Spiced Cauliflower

kusum gupta's Note:

This decorative dish can be prepared in advance. Bake for a few minutes when ready to serve.

• Total Time: 35 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 8

• 1 cauliflower (stem removed)
• 2 chopped onions
• 2 chopped tomatoes
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 3 tablespoons oil

Seasonings

• 4 cloves minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon crushed ginger
• 1 teaspoon crushed green chilies
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons coriander powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon red chili powder
• 1 tablespoon crushed poppy seed
• 2 tablespoons crushed cashews

Garnish

• 2 tablespoons chopped green coriander

Directions:

1. Soak cauliflower in about 4 cups salted water for ½ hour.
2. Drain and put several half cuts on the stem side of the cauliflower.
3. Steam it until tender.
4. (You may microwave at high, covered, for about 8 minutes.) Heat the oil in a wide skillet on medium to high heat.
5. Stir fry garlic and onions until translucent.
6. Add crushed ginger, green chilies, coriander, cumin, turmeric, and salt.
7. Stir until the onions are golden brown.
8. Add the remaining spices (except poppy seeds and cashews).
9. Keep on stirring.
10. Add tomatoes and ¼ cup water to cook them.
11. Blend in the yogurt gradually and keep on stirring until the oil is separated.
12. Add crushed cashews and poppy seeds and ¼ cup water.
13. Now add the cauliflower, head down, and coat with masala to let everything cook together for 5 to 10 minutes.
14. Place the cauliflower, stump down, in a casserole dish.
15. Coat with all the masala.
16. (Put more cuts in the cauliflower to ensure that all sides are covered with the masala.) Before serving, bake for 15 minutes at 350°F.
17. Garnish with green coriander.
18. You may also decorate with cooked green peas and pan fried potato slices.

Reviews

[Charishma_Ramchandani]

We had this for lunch this afternoon. LOVELY! We started off by soaking the cauliflower in 2 tsps. of salted water. I brought down the amount of cooking oil to 1 1/2 tbsps. and lessened the red chilli powder to 1/4 tsp. and I used black pepper powder as a substitute for paprika (1/4 tsp.) as we can't have very spicy food (health and personal taste reasons). I didn't have poppy seeds on hand and I had to leave that out as it's very difficult to get it in Oman. For the cashews, I used broken cashews which I powdered in my mixer (and obtained 2 tbsps. of coarsely powdered cashews) and then used. Before baking the cauliflower as in step 16, I tossed in 1 cup of boiled greenpeas into the dish that contained the cauliflower coated with the prepared masala. I had this with bread and later with plain rice and topped with a dollop of plain yogurt. YUMMY! :) I was most excited with step 4 of this recipe of the microwave - REALLY WORKS SOO GOOD! A billion thanks for that.

[UberChef]

I tried this recipe this weekend and it came out great! I cut the caulifower into florets and cooked them in the sauce (so I had to add a little more water which cooked off). It came out a tasty dish for our vegetarian potluck and everyone really ernjoyed it!

[m0m]

Wonderful! I had no cashews, and forgot to put in the poppy seeds, but it was great in spite of this. This is a really hearty dish and could be served with brown rice as a meal.