Cauliflower with tarator sauce

March 8, 2010  •  Category:

Some women like to buy new shoes or earrings; I like to buy cool-looking veggies. I thought these purple and yellow cauliflower would make Dali proud.

In any case, cauliflower in Lebanese cuisine are blanched then fried then served with a tarator sauce. I did not fry them, merely roasted them with a bit of olive oil; the tarator sauce is a dressing made with tahini and fresh lemon juice and spiked with a little mashed garlic.


INGREDIENTS:

1 head of purple cauliflower, 1 head of yellow cauliflower

For the tarator sauce:

  • 3 cloves of garlic, mashed with a dash of salt
  • juice of a large lemon
  • 1/2 cup of tahini
  • 1/2 cup of water (or to taste)

METHOD:

First step:

  1. Boil or steam the cauliflower, cut into florets, for about 5 minutes until it is tender when pierced with a fork.
  2. Drain the cauliflower. Place on a foil-lined cookie sheet. Pour about 1/4 cup of olive oil in a small bowl and brush the olive oil on the florets before roasting them. Roast in a 350f oven for 15 minutes or until they start to show brown specks. Remove from the oven and set aside.

Second Step:

  1. Making the tarator sauce: Since this is a dressing, you will rely on your taste for the dosage; I like mine garlicky and lemony, so I will tend to add more lemon and garlic. Your call!
  2. Mash the garlic with a dash  of salt; add the juice of a lemon; add the tahini, mixing all along. Add about 1/2 cup of water, keep stirring; the sauce should be smooth and free of lumps; now taste it. If you like it, great, if not, adjust to your taste, adding more of one or the other.

For a nice presentation, you can place all the cauliflower florets in a bowl, flower side facing the curvature of the bowl and let them sit tight for a while; invert onto a serving dish. Serve the tarator on the side or dripping over the cauliflower. This dish is also served as part of a mezze or appetizer.

 

A Lebanese designer once again at the Oscar night, with Anna Kendrick wearing an Elie Saab couture dress.

Comments

32 Comments  •  Comments Feed

  1. Faith says:

    Your presentation is really lovely here. The tahini sauce sounds like the perfect addition to cauliflower!

  2. Danielle says:

    oh wow, I’ve never seen purple cauliflower. This dish sounds wonderful. I’m always looking out for more cauliflower recipes.

  3. Juliana says:

    Nice cauliflower dish, like the idea of combining two colors of cauliflower…looks delicious with the sauce and like you want my sauce with lots of garlic 😉

  4. Sook @ My Fabulous Recipes says:

    Ooh the tarator sauce sounds great! I would love to try it sometime.

  5. Azita says:

    these cauliflowers look stunning and so delicious! great recipe.

  6. 5 Star Foodie says:

    A very neat dish with yellow and purple cauliflower and the sauce is awesome! I recently got the purple cauliflower too and we really liked it.

  7. Joie de vivre says:

    That is one funky looking cauliflower. I totally would have gone for it too! 🙂

  8. PJ says:

    Loved the color of the dish!!The sauce sounds yumm..

  9. Sushma Mallya says:

    i have never seen such a colourful caufilower,very nice one and so easy too….very beautiful clicks…

  10. Preety says:

    wow such a different recipe ..love the sauce recipe..

  11. Priya says:

    Wat a colourful and tempting dish, love that tarator sauce..will give a try..

  12. Chef E says:

    There was a year when it was popular in Texas, not sure every where else to blanch and fry cauliflower and I absolutely thought it was the best flavor ever! I could not get enough, but now of course being older, hating oil havoc in my kitchen, lol, and a more mindful healthy eating habuts I except steaming or even mashing them and they are tasty.

    I still long for the other, but since our taste buds do change, who knows it may not even taste a good as I remember…maybe poetically that is a good reason to keep it in the past 🙂

    I have yet to see any color other than white, but I rotate my markets, and I just may have missed them.

    Love your site, and sorry for the book. Being a southerner, I talk a lot 🙂

  13. The London Foodie says:

    The tarantor dressing is fantastic, love the ideal of tahini, garlic and lemons together, it must work a treat. Will make sure to use this in some of my veggies… thanks.

  14. Chef E says:

    I did not know you live in Dallas! My home town, well Ft Worth, but I come home so often for my birthday in June. I am open to being feed some good food 🙂 Have a great day!

  15. Doc says:

    I love that recipe. The veg looks incredible and I am going to try that sauce. I love Middle Eastern flavors and am exploring your wealth of knowledge available here.
    Thanks!

  16. Joanne says:

    I love coming here and seeing all of these tahini recipes. That cauliflower is so pretty! I wish I could fins something like that here.

  17. TastyTrix says:

    Ok, I’ve seen purple cauliflower, and yellow .. but never one that was both at once! Holy hybrid, Batman. So pretty. I love this sauce with it, nice & simple but flavorful & garlicky.

  18. Rachana Kothari says:

    The tartor Sauce sounds amazing and the cauliflower is so pretty! Great looking recipe!

  19. momgateway says:

    Got to try this… after tasting shawarma, I’m addicted to Lebanese food!

  20. A Canadian Foodie says:

    Thrilled to find your site. LOVE Lebonese food. YUM YUM… I have linked you to my site, and I will be back.
    Xo
    Valerie

  21. rebecca says:

    wow amazing cauliflower and love sauce, enjoy the soup lol Rebecca

  22. sippitysup says:

    I love to roast cauliflower and this sauce sounds like just the new experience I have been looking for. GREG

  23. Nadjibella says:

    L’avantage de mes visites sur ton blog est que je perfectionne régulièrement mes connaissances en ce qui concerne la cuisine du Moyen -Orient.
    Merci mon amie.

  24. Juanita says:

    Never seen a cauliflower like that before! How psychedelic!

  25. Ivy says:

    You did a great job assembling the cauliflours together. I don’t think I have seen a purple cauliflour before. I don’t cook cauliflour very often because my children hate the smell of it but I am planning to make a very unique Cypriot recipe which uses cauliflour and is based on a technique you may know called “murri”.

  26. Julie says:

    Quelle jolie présentation comme d’habitude. Avec ça, je suis sûre que tu arrives à faire manger des légumes aux enfants?!
    Bisous!

  27. Amal says:

    Hi , merci pour ta visite qui ma permis de visiter ton blog il est hypert joli.

    merci bcp
    http://www.notrecuisine.fr.nf viens nous rejoindre

  28. cmiranda says:

    Very nice recipe.I thought in Lebanon tarator sauce was used exclusively with fish.

  29. free vpn client says:

    I like the valuable information you provide in your articles.
    I’ll bookmark your blog and check again here regularly.
    I’m quite sure I’ll learn lots of new stuff right here!

    Good luck for the next!

Add a Comment