Recipe - Cauliflower in Satay (tomato & peanut) sauce - Time (30mins) Skill (easy) Eating (easy)

So, it's harvest time, and the local Baptist Church of which I would be a member if I could get there, kindly donated some vegetables to me.  The carrots and potatos and onions will keep well, but there was a rather nice cauliflower.

I didn't feel like cauliflower cheese, and anyway didn't have any creme fraiche and couldn't be bothered to explain how to white sauce to whichever carer was going to be here (my regular carer's left so it's difficult to know what to plan if you have no idea who's coming or their skill levels!).  I was thinking maybe cauliflower in a tomato sauce, even using a bottled ready made pasta sauce like Lloyd Grossman's or Ragu.

But I decided to look in the cookery books. I have an enormous tome from 1985 by Rose Elliott called Complete Vegetarian Cookbook (over 1000 recipes). Which has line drawings but no pictures.  Which I've barely used because it does feel all a bit 1970s/ 1980s nut loaf or generally brown food....

But then I found this recipe - basically Cauliflower in tomato & peanut sauce.  Yeah I know, you're looking doubtful, so was I and so was the carer when she saw the recipe. However, it's genuinely really really tasty. And very cheap (particularly if your cauliflower was free like mine was!)  Also, I reckon that the sauce would work with all sorts of vegetables, or meat, and is very easy to do. It would also be great for using up leftovers of plain boiled cauliflower or other veg.  So it won 5 stars for easy cooking, tastiness and versatility: but it's not really a dish you eat with your eyes.... it's very, well, beige is a polite word for it....


I've still got a portion left so will take a pic next time I'm in the kitchen and will upload it.

So the recipe:

What is it? Boiled cauliflower with a tomato & peanut (satay) sauce.

Time required?  30mins (or less if you're using leftover cauliflower).

Cooking skill required? Ability to open a tin of tomatoes and a jar of peanut butter, chop an onion and to cut up the cauliflower into bite size pieces and boil it til it's cooked but still a bit crunchy.

Eating ability required? Easy to very easy - depending on whether you use smooth or crunchy peanut butter and how soft the cauliflower is cooked.

CAULIFLOWER WITH SATAY SAUCE 

 Portions: The average sized cauliflower will give about 3-4 reasonably sized portions if you eat it by itself as a main dish, 4 if you eat it with rice or flatbread or something else....

INGREDIENTS

- A Cauliflower 
- An onion - peeled & chopped (or a handful of ready chopped frozen onion)
- 1 tablespoon Olive or Vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon peanut butter (smooth or crunchy) (use 2 tablespoons if you're not adding actual peanuts as an optional extra - see below)
- 1 tin of tomatoes (chopped)
- Ground Black Pepper

Optional Extras: If you want the dish to be a bit richer any or all of these are nice:

A handful of raw peanuts chopped up. You can 'roast' them in the oven for about 20 mins then chop them for extra flavour.   Or you can cheat & use crunchy peanut butter, or if you have any basic salted peanuts generally used for snacking, get a handful, wash them to remove some of the salt, dry them on kitchen towel and chop them up instead.  If you don't mind whole peanuts and can face the chewing, you don't even have to chop them!

A garlic clove  - chopped (or a toothbrush's worth of garlic paste that comes in a tube.

A toothbrush's worth of tomato paste.

A small amount of stock - I use Bouillon Stock which comes in a powder so it's easy to just stick a bit of the powder into the pan and stir.  Normal stock cubes need dissolving in water which makes your sauce a bit wet... So instead, season with salt & pepper to up the flavour 'hit'.

Chilli - fresh or powdered. 

PREPARATION

1. Make the sauce: fry the onion in the oil in a pan for 10 minutes until soft and see through (translucent), add the peanut butter, the tomatoes (and also optional extras of actual peanuts, garlic, tomato paste, stock & chilli if using).  Season with salt & pepper to taste.  If you put more pepper in, it tastes 'spicy' without being overwhelming instead of chilli.
2. Cook the Cauliflower: Wash the cauliflower, remove the green leaves. Chop the stem and florets into bite size pieces.  Put about an inch of boiling water into a saucepan, add the stem, put the lid on, cook for 5 minutes, then add the floret pieces (cos they cook quicker than the stem) and put the lid back on and cook for a further 5 minutes until cooked but still has a slight crunch.
3. Drain the cauliflower and spoon the sauce over it. Eat it.

Serving Suggestions:

• I eat it by itself.  If you want more food or to make it go further, you can eat it with plain boiled rice, green leafy vegetables or peas/ beans, or whatever you fancy. I imagine it would be nice with a chapatti (I defrost mine by putting it on top of the dish in the microwave for the last half minute....) or flatbread of some sort. Maybe even naan bread.

• I imagine it would be very nice with say, simple grilled meat or fish as an accompaniment.

• I also think that you could use the sauce for pork or beef or chicken as well as any other vegetables you fancy!  If you're using meat, fry it at the same time as the onion in the sauce.

• I noticed recently that online supermarkets like Tesco etc have frozen cauliflower florets.  This could be a good 'storecupboard' staple meal if you used those with, say rehydrated sundried tomatos (cos then you can just do enough for one meal for one person without waste - unless you have other uses for a part tin of tomatoes) in smaller quantities.

Can it be reheated?  Yes, it tastes just as good 2-3 days later (kept in the fridge once cooled) and microwaves well.  It could also be reheated in a pan on the hob.

Can it be frozen? Don't see why not. Though I suspect the sauce will need a good stir after defrosting as the water content is likely to separate.