I can basically roast anything (including the kitchen sink) in the wintertime. Roasted roots like beets, carrots, turnips, and all the brassicas: cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, and more. Roasting is a simple hands-off process that brings out the natural sweetness in vegetables, and consequently warms up the house in colder months. It’s a win-win all around.
Purple cauliflower is extra special for me. In fact, so is the orange variety called “Cheddar”. At our local farmers market, one farm table had these glorious heads of caulflower in different colors, and I often choose a different color of the week. But I always get my cauliflower. Always.
Fun Fact
Fun fact about purple cauliflower: when topped with a squeeze of lemon juice, the cauliflower turns pink! Don’t worry, we’ll be doing that here in this recipe so you can see it yourself.
What is Gremolata
I asked one of my best friends who is Sicilian how her family uses gremolata. There was silence over the phone. Turns out that gremolata is actually more of a Milanese food, served over meat. Here, I decided to pair it with my favorite food in the world: vegetables.
Gremolata sounds fancy, but it’s really just minced garlic, lemon rind and parsley. It’s usually made as a dry topping that you sprinkle on top of food, but I’ve seen people add oil to make it more into a parley/lemon pesto. Which is, at that point, not called gremolata. But both seem equally delicious.
Roasted Purple Cauliflower With Gremolata
- 1 head purple cauliflower, cut into florets (or cook as much as you’d like ~ the one from the farmers market was ginormous and I just made 1/2 of it one day and saved the rest for later)
- spray of coconut oil (or your favorite cooking spray)
- 2 tablespoons raw pine nuts
- rind from 1/2 a lemon (don’t include the white pith), minced fine
- 1 large garlic clove, minced
- handful of parsley, about 1/2 cup, minced fine
- salt and pepper
- First, prepare the cauliflower. Spray the cauliflower with a little bit of cooking spray, sprinkle with some salt and pepper, and roast in the oven at 400 degrees for about 20-25 minutes. Depending on your oven and the size of the florets, this may take a bit more or a bit less.
- Make the gremolata: add the diced lemon rind, diced garlic, minced parsley, and a pinch of salt to a cutting board. Use a knife to cut into the ingredients together so they mix well and dice even smaller. Set this aside.
- Toast the pine nuts: in a skillet or cast iron pan, dry toast the pine nuts over medium heat, shaking often. You want them to have a nutty flavor, beautiful aroma, so take them off the heat once you notice they are turning a little tan. Take them out of the pan, so they don’t continue to cook from residual heat.
- Assemble the dish: Layer the cauliflower in a dish and top with the pine nuts and gremolata. Add some freshly ground pepper. Squeeze some lemon over the whole dish and watch the cauliflower turn pink!
Roasted Purple Cauliflower with Gremolata
Ingredients
- 1 1 head purple cauliflower, cut into florets (or cook as much as you'd like ~ the one from the farmers market was ginormous and I just made 1/2 of it one day and saved the rest for later)
- spray of coconut oil (or your favorite cooking spray)
- 2 tbsp raw pine nuts
- rind from 1/2 a lemon (don't include the white pith)
- 1 large garlic clove, minced
- 1/2 loose cup parsley, minced
- salt & pepper
- wedge of lemon
Instructions
- First, prepare the cauliflower. Spray the cauliflower with a little bit of cooking spray, sprinkle with some salt and pepper, and roast in the oven at 400 degrees for about 20-25 minutes. Depending on your oven and the size of the florets, this may take a bit more or a bit less.
- Make the gremolata: add the diced lemon rind, diced garlic, minced parsley, and a pinch of salt to a cutting board. Use a knife to cut into the ingredients together so they mix well and dice even smaller. Set this aside.
- Toast the pine nuts:in a skillet or cast iron pan, dry toast the pine nuts over medium heat, shaking often. You want them to have a nutty flavor, beautiful aroma, so take them off the heat once you notice they are turning a little tan. Take them out of the pan, so they don't continue to cook from residual heat.
- Assemble the dish: Layer the cauliflower in a dish and top with the pine nuts and gremolata. Add some freshly ground pepper. Squeeze some lemon juice over the whole dish and watch the cauliflower turn pink!