You know when you really want a food thing, and you haven’t got the right ingredients in so you have to make do?
This is one of those ‘recipes’.
I had a lovely cauliflower from Ted’s Veg in Borough that needed to be used. I wanted to make something akin to the dear, departed Sesame’s cauliflower and tahini salad, but I had no turmeric to colour the vegetable. (Yes, I know, it’s THE ingredient of the moment and no, I still don’t have any.)
Thus a cupboard search happened. I was sure I had curry powder somewhere, but I did not. I actually thought I had turmeric powder, but I didn’t have that either. All the while that I am searching for that elusive yellow something, I’m turning recipes and ingredients over in my brain until I find one that fits my mood.
(I am fully aware that cauliflower doesn’t need to be yellow. But what the food brain wants…)
Finally I spied a jar of piccalilli from our local farm shop lurking behind the jars of Marmite and honey.
It did seem to be mainly lilli and less pickle, but that worked to my advantage.
1 small head of cauliflower, broken into florets
4 tsp of piccalilli juice
tahini with honey (Eridanous brand from Lidl)
1 tin of chick peas
Put the cauliflower in a pan of water with a touch of salt.
Bring to a simmer, and stir in the 4 spoons of piccalilli.
Mix well.
Simmer until the cauliflower is tender – now this is tricky because the addition of the pickle keeps it slightly crunchy, but when a knife pierces it with no resistance, it’s done.
Drain it well.
Whisk the tahini with some water in a large bowl to thin it out – I used a bit of the simmering liquid – and then pop the drained cauliflower into it and mix well. Add in the drained chickpeas, and mix them in also.
The cauliflower keeps its bite, and also has a light pickled tang, which cuts the rich tahini. (The Eridanous brand is a little like liquidised halva.)
Serve warm, as when it’s chilled the tahini seizes, and sticks everything together.
This was on day 1
And this was on day 2, after it had sat overnight and needed more tahini to dress it. I did warm it again.
COOKWITCH'S CREATIONS 