Crispy Cauliflower Recipe

Sometimes my son comes clean with me.

Like yesterday when he told me that he used to feed most of his vegetables to the dog when he was little. Now that he tells me this I understand why Charlie the cocker spaniel didn’t grow fat on South African cumquats alone. He also used to get drunk on them too, but that’s another story.

My son says, the only way to eat cauliflower is raw in salads or with a dip, or plastered with a thick cheese sauce so it was with some trepidation that I first served up this cauliflower dish at a family get together recently.

And surprisingly everyone loved it. So here it is, a lovely crispy cauliflower recipe that will turn even the most hardened anti-cauliflower gang into ardent supporters of the floret.

Apologies

I apologise for the slightly charred bits on the cauliflower in the pictures – In a senior moment, I initially forgot to add the oil to the frying pan!

Crispy Cauliflower (with lemon and Parmesan)

Serves 4 – 6

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil

About 500g cauliflower (or one whole small cauliflower) chopped into florets

Sea salt and cracked black pepper

2 – 3 cloves of garlic sliced thinly

1 cup of parsley leaves – flat leaf if possible (optional – you can also use the green ends of shallots as I did in the recipe above)

1 tbsp lemon juice (2bsp if you like lemon)

25 g shaved parmesan = about one third of a cup

Here’s what to do

Heat the oil in a large frying pan over high heat.

Add the cauliflower, salt and pepper and cook for around 3 minutes until cauliflower is golden, then reduce heat and cook until it is al dente (still crisp).

Toss in the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds

Add the chopped parsley (or green ends of shallots) and cook for about 2 minutes

Add lemon juice and Parmesan and just toss  everything together.

Serve

I served it with  marinated chilli beef that I cooked in the oven for 45 minutes.

Crispy cauliflower is nice served with any kind of garlic chicken, lamb, or roast meat, and it takes only about 10 minutes to cook as you’re waiting for the meat to ‘relax’.

As we’re nearing Christmas, I also think it would go nicely with Boxing Day left-overs.

Enjoy!