Brocc-Cauli Tabbouleh Salad

by - August 04, 2014

Brocc-cauli.
See what I did there?
Punny, hm?
(this is your cue to laugh)

Anyhoo.

I was planning a mega-fantastic picnic with my girlfriends Lin and Rui Yi . But more on that later (i.e. the next post)

So I set out to make one ultra delicious tabbouleh salad without a recipe, without google and completely by what I remember tabbouleh tasted like. Also, I decided to make it a cruciferous vegetable tabbouleh. Yes, completely untraditional, but I was never one to stick with (food) traditions.

I did allow myself my new favourite kitchen assistant, The Flavour Thesaurus. For those of you who have not heard of it before, it is a really useful little book that tells you about flavours that work together and a little bit of history behind each pairing. A great coffee table read, but an even better recipe-invention-helper.

Now, according to my handy dandy little book, flavours that work with Broccoli included lemon, garlic and cauliflower. I took that a step further and took the liberty to add in flavours that worked with cauliflower itself. So throw capers and thyme into the mix.

You will also notice the lack of an essential tabbouleh ingredient. Bulgur wheat. I initially intended to do a half-grain half-cauli-rice kinda dish, but alas! My bulgur wheat stash had diminished into a tablespoon-full or so at the bottom of the jar. So instead of throwing in a measly amount of grain into this salad, I made it grain free. Which means (a) you can eat SO MUCH MORE because this is basically all veg; and (b) you can share this mega-portion-joy with a gluten-free friend. Yay!


Are you cheering already?

Brocc-Cauli Tabbouleh Salad
Serves: 4 as a generous starter salad

1 head of cauliflower, washed
1 tsp dried thyme
Salt, to taste

1 small head of broccoli, washed and chopped into florets
Juice of 1/2 a small lemon
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt, to taste

2 cups chopped coriander leaves
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, sliced halfway
One small yellow onion, diced roughly

Capers to garnish
1/4 cup olive oil
Juice of 1/2 a lemon

First, use a large knife to chop off the heads of the cauliflower, leaving all the stems behind. You can roast the stems another time so you don't have to waste them. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees C. Place the heads in a food processor and pulse until you have tiny grains of cauliflower, similar to cous cous. Empty all of these grains onto a flat baking sheet, stir in some salt and thyme and place it in the oven for 15 minutes, taking it out to stir once at the 7 minute mark.

Take the broccoli and toss it with the lemon juice, garlic powder, olive oil and salt. Place it on another baking tray and bake this for 20 minutes in the same 200 degree oven.

Once the broccoli and cauliflower 'rice' is done, toss them together with the coriander, cherry tomatoes and onion in a large salad bowl.

To make the dressing, mix together the olive oil and lemon juice and mix it into the salad (only right before you are about to eat it!). Top with capers.








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