Warm Salad of Roast Cauliflower & Quinoa
Inspired by Cath Claringbold in the Good Weekend.
You could use all sorts of soft cheese in this recipe. Ricotta or goats curd would be lovely but I had some bocconcini that needed eating up and I really enjoyed it’s slightly chewy texture to contrast the cauliflower & quinoa.
Wonderfully satisfying as a main course salad on it’s own, it would also work well without the cheese as a side dish to fish or roast chook.
enough for: 2
takes: 40 minutes
1/2 large cauliflower (approx 350g / 12oz)
1/2 cup quinoa
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 small bunch chives, finely chopped
large handful bocconcini, torn into bight size pieces
1. Preheat oven to 200C. Cut cauliflower into bight size little trees. Place in a roasting dish, drizzle with some olive oil, season and roast, stirring occasionally until the cauliflower is golden on the edges and cooked through, about 30 minutes.
2. Rinse quinoa well and place in a medium saucepan with 1 cup water and the tomato paste. Simmer for 10 – 15 minutes or until quinoa is tender and the water has been absorbed. Season.
3. To serve divide cauliflower between two warm plates, scatter over quinoa, cheese and chives.
Variations
dairy-free / vegan – replace cheese with a handful or roasted almonds.
paleo – brown some minced (ground) chicken, stir in the tomato paste and use it instead of the quinoa. Plus almonds or brazil nuts instead of cheese.
no quinoa? – use your favourite cooked grain such as couscous, barley or brown rice. You’ll need to adjust the amount of water and cooking times though.
no tomato – ditch it and replace the water with vegetable or chicken stock.
short on time – use precooked quinoa or brown rice and replace cauli with 2 drained cans chickpeas to save roasting time.
carb lovers / more substantial – extra quinoa or other cooked grains, or serve with crusty bread or garlic bread.
more veg – serve with a green salad or baby spinach on the side.
carnivore – serve salad with roast or BBQ chicken.
Waste Avoidance Strategy
whole cauli – will keep in a plastic bag in the fridge for weeks. To keep for longer, chop into florettes and pop in the freezer. If you have time, grating the cauli before freezing will make life easier so you can just defrost and serve.
quinoa / tomato paste – keep in the pantry.
chives – best to use for another meal.
bocconcini – freeze them.
Add to my Old Favourite Recipes
I always hated those “I changed everything about the recipe but loved it!” reviews on recipes, but I have to add it to this one. I added diced bacon, and used a mixture of goat’s cheese and mozzarella, since we had never tried the goat’s cheese before, and it was a lot more expensive so we only got a tiny thing of it (it turned out that it was super yummy, though!). I also used the greens of green onions instead of chives, since the store was out of chives. So, amongst all the changes, this was super good, and I’m really looking forward to having the left overs for lunch tomorrow 🙂
Glad you enjoyed it WITH the changes Kelly!
I love this recipe! This is actually the recipe that lead me to your website several years ago now! I was googling quinoa and this recipe popped up.
That’s great to know Sam!
Thanks
Jx
I used chipotle powder to season both the tomato and quinoa and the roasted cauliflower, and it was a smoky marvel!
Yum Tad!
I’ll have to get my hands on some chipotle powder