Garlicky Grilled Cauliflower Steaks with Italian Salsa Verde

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This is one of those total winners of a recipe that looks and tastes amazing but takes hardly any time to prepare. Perfect for a light lunch, or served as a vegan main course or side dish. The Italian style salsa verde is super versatile and great with grilled sea bass or roast chicken.

Ingredients

  • Large cauliflower
  • Olive oil
  • ½ zest of a lemon
  • Salt and pepper
  • 3 x garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
  • Flaked almonds, lightly toasted

For salsa verde:

  • 3 tablespoons parsley
  • 1 teaspoon capers
  • 3 anchovy fillets (can be omitted for vegans)
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200°C convection, or full surface grill and circulated air at 200°C if you’re using a Gaggenau oven.

2. Cut the bottom of the cauliflower off, so it can sit on its own. Next, slice into large ’steaks’ – you should get 3 or 4 out of a decent-sized cauliflower around 1cm thick. Don’t worry if some bits break off as it will still taste amazing.

3. Drizzle the cauliflower with olive oil. Add the garlic to a heavy baking tray and then place the cauliflower steaks on top. Season with salt and pepper and grate over the zest of half the lemon, then put the tray in the oven to cook whilst you make the Salsa Verde.

4. For the Salsa Verde, simply add the parsley, capers, anchovies and garlic to a small mixer and blitz until fine. Next, add the mustard, lemon juice and oil and blitz again. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

5. Remove the cauliflower from the oven (around 15 minutes should do it) and add to a warmed serving plate. If you turn the cauliflower over they will likely be a bit more crispy / browned on the underside and look really lovely like that. Then you can serve them with the Salsa Verde spooned over them. Feel free to add a little extra parsley and a squeeze of lemon for extra pizazz!

We also added some lightly toasted flaked almonds for extra crunch but hazelnuts or pistachios would also work well.

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