Roasted cauliflower salad with anchovies, olives & capers

Served either warm or cold, this salad of roasted cauliflower and red onions with a dressing of anchovies, olives and capers is a fantastic way to pack a huge amount of flavour onto this humble vegetable.

I’m going through a phase where I’m craving the flavours of the Mediterranean, in particular France and Italy. I think my body is desperate for summer, sun and a holiday in Europe. This is a salad I created in an attempt to quench this deep longing, and to satisfy my desire for these tastes.

Cauliflower can be a bit underrated and potentially bland. I think its at its best when its dry roasted with lots of flavour added. My all time favourite way is with curry and dukkah spices.

For this recipe, I roasted it with a sliced red onion and olive oil, and made a chunky salsa-like dressing to go with it. I decided against using garlic, but I think it would work just as well with it as without.

As with all my recipes, I like to think of them as ideas and inspiration, and love it when people adapt and make it their own. This is the way I approach cooking.

Recipe | makes 1 salad | serves 4 as a side

• 1 large head of cauliflower
• 1 red onion roughly sliced
• a splash of olive for roasting
• 6 T olive oil
• 1 T red wine vinegar
• 1 T chopped flat leaf parsley
• 4 anchovies finely chopped
• 1 T chopped capers
• 1/4 cup of roughly chopped black olives
• 1/4 t dried chilli flakes (optional, and to give it a little kick)
• Salt & pepper to taste

Pre-heat the oven to 180 C. Cut the florets off the cauliflower and toss with the sliced onion and olive oil. Spread on a single layer on a large baking tray and roast for 20 minutes. I always try not to overcrowd the roasting pan so as to prevent any steaming from going on.

Make the dressing mixing all the remaining ingredients together. If you are serving this warm, toss the warm cauliflower and red onion through the dressing when it comes out the oven and serve. If you are serving this cold or at room temperature, allow the cauliflower to cool slightly, add the dressing and then refrigerate until ready to serve.

This salad will look lovely served on a flatter platter with extra parsley scattered over the top.

You might also like my cauliflower “couscous” I recently made. A brilliant accompaniment if you are cutting out the carbs.

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