As with many of my recipes, they come to fruition out of chance, hence the moniker ‘something from nothing.’ In this case, it just so happened that chance came in the way of an enormous cauliflower. As much as I love my Faux Creamy Cauliflower Soup (and I highly recommend you try it), I was dreaming of another dish from the past. When I used to travel into the NYC for work my commute took me through Grand Central Station. For those NYers, you know that pre-pandemic there used to be a plethora of food choices on the bottom floor, convenient for those of us running for a train. I would sometimes frequent the Indian take out joint for their vegetarian options. One of those was a cauliflower curry, which sometimes had chick peas. (Side note: I would try to eat my Indian food before boarding the train or wait until I got home. Because quite frankly the deep curry aromas, although alluring to me, would be overwhelming to others as they perfumed and permeated the entire train.)
My luck, I always stock my pantry with various beans. Chick peas: checked. I also had some sweet potatoes on hand, and they seemed like a likely player in this mix. Plus they would add some much needed color to this dish. (Cauliflower: white, Chick peas: beige, Coconut milk: white. Sweet potatoes - happy orange!)
Now, you know that I do not proclaim to be an expert in Indian cooking or spices. Far from it. I stick to what I know and use my instincts on quantities and combos. That said I feel like I’ve been batting 1000 on my Indian dish experiments thus far. So, I was feeling pretty confident I could make this dish tasty.
Since I only had the germ of an idea on how to bring this dish to life, I was working through the prep and cooking method as I went along. Typically, I try to make most of my recipes fairly simple without too many steps or without a laundry list of ingredients. Nothing turns me off from trying a new recipe from another chef as 20 ingredients, or a choreographed dance of steps. This one does require a few more than my usual but still all quite manageable. And I’m sure it will go faster for you since while I was riffing on how to do make this I also had to measure, write it down, photograph and then make sure I didn’t get any curry on my camera lens.
Admittedly, the amounts I made were for a small dinner party or a large very hungry family. It’s been just JuanCarlos and I round these parts, so we might be eating this for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It made a ton. When I wanted to use up the cauliflower I didn’t realize how enormous it was when I added the sweet potato and chick peas. But you can either cut it down by a quarter or make a large vat of this and freeze it, as I did. It held up pretty well.
Also, you will note that I cut the onions and ginger in two ways. Sometimes the different sizes not only add a texture but it also delivers another flavor depth.
Ingredients
1 lg (1000g/35oz) Cauliflower
5 c (523g/19oz) Sweet Potato, cubed
2-3 med (431g) onions (half diced 1.5c/half large cubes 1.5c)
2 29 oz cans of Chick Peas
1 Qt Vegetable Stock or water (I used the water I cooked the cauliflower/potatoes in)
2 13.5 oz cans Coconut Milk
1/2 c oil
100g ginger 5-6 t grated, rest sliced
2t turmeric
2.5 t cumin
3 t cumin seeds
3 t rounded curry
1/2 t red pepper flakes (add more or less depending on your heat level)
4-5 t salt
1 c Aquafaba (chick pea liquid)
2 heaping T tomato paste
Instructions
Measure out all your spices.
Top row: Salt, Curry Middle Row: Turmeric, Cumin, Tomato Paste Bottom Row: Cumin Seeds, Red Pepper Flakes
2. Prepare all the vegetables: Break cauliflower into large florets. Peel and cut sweet potatoes into cubes. Dice and slice onions, grate and slice ginger so you have everything ready.
Now you can more clearly visualize the Happy Orange that the sweet potato brought to the party.
3. In salted boiling water, cook both cauliflower & potatoes until semi soft. Not mushy, you want them to still have a firmness to them. Strain and place on a baking tray to let cool. Keep the water to use as stock.
Remember to not overcook these. They should be tender but still slightly firm. You can also add an onion and celery to the water to create a veggie stock to use later.
4. Meanwhile, sauté diced onions in oil with salt until soft, approx. 10-12 minutes.
5. Add all the spices and ginger and let toast together 3-4 minutes.
Once the onions are softened, add all the spices and ginger.
6. Add tomato paste, let lightly brown then add cubed onions and 1 c of aquafaba. Let this cook until softened for 5-7 minutes.
You can really start to see all the deep flavors developing. Building up flavors at each level creates a much more flavor packed dish.
7. Add chick peas, stock, coconut milk to the pot and stir together and bring to a soft boil.
I love coconut milk. And in Indian spiced dishes it adds a cooling agent to all the spice.
8. Cut the larger cauliflower florets into smaller bite sized pieces. Then add the cauliflower and sweet potatoes to the pot and simmer to let all the flavors merge.
Taste for additional seasoning.
Serve with rice, add pepitas to top for crunch. The first time I made this dish I opted for paella rice instead of Basmati because I wanted more of a chew the to starch. Short grain rice definitely offered that chubby quality I was looking for. Plus I needed to experiment with it for a dish I’m offering up to my customers. So win win on that front. The second time I made this was for a small dinner party with my sister and brother in law. I serve basmati rice and it was equally delicious. How can any type of rice be bad when it’s goal is to soak up goodness?
