Cauliflower with tarator sauce
March 8, 2010 • Category: Salads
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:
- Boil or steam the cauliflower, cut into florets, for about 5 minutes until it is tender when pierced with a fork.
- 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:
- 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!
- 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
Faith says:
Your presentation is really lovely here. The tahini sauce sounds like the perfect addition to cauliflower!
On March 8, 2010 at 6:20 pm
Danielle says:
oh wow, I’ve never seen purple cauliflower. This dish sounds wonderful. I’m always looking out for more cauliflower recipes.
On March 8, 2010 at 7:32 pm
Chris says:
Yay! I love that cauliflower dish — we made a very similar dish here: http://www.weheartfood.com/2008/06/kefta-kebabs-and-cauliflower-with-taratur-sauce.html
On March 8, 2010 at 8:07 pm
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 😉
On March 8, 2010 at 8:22 pm
Sook @ My Fabulous Recipes says:
Ooh the tarator sauce sounds great! I would love to try it sometime.
On March 8, 2010 at 8:48 pm
Azita says:
these cauliflowers look stunning and so delicious! great recipe.
On March 8, 2010 at 9:11 pm
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.
On March 8, 2010 at 9:26 pm
Joie de vivre says:
That is one funky looking cauliflower. I totally would have gone for it too! 🙂
On March 8, 2010 at 9:54 pm
PJ says:
Loved the color of the dish!!The sauce sounds yumm..
On March 8, 2010 at 11:12 pm
Sushma Mallya says:
i have never seen such a colourful caufilower,very nice one and so easy too….very beautiful clicks…
On March 8, 2010 at 11:30 pm
Preety says:
wow such a different recipe ..love the sauce recipe..
On March 9, 2010 at 12:52 am
Priya says:
Wat a colourful and tempting dish, love that tarator sauce..will give a try..
On March 9, 2010 at 3:55 am
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 🙂
On March 9, 2010 at 4:15 am
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.
On March 9, 2010 at 5:11 am
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!
On March 9, 2010 at 5:13 am
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!
On March 9, 2010 at 5:59 am
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.
On March 9, 2010 at 6:23 am
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.
On March 9, 2010 at 7:14 am
Joumana says:
well, those were two cauliflower that I assembled artistically! lol!
On March 9, 2010 at 7:27 am
Rachana Kothari says:
The tartor Sauce sounds amazing and the cauliflower is so pretty! Great looking recipe!
On March 9, 2010 at 7:42 am
momgateway says:
Got to try this… after tasting shawarma, I’m addicted to Lebanese food!
On March 9, 2010 at 8:06 am
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
On March 9, 2010 at 8:48 am
rebecca says:
wow amazing cauliflower and love sauce, enjoy the soup lol Rebecca
On March 9, 2010 at 8:52 am
sippitysup says:
I love to roast cauliflower and this sauce sounds like just the new experience I have been looking for. GREG
On March 9, 2010 at 9:41 am
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.
On March 9, 2010 at 10:46 am
Juanita says:
Never seen a cauliflower like that before! How psychedelic!
On March 9, 2010 at 12:57 pm
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”.
On March 10, 2010 at 4:06 am
Julie says:
Quelle jolie présentation comme d’habitude. Avec ça, je suis sûre que tu arrives à faire manger des légumes aux enfants?!
Bisous!
On March 10, 2010 at 12:17 pm
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
On March 11, 2010 at 7:04 am
cmiranda says:
Very nice recipe.I thought in Lebanon tarator sauce was used exclusively with fish.
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On December 3, 2013 at 2:23 pm