I like being creative and inventing new salad combinations. But there are so many possibilities that sometimes I just can’t think what to do. So some months ago I bought Nigella Lawson’s cookbook called Simply Nigella – Feel Good Food. And I found a great salad recipe with cauliflower, chickpeas and pomegranate; beautifully brought together with some spiciness and sweetness. I also made some changes as I didn’t have everything from Nigella’s list. I wanted to use first everything I had at home. But nonetheless, the spicy cauliflower salad turned out perfect.
As an addition to the salad, I added an amazing baked avocado egg. These spicy florets, the sweet chickpeas go great together with the creamy baked avocado and egg. It’s a warm salad, but I believe it is also great cold. I didn’t have a chance to try it cold because it was too delicious to leave any leftovers.
The ingredients for 2 portions of the spicy cauliflower salad:
- 1 cauliflower (small)
- ½ of a yellow bell pepper
- 2 handfuls of valeriana/lamb’s lettuce
- 3-4 Tbsp of olive oil
- salt and pepper
- 1 tsp of cinnamon
- 2 dried chilis
- 1 Tbsp of red sweet paprika
- 4-6 Tbsp of chickpeas (cooked, from a jar)
- ½ of a pomegranate (seeds)
- 1 lime
- 1 avocado
- 2 eggs (small)
At the beginning, preheat the oven to 200º C. Then trim the small head cauliflower by simply dividing it into small florets. A floret looks like a small “white tree”. Take a look at the cauliflower and you will see what I am talking about. Use a small knife to make your job easier. Furthermore, take a large bowl (big enough to put all the florets in), put in the olive oil, cinnamon, dried chopped chilis, sweet paprika, salt and pepper. Quickly stir with a spoon and then add the small florets to it. Toss them to cover evenly. In addition, wash the avocado, cut it lengthwise in half (around the pit) and prepare two eggs.
Take a baking tray, cover it with a sheet of baking paper, place the avocado halves on it and crack an egg in each of them. Place the avocado pieces in one corner of the tray to have space for the cauliflower. Pour the florets into the tray and place it in the oven for 20 minutes.
Further, using the same bowl, add the chickpeas and the sliced bell pepper and toss in the remaining oil mixture. In other words, clean the bowl with shaking the chickpeas and bell pepper in it. Keep the bowl on the counter for now. Then, wash the lamb’s lettuce and deseed one half of the pomegranate (using a small bowl).
Once the 20 minutes are over, take the tray out of the oven, add the chickpeas with the yellow pepper to it, carefully toss a little and put back in the oven for ca 15 minutes or until the eggs are set and the cauliflower gets tender. Be careful when you move the tray to not spill the eggs out of the avocado.
When everything is ready, take the tray out of the oven and sprinkle with sea salt. Divide the lamb’s lettuce (sprinkled with some lime juice) between two plates, top with spicy-sweet florets and chickpeas and scatter with the beautiful red pomegranate seeds. In conclusion, place the creamy avocado with egg next to the spicy cauliflower salad and sprinkle it with some black pepper.
Enjoy!
