Roasted cauliflower under a tahini-parsley flood
The cauliflower is fine. The sauce is the reason you came.
At a Glance
Story
The pale flood over the top is a tahini-garlic sauce, a Middle Eastern staple that turns up alongside falafel, fried vegetables, fish and warm pita wherever sesame is ground. It behaves strangely and you must not panic: whisk the lemon juice into the tahini and it seizes and stiffens into a paste, then thins back to a silky cream as you drip in water. That tightening then loosening is the sauce working exactly as it should.
Ingredients
- 1 large cauliflowerbroken into florets
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 cloves garlichalved and green shoots removed (2 to 3, to taste)
- 1 cup sesame tahini
- ¼ cup fresh lemon juice¼ to ¾ cup, to taste
- 1 cup flat-leaf parsleyfinely chopped (about 2 bunches)
- salt and black pepper
Method
A side that quietly saves the plate, and it comes with a bonus, you will make far more sauce than one cauliflower needs and that is the idea. Blanching the florets first is the step people skip and then wonder why the middles are raw while the edges burn, so do not skip it.
- Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and set a bowl of ice water beside it. Salt the boiling water well, drop in the florets and blanch 2 minutes, then lift them into the ice water. Drain and blot properly dry.
- Spread the cauliflower in a baking dish, season with salt and pepper and toss with the olive oil. Roast, stirring now and then, until tender and lightly browned, 30 to 40 minutes.
- Meanwhile, pound the garlic with ¼ teaspoon salt to a paste in a mortar, or grate it fine. Scrape it into a bowl and whisk in the tahini. Now whisk in the lemon juice, starting with the smaller amount, and do not be alarmed when it seizes up thick. Gradually whisk in up to ½ cup water until it flows like thick cream, then stir in the parsley and taste for salt and lemon.
- Serve the cauliflower under a generous pour of the sauce. What is left keeps 3 to 4 days in the fridge, though the green dulls as the lemon works on the parsley, so it is prettiest the day you make it and just as good after.
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