Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Nuts and a Dried Fruit
Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Nuts and a Dried Fruit
you don't need a quiz to tell you that you need alone time
things you’ll need: a cauliflower, a nut, a dried fruit, an allium, lemon, olive oil, salt, pepper, any spice you want to add to the roasting cauliflower for your personalization (coriander, chili flake, aleppo pepper, smoked paprika, turmeric, cinnamon, garlic/onion powder), and some kind of fresh green garnish that I did not have (scallions, cilantro, parsley, or mint).
I have said it before, I will say it every time: Deb Perelman is always right. She included this recipe as part of her Sloth February cooking vibe and, indubitably, she is correct. I have made this more than once with varying nuts, fruits, and alliums because Deb told me I could. Deb recommends pistachios; I used almonds but I considered hazelnuts. Deb recommends dates; here I used golden raisins because I had them but both are great. Deb recommends charred scallion; my charred scallions weren’t great so I used shallot this time. I did not want to leave the house, but I seriously considered putting on outside-pants and grumbling my way to the store for mint, cilantro, parsley, or scallions. Her recipe can be found here.
incidentally gluten-free, vegetarian, and vegan.
Chapter 251
Peopling is hard. Sometimes you need a lot of it, sometimes you want none of it. You may have friends that need more of you than you have available. You have people in your life to share as much or as little of yourself as you can/want. Sometimes you are the too much and the too little. You may have family who reach with one hand and push with the other.
Sometimes you need a 20-minute call or to pack your favorite pajamas and crawl inside someone else until the days get longer and the loneliness melts away. Maybe you need a whirlwind tour of homecomings and reunions, trying to pack everyone you’ve ever missed into one embrace. Maybe you just need to leave your phone in the bed somewhere and forget that you were ever reachable.
There are a lot of personality tests out there, many of which you have taken. You know that you are a Fall and Captain Janeway. You are a member of whichever Hogwarts house supports Trans Rights and you tried to find out your perfect Celebrity Soulmate but it was so full of pop-up ads that you never got to the answer and, anyway, it’s a hybrid of Taika Waititi, Dwayne Johnson, Mr. Darcy, 80s John Cusack, the animated fox from Robin Hood, Famke Janssen, Danai Gurira, Tom Hardy, Storm, Stephan Colbert, Idris Elba, Jack White, Prince, Rhianna, Kira Nerys, Seven of Nine, both Lando Calrissians, Stanley Tucci making a negroni while Joe Bastianich looks on disapprovingly, and the way that Tormund Giantsbane looks at Brienne of Tarth… with none of the problematic parts of any of them.
This is all to say, you know yourself better than you think. Most of those tests only go so far as to confirm that you are the expert on you. It doesn't matter what your horoscope or the Myers-Briggs says, you know when you need the company of other people and when you need time to be alone.
You don’t have to leave the house today. Today, you don’t need any people but you do need lunch. You also need cauliflower. As luck would have it, you have a cauliflower because you almost always have/need cauliflower.
Preheat the oven to 450 and coat a baking sheet with olive oil and sprinkle it with salt, pepper, and whatever spices tickle your fancy: coriander and pepper flake. Break down the head of cauliflower into bites. Trim the woody core and cube that up too. Julienne a shallot or some other allium. Toss the cauliflower and shallots on your seasoned baking sheet and roast for 10-20 minutes, tossing and turning halfway through.
While that roasts, toast a handful of almonds in a pan and chop them up (once cool) or gather whatever pre-roasted nuts you keep in your pantry. Mix the juice of half a lemon with salt, pepper, and a few tablespoons of oil to taste.
Once the cauliflower and shallots are the perfect mix of browned, burnt, and still crunchy, toss the contents of the pan with the lemon dressing, your chopped nuts, and a handful of golden raisins (or whatever dried fruit you have around).
Eat your lunch in silence, with a book splayed before you, or while taking another quiz that confirms exactly what you already knew about yourself. Even if other people need things from you, it’s ok to choose to be alone today or for a few hours or just while you pile perfect bites onto a spoon. Yes, it’s ok to eat this salad with a spoon. You know what you need today. You’ll figure out what/who you need tomorrow.
More Cauliflower
More things Deb told me to make:
Smitten Kitchen’s Garlic Lime Steak and Noodle Salad
you should not be in charge today, so delegate some decisions
because you are some kind of baking genius now
break out the fuzzy socks and soup pots, it’s totally fall now
you can be a genius and also have no idea what you are doing
Tomato Braised Beans with Feta and Oregano Pesto
like, but not at all, a pizza
attempting something you think will be hard, but then not failing at it because it was never as hard as you'd thought it would be
for tomorrow, unless that’s suddenly today
Beet and Whipped Ricotta Salad with Citrus and Other Things If You Want
yes, another beet salad because I just keep buying more beets and who doesn’t love a salad or ricotta for that matter
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