A mound of vegetables mildly spiced with East African Berbere and served with the most delicious fresh cucumber and ginger yoghurt won’t leave anything to be desired! With just the right amount of spice to enhance the flavours of the veg, our Roast Berbere Cauliflower, Sweet Potato and Chickpeas are topped with spinach that crisps up in the last minutes of roasting. A wonderful dish full of flavours and textures!
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Ottolenhgi Berbere Vegetables
My favourite chef in the world is Yotam Ottolenghi. I’m not sure if it’s because I worked for him for a couple of years and got to taste and see his food being cooked. Even if it plays a part, I couldn’t be indifferent to his food even if I had no personal experiences or memories. I admire Ottolenghi’s use of vegetables, spices and Middle Eastern ingredients in a modern way.
This Roast Berbere Cauliflower and Chickpea recipe is Ottolenghi’s dish. For me, this dish sums up what his cooking is all about. Lots (plenty) of everyday veg (simple), spiced (flavour) with something extraordinary and served with something even more extraordinary (more flavour). After all, this dish is just roast vegetables with some yoghurt on the side (oversimplifying, of course), but if you make it, you will see that it needs nothing else.
Why We Love Berbere Spiced Cauliflower Recipe?
It’s not a side dish, it’s not something that you’d eat out of necessity – it is a full-blown flavour and texture feast! Sweet potatoes will soften, cauliflower will be tender and slightly charred on the edges of the florets, chickpeas will crisp up and spinach will create a crispy leaf blanket. All spiced with the fragrant and warming Berbere spices! If you’d like to make your own Berbere Spice Mix, here’s the link.
Don’t skip the Ginger and Cucumber Yogurt though. It is a perfect sidekick not only to this particular dish but to any spicy vegetable or meat dish. It’s certainly one of the relishes that make most regular appearances on our table!
Method
Roast the Vegetables
Heat the oven to 200°C Fan. Mix all the spices in a bowl. Scrub the sweet potatoes and cut them into 2 cm cubes. Break the cauliflower into 2-3cm florets. Drain and rinse the chickpeas, and leave them to air-dry for a bit. Then, pat them dry to make sure they crisp up in the oven. Wash and thoroughly dry the spinach.
Put the sweet potatoes and chickpeas in a large bowl and sprinkle with 2/3 of the spice mix. Then add half the garlic, and 3 tbsp of olive oil and season with salt. Toss to coat and spread out on a large lined baking tray. Roast the sweet potato and chickpeas for 10 minutes
In the meantime, place cauliflower florets in the bowl. Put the rest of the spice mix and garlic, 2 tbsp of oil and season with salt. Toss to coat. After sweet potatoes have been roasting for 10 minutes, add the berbere cauliflower to the tray. Stir and roast for 15 – 20 minutes.
In the meantime, mix the spinach with a tbsp of oil and spread it out on top of the vegetables. Return to the oven for another 10 minutes, then leave to cool for about five minutes. Drizzle over the lemon juice.
Make the Relish
Whilst your vegetables are roasting, coarsely grate the cucumber. Finely chop the coriander, including stalks. Peel and grate or finely chop the ginger. We use a ginger grating plate – link here.
Put the grated cucumber in a piece of muslin or a tea towel and squeeze to get rid of as much water as possible. Put the squeezed out cucumber in a bowl together with the ginger and coriander. Stir in the yoghurt and lime juice, and season with salt. Serve with the roast berbere vegetables.
Serve the Berbere Cauliflower & Chickpeas with lots of cucumber and ginger yoghurt on the side. Any leftovers can be reheated in the other the next day!
Other Vegetarian Meal Ideas
We absolutely love this veggie dish: simple, yet delicious! If you like it just as much, we think you’d also like our recipes below:
- Easy Lentil ‘Meatballs’ and Spaghetti
- Vegan Tex-Mex Bowl with Sweet Potatoes
- Caponata with Mozzarella | Sicilian Aubergine Ratatouille
Recipe Card
Roast Berbere Cauliflower and Chickpeas with Ginger and Cucumber Yoghurt
Ingredients
For the Roasted Vegetables:
- ½ tsp ground turmeric
- ½ tsp paprika
- ¾ tsp berbere spice mix
- ¾ tsp ground cumin
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 sweet potatoes (approx 500g) cut into 2cm dices
- 400 g tinned chickpeas drained, rinsed and patted dry
- 1 cauliflower (approx 700g) broken into 2-3cm florets
- 3 garlic cloves finely chopped
- 5 tbsp olive oil
- 130 g baby spinach
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
Coconut, Cucumber and Lime Salsa:
- 300 g cucumber coarsely grated
- 15 g fresh coriander roughly chopped
- 20 g ginger peeled and finely chopped
- 180 g Greek yogurt
- 1 lime juice only
- ¼ tsp salt
Instructions
Roast the Vegetables:
- Heat the oven to 200°C Fan. Mix all the spices in a bowl.
- Put the sweet potatoes and chickpeas in a large bowl and sprinkle with 2/3 of the spice mix. Then add half the garlic, 3 tbsp of olive oil and season with salt. Toss to coat and spread out on a large lined baking tray. Roast the sweet potato and chickpeas for 10 minutes
- In the meantime, place cauliflower florets in the bowl. Put the rest of the spice mix and garlic, 2 tbsp of oil and season with salt Toss to coat. After sweet potatoes have been roasting for 10 minutes, add the cauliflower to the tray. Stir and roast for 15 – 20 minutes.
- In the meantime, mix the spinach with a tbsp of oil and spread out on top of the vegetables. Return to the oven for another 10 minutes, then leave to cool for about five minutes. Drizzle over the lemon juice.
Make the Yoghurt Relish:
- Put the grated cucumber in a piece of muslin or a tea towel and squeeze to get rid of as much water as possible. Put the squeezed out cucumber in a bowl, stir in all the other ingrediends. Serve with the roast berbere vegetables.
Nutrition
