try to always keep a few packs of the dhal on hand.  Their naan and masala burgers are really good too.

I found this beautiful, oddly yellow colored cauliflower at the   grocery store today and was intrigued to see what it tasted like…I have to say that tasted just like regular cauliflower to us.  Would love to hear from anyone else who has tried these cross bred veggies (which is kind of creepy, no?)…

Normally, I like to make full on aloo gobi with tomatoes, onions and masala.  Today though, I was feeling a little lazy so I made “quick” aloo gobi – or dry gobi.  With dry vegetables, you don’t have to go through the process of chopping onions and tomatoes to make a curry.  You can also taste the vegetable itself a little more.  I grew up eating lots of fresh vegetables coated with just a pat of butter (real butter!) and some salt so I love to have a veggie accompaniment that’s more on the plain side…

I usually hack the stem off, peel the green leaves off the bottom and then use a knife to cut the florets from the root.  When the potatoes feel tender but not fully cooked, add the cauliflower and put the lid back on.  Continue cooking, stirring periodically, until the cauliflower looks cooked through.  If I’m not serving this right away, then I turn the heat off a few minutes early and leave the aloo gobi sitting on the stove with the lid on and the heat/steam cooks it the rest of the way.

A friend has asked that I include cook times (and notify her of my 15 minutes and under dishes!) – I think this probably took about 30-40 minutes all in to make, and the prep is fairly minimum but I’ll try to note the time down more accurately in the future.