Moroccan Chickpea Cauliflower Salad
Moroccan Chickpea Cauliflower Salad
The only Moroccan salad dressing you will need to make glorious salads!
The proof is in the dressing. This dressing! Inspired by Moroccan flavours, it is the most delicious concoction of sweet and sour, tangy, warm and punchy you will ever find in a jar. And it is jammy - viscous, not runny but without the age-old tahini. It is most definitely a fresh dressing for a bright and vibrant salad. I created it for my workshops back in 2014 (inspired by a brunch salad at a cafe in Sydney that had a cornucopia of flavours and textures that were new to me then.) and it has been a trusty friend ever since.
One jar makes enough dressing for a big salad to serve four people as a main dish. And today’s salad has all the goods - roasted cauliflower, chickpeas, greens, nuts, fruit and some special things that are a revelation as you take a mouthful.
Read on for the recipe, substitutions and downloadable/printable file.
Enjoy!
Cauliflower Stems
Winter yields beautiful cauliflowers. Online ordering and fresh markets always ensure that the cauliflower head comes safely ensconced inside a whorl of tender, fresh, green leaves. I love cauliflower leaves.
Hot Tip
When I am cooking cauliflower for this Traybaked Aloo Gobi, I pluck and wash the crisp leaves. I chop them roughly and pan-fry them in a hot cast-iron pan with some olive oil, a knob of crushed and minced garlic, salt, and pepper; tossing and searing for 2-3 minutes. I then add 2-3 tablespoons of water, cover and cook for a minute. And then the lid is off and the water evaporates as I take it off the heat. I grate some parmesan on the hot, cooked stalks and we stick our forks in it and have a nice little snack. It is the best way of enjoying cooked cauliflower stems.
In fact, I have a real tenderness (no pun!) for brassica stems. My cookbook even has a whole mustardy-delicious recipe for broccoli stalks. In today’s salad recipe, I have roasted some of the stems for added texture and flavour.
