Middle-Eastern cauliflower and lentil salad

By: David Frenkiel, Luise Vindahl Andersen
From: Green Kitchen At Home
Photographer: David Frenkiel

If you ask us which recipe in this book you should start with for a delicious dinner tonight, we would probably say this one. It has interesting flavours – sweet, warm and spicy – and is nourishing but not heavy, and impressive without being weird or complicated.

We have made this salad on countless occasions and it always seems right. It doesn’t matter if it’s a regular Tuesday or a family birthday dinner, everyone seems to enjoy the fragrant cauliflower, tahini-dressed lentils, toasted almonds, sweet dates and greens.

Ingredients

Quantity	Ingredient
1	cauliflower, head and stalk
4 tablespoons	extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon	ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon	ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon	ground ginger
A pinch	ground cayenne pepper
	sea salt
	freshly ground black pepper
1	small red onion, peeled
400g	Lazy lentils, cooked weight, or store-bought
12	soft or dried dates, pitted
75g	almonds, toasted
100g	mâche or baby spinach

Creamy Tahini Dressing

Quantity	Ingredient
2 tablespoons	tahini
2 tablespoons	lemon juice
2 tablespoons	filtered water
2 teaspoons	runny honey
	sea salt
	freshly ground black pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 225°C and line a baking tray with parchment paper. Cut the cauliflower into small florets and trim and roughly chop the stalk. Place in a mixing bowl, drizzle the oil and sprinkle the spices over the cauliflower, season and toss until well coated. Spread them on the tray and bake for 20–25 minutes, or until the cauliflower is tender and golden. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
Finely slice the red onion. Place all of the dressing ingredients in a serving bowl, season to taste and whisk to combine. Toss in the cooked lentils until well coated. Thinly slice the dates on the diagonal and roughly chop the almonds. Add half to the bowl along with the cauliflower, onion and spinach and combine. Scatter over of the remaining dates and almonds.

Tips

If you are sensitive to raw onion, massage the slices with 1 tbsp of lemon juice to make it easier to digest and less intense in flavour.

For a nut-free alternative, replace the almonds with pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds.

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