Friday, May 21, 2010

Curried Cauliflower Couscous

Astrid from Paulchen's Foodblog is hosting this edition of Weekend Herb Blogging and this week I'm revisiting the ever so humble cauliflower.

cauliflower© by Haalo


I thought I would step away from my usual choice of cauliflower dishes and make something I've had countless times in restaurants but up until now, have not attempted to make myself.

That something is cauliflower couscous, so named because the finished product roughly resembles couscous.

The flavour combination comes from another restaurant dish I enjoyed last week, it was a cauliflower soup served with tiny florets of curried cauliflower and roasted almonds. The fact that curry and cauliflower go well together isn't surprising, what particularly got my attention were those roasted almonds and their sweet crunch.

When I think of regular couscous, I immediately think of that golden colour and in this cauliflower version, the combination of curry powder and butter tint the cauliflower. A sprinkling of nuts is also quite common to find and in this version, some have also gone into the couscous to provide a little extra crunch.

curried cauliflower couscous© by Haalo


Curried Cauliflower Couscous with Almonds

Cauliflower, segmented into large florets
butter
curry powder
slivered almonds, dry roasted until golden


This is a dish that can be made in any quantity so I'll just be going through the method I used.

Prepare the cauliflower:
Take one of the cauliflower segments, cut the main stem as close as you can to the floret head. Cut this stem roughly into even sized pieces.

Place the stem pieces into a food processor and pulse until diced evenly. You don't want the pieces too small at this stage.

Roughly chop the cauliflower floret head into even pieces, place this in with the chopped stem and pulse again until it looks couscous sized.

Make the cauliflower couscous:
Place a generous knob of butter in a non-stick skillet or wok and place over a medium low heat. When the butter has melted add curry powder and stir well so it dissolves into the butter. Tumble in your prepared cauliflower and stir so that it is well coated in the curried butter. Cook gently, stirring often until the cauliflower just softens. Add some of the roasted slivered almonds - gives this a final toss and then place into a serving bowl. Top with a few more slivered almonds and serve.

6 comments

  1. Great idea for cauliflower! And your photos are gorgeous as always.

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  2. AnonymousMay 23, 2010

    Definitely a great idea for cauliflower. I'm placing this on my list to make.

    Paz

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  3. whoa !!! this is simply amazing looking dish. Mouthwatering !!!

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  4. This is nice idea for cauliflower. I normally like to do something like this with Le' Spice Indian Curry Powder and adding some curry leaves for extra fragrant - but have never used almonds to add an extra crunch. Will use this next time - thanks

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  5. Good work. The thermomix is great for making the cauliflower cous cous as it is able to do reverse and smash without chopping it into mush.

    Cauliflower Pilaf

    Now you have reminded me that I never credited the cookbook from which I took the cauliflower and almond soup recipe. It was a 1960s Good Housekeeping book from memory. The almonds and cauliflower really did go well together.

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  6. Thanks Kalyn!

    Thanks Paz!

    Thanks Priya!

    Thanks Aliza - curry leaves sound lovely

    Thanks Thermoixer!

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