Mat Follas of the Bramble Cafe & Deli in Poundbury encourages us to try vegetarian cooking with this Moroccan roasted cauliflower recipe.

Last summer I spent much of my time writing a vegetarian cookbook. I started with the typically chef position that all vegetarian dishes can be improved by adding some meat and proposed to write a book where the vegetable was the star but I wouldn't be limited by not adding any meat to the finished dish.

Half way through writing the book I came to the realisation that I'd only added meat elements to a very small number of my recipes and even for those recipes the meat didn't really add a lot so we went totally vegetarian.

It was a fun experience writing the book, far more out of my comfort zone than my first cookbook, FISH, but I'm delighted, and very proud, of the results.

Without this preamble meaning to sound like an advert for my book (Vegetable Perfection) I do recommend exploring vegetarian cooking more, use techniques that you'd use naturally for meat, griddling, smoking, roasting etc and you'll be delighted by the results.

There are some fantastic vegetarian cookbooks available and some great online resources now too.

Cauliflower is one of my favourite vegetables to cook with, it takes strong flavours like spices well as it creates a savoury depth to the dish. I’ve used spices to add heat and flavour with the orange, pomegranate and pine nuts to make bursts of flavour.

The jewel-toned rose petals and pomegranate combine with the other ingredients to bring flashes of colour and North African aromas, and make this dish an exciting centrepiece for a family dinner.

Moroccan Roasted Cauliflower (serves four)

  • 1 cauliflower
  • 200 g butter
  • 50 g tahini
  • 1⁄2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1⁄2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
  • 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
  • 1 teaspoon runny honey
  • 1⁄2 preserved lemon, finely chopped
  • 100 g pine nuts
  • grated zest and freshly squeezed juice of 1 orange
  • seeds from 1 pomegranate
  • petals from two tea roses
  • a small bunch of fresh flat- leaf parsley
  • freshly ground black pepper, to season

PREPARE: 5 MINUTES

COOK: 40 MINUTES

Preheat the oven to 160°C (325°F) Gas 3.

Remove the outer leaves and put the whole cauliflower into a large saucepan of cold, salted water.

Set over a medium heat and bring to a simmer. Continue simmering for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, drain off the water and leave the cauliflower to steam dry in a colander set over the hot pan for 10 minutes.

In a small saucepan, gently melt the butter, then add the tahini, ground cinnamon, cumin, turmeric, fennel seeds and honey. Stir to combine. Transfer the cauliflower to a casserole dish and spoon the seasoned butter over the top. Add the finely chopped preserved lemon.

Put in the preheated oven and roast for 10 minutes. Baste the cauliflower with the juices from the casserole dish, then roast for another 10 minutes. Baste again and add the pine nuts. Turn the oven up to 220°C (425°F) Gas 7 and roast for a further 5 minutes; this will start to char the cauliflower and roast the pine nuts.

Remove the casserole dish from the oven. Spoon the cauliflower onto a large serving bowl or platter and cut into portions. Spoon over the casserole juices, lemon pieces and pine nuts, followed by the orange juice and zest, pomegranate seeds, a good pinch of black pepper, rose petals and a few torn parsley leaves.

Serve as a centrepiece on the table or plate onto individual serving plates.