Veg and recipe - cauliflower and rice curry

Cauliflower is perfect for curries as it absorbs the flavours.  Using it in a biryani makes for a tasty combination of delicate fluffy rice and flavoursome tender cauliflower, all in one.

Start by trimming off the cauliflower florets and adding them to a casserole dish or baking tray along with ginger, garlic, cumin seeds, a drizzle of olive oil and salt and pepper.  Bake for around 20 minutes in a preheated oven at 190°C.  

While the cauliflower is baking, slice a couple of onions and fry with garlic and ginger in a large frying pan until soft.  Then add curry spices such as garam masala, a curry paste, or your own mixture of curry spices such as coriander, cumin and turmeric.  Add a couple of cups of rice and the appropriate amount of water or stock (usually 1 cup rice to 2 cups liquid), bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes or until the rice is tender.  (You could also add some uncooked cauliflower instead of roasting it, or throw in  some spinach).  Otherwise, remove the roasted cauliflower from the oven then combine with cooked rice.

As a twist on this you could blitz the cauliflower to make cauliflower ‘rice’.  Then fry an onion with your curry spices along with other vegetables such as carrots and peppers until soft before adding your cauliflower rice.  A tin of tomatoes would work well.  Then cook for a further 5 minutes.

For a little extra luxury sprinkle with your favourite toppings such as finely sliced fried onion, flaked almonds, cashews or coriander.  A dollop of natural yoghurt or mango chutney is also great with this.  You could even sprinkle over some pomegranates.  Serve with poppadoms.  Enjoy!