There’s something glorious about a whole roasted cauliflower. And it goes so well with this garlicky, minty sauce. I can’t recommend this combination highly enough.
(Based on a NYTimes recipe.)
Ingredients
⅓ cup blanched almonds, lightly toasted
2 cloves garlic, peeled
2 ½ tsp red wine vinegar
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
¼ cup (packed) parsley, de-stemmed
½ cup (packed) mint, de-stemmed
salt and pepper
Blend ~20 seconds on speed ~3. (I pre-blended the almonds and garlic, but that is not necessary.) Small chunks of almonds and flakes of herbs are desirable. I used a narrow (3” blade) Vitamix container. If you want to use a wide (64-oz low profile) container, double the recipe. You can also make a single batch in the 8-oz bowl container.
Leftovers keep for a few days in the fridge. Ideally, keep the cauliflower separate from the sauce so that you can reheat the cauliflower without directly heating the sauce.
I followed the NYTimes advice for roasting the cauliflower, and it worked perfectly. Wash, sprinkle with salt, coat with oil, and roast at 375°F with a pan of water at the bottom of the oven. Baste with more oil midway through roasting. Check after 1 hour, and roast longer if a fork doesn’t go in relatively easily. I roasted for 1 hour and 15 minutes, but, apparently, it can take up to 2 hours for a large head.
Enjoy!
I will certainly try this recipe. I have appreciated your fine communications this year. Thanks a bunch and happy 2018 !
I have made this several times now, and I’ve tried a few successful modifications. For one thing, you really don’t need to blanch the almonds. You can toast them with the skins on, and you’ll never know you skipped the blanching step once you’ve blended them. Then I also found, because I didn’t have the right kind of vinegar, that lemon juice works really well in place of the vinegar. And if you want a more liquid sauce, you can add a little water to the blend.