Bite-size florets coated with spices (Pul-biber) & served with a yogurt dip

During our last trip to Turkey, we purchased a red spice mix from the market.  We’re weren’t sure what was in it, but have since discovered that it’s Aleppo Pepper, a Turkish crushed chili which has an ancho-like flavor with a little more heat and tartness, it’s also known as Pul Biber “flake pepper” in Turkish).  It’s versatile for all recipe’s you want to add a kick too.

I love cauliflower, and there’s a Mediterranean restaurant around the corner from my Corporate Castle, that does a Fried Cauliflower dish, served with tahini, in a pitta wrap.  It is delicious.

I decided to guess at the ingredients, and make it healthier by baking instead of frying, and replacing the tahini with a yogurt dip, to make it my own.

Here’s my recipe for Spicy Cauliflower Florets served with a yogurt dip.

Ingredients	Spice Coating Ingredients
2 Medium sized heads of cauliflower 150ml of Extra Virgin Olive Oil Juice of 1/2 lemon	A couple of heaped t-spoons of Red Aleppo Pepper Spice (Pul-Biber) 1/4 t-spoon Ground Turmeric 1/4 t-spoon Curry Powder or Coleman’s English Mustard Powder 1/2 t-spoon of Smoked Paprika Sprinkle of Poppy seeds Salt and Pepper to taste Couple of drops of Truffle Oil Depending on you spice-tolerance, you can adjust these spice quantities as desired, or replace them with your favourites.

Step by Step Instructions:

Heat oven to 375-400

1. Cut the Cauliflower into floret-size pieces.  Cut the florets off the stalk with a sharp knife, rather than pulling it apart manually. TIP – small ping-pong ball size:

• Make them too small and they’ll disintegrate in the oven.
• Make them too big and it’ll take ages to bake.

2. Pour spices in a bowl, and add 1/2 of the oil

3.  In small batches, toss the cauliflower in your bowl and coat it with the oil and spice mix. Once they’re coated, move them to another bowl. Continue coating the rest of the cauliflower in small batches.Add the remainder of the oil as needed.

4. When all of the cauliflower is coated. Place it on a baking tray, and sprinkle it with the lemon juice.

(I just dip my [clean] fingers in the lemon juice and drip and flip it onto the cauliflower — save a little bit for your yogurt dip.)

If you prefer, you can add the lemon juice to the oil & spice mix — but I prefer the more sporadic lemon taste I get from the flicking, rather than a uniform lemon taste on it all.

5.  Bake the Cauliflower in oven for 45 minutes to an hour

• Shake the baking tray up a bit every 15 minutes or so.
• After 45 minutes, check for done-ness, and continue cooking until tender.

6. Serve with a yogurt dip (great to balance out the fiery nature of the cauliflower):

• 8 oz of Turkish or Greek Yogurt
• 1 spring onion, chopped really fine
• 1 clove of garlic
• Little bit of the lemon juice left over from the cauliflower
• Couple of pieces of chopped roasted red pepper (if you have it)

Chop onions and roasted red peppers.  Mix all ingredients into the Yogurt.  Pour into a small dish, and serve with the cauliflower

Enjoy.

We just finished eating 2 cauliflowers!  Yum!  Vegetables never tasted so good!