Spicy Roasted Bacon Tomato Cauliflower

The rich garlicky sun-dried tomato pesto adds a lovely flavor to the cauliflower as it roasts in a little bacon fat. A generous sprinkling of crispy bacon and Parmesan finish this dish to perfection. This one is a side dish that wouldn't mind taking center stage.

Cauliflower is one of my very favorite vegetables as you can see from the many cauliflower recipes on this site. From main dishes like savory cheesy cauliflower cake (it's a beauty!) and curried cauliflower chicken pilaf, great brunch recipes like cauliflower cheese waffles and cauliflower Roquefort tart, to my absolute favorite cauliflower cheese pie with crunchy potato crust (just to name a few!) I think I've featured cauliflower more than any other vegetable.

This particular dish is another favorite. It checks of all of my boxes.

Cheesy. It's got your Parmesan.
Spicy. Fresh chili pepper for the win.
Bacon. You betcha!
Easy. Nothing easier than roasting. Pop it on a pan. Roast!
Cauliflower.  One whole head. That said, this recipe is REALLY easy to double for a bigger crowd.

Check, check, check, check and check. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do. And if you are a fan of cauliflower too, you are going to want to scroll on down to see the link list of all the cauliflower recipes my Sunday Supper friends are sharing today.

Spicy Roasted Bacon Tomato Cauliflower

This recipe is adapted from these two recipes from Eggton and Steamy Kitchen.

Ingredients
1/2 cup sundried tomatoes (dry, not packed in oil – about 1 1/4 oz or 35g by weight)
4 slices streaky thin cut smoky bacon (about 3 1/8 oz or 90g)
1 head cauliflower (Mine weighed 1 2/3 lbs or 765g)
5 medium garlic cloves
1 hot chili pepper
3/4 oz or 20g grated Parmesan cheese, plus an equal amount for serving
Olive oil

Method
Place your sun-dried tomatoes in a small bowl and pour hot water over them. Set aside to soak and plump up.

Chop your bacon into small pieces and spread them around on a large baking pan. Put the pan in the oven and turn it on to preheat to 400°F or 200°C. The bacon will bake and get crispy as the oven preheats so keep an eye on it.

Meanwhile, cut the green leaves off of your cauliflower and break or cut it into florets.

Check on your bacon!

Drain the tomatoes but keep the water. Put the tomatoes, garlic, chili pepper and  Parmesan in the blender or food processor. Add some of the tomato soaking water and process until smooth. If it is too thick, just keep adding the water, a little at a time. This needs to be thick enough to coat the cauliflower yet thin enough to make it into all the little crevices in the florets.

Check on your bacon in the oven. If it’s already crispy, take the pan from the oven and use a slotted spoon to remove the bacon pieces, leaving the bacon fat behind in the pan.

Put your cauliflower in a large bowl and pour the sauce over it.

Stir well to coat the florets.

Put your sauced cauliflower florets in the baking pan, stem side up, and separated so that they can get roasted.  If you make a big pile, they’ll just steam.

Roast for 15-20 minutes in your preheated oven, then turn the cauliflower florets over to roast the other side. Drizzle with a little olive oil or more bacon fat if you have some handy.

Put the pan back in the oven for another 15-20 minutes or until the cauliflower is done to your liking.

To serve, scrape the roasted cauliflower, and all the good, roasted sticky bits from the pan, into a serving bowl. Sprinkle on the crispy bacon pieces and another generous handful of freshly grated Parmesan.

Enjoy!

Check out all the Sunday Supper cauliflower recipes! Many thanks to our host Caroline of Caroline's Cooking and our event manager Christie of A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures for all of their behind the scenes work.

Creative Cauliflower Starters and Sides

• Bang Bang Califlower Bites by Sunday Supper Movement
• Cauliflower Bacon Gratin by That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• German Cauliflower Salad by A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures
• Loaded Cauliflower Casserole by Fantastical Sharing of Recipes
• Loaded Smashed Cauliflower Bites by My Life Cookbook
• Spicy Roasted Bacon Tomato Cauliflower by Food Lust People Love
• Vegetarian Nachos by Simple and Savory

Make My Cauliflower a Main Dish

• Cheesy Cauliflower Soup by Hardly A Goddess
• Low-Carb Cauliflower Rice Pilaf with Ground Beef & Cabbage by Sue’s Nutrition Buzz
• Oven Baked Honey Soy Sesame Cauliflower by Sprinkles and Sprouts
• Roasted Cauliflower and Vegetable Soup by Palatable Pastime
• Roasted Cauliflower Steak with Salsa Verde by Caroline's Cooking
• Salmon with Creamy Cauliflower Farro by Cooking Chat
• Shrimp Stir Fry with Cauli Rice by Our Good Life
• Spicy Cauliflower Tacos by Pies and Plots

Pin it! 

.

Koshary or كشرى

A traditional Egyptian dish, koshary is served not only for special occasions but for weekday dinners as well. With lentils, macaroni and spicy tomato sauce, seasoned with fried onions and garlic, koshary is a delicious vegetarian dish that can feed a crowd.

I was going to introduce this Egyptian favorite recipe by telling you about my first impressions of Cairo but I realized that I can’t really start with my arrival there last week. I can’t even start with the first time I tasted koshary, made by my dear friend Tahany. I have to start with Tahany herself because I must admit that this gentle, generous, giving friend colored my view of Cairo before I even knew we were moving there.

She is quiet and unassuming with a willingness to help anyone and everyone. Her genuine smile also shines in her eyes and her little giggle reveals a wicked (in the best way!) sense of humor. After being friends with Tahany for several years, I fully expected to like the people of Cairo and, fortunately, my expectations were met, nay, exceeded.

Everyone I've encountered, from the guys in the corner grocery store who gave me the gift of a banana when they heard I was newly arrived to the helpful and generous hotel staff to the kind landlady and her husband who insisted we must come sailing with them some day and chose us to live in their house to the gentle lady we hired to clean that house to the wonderful driver (and my new friend) who ferries me around and knows everything there is to know about Cairo – each one has been friendly and kind and welcoming.

So, first impressions of Cairo: full of great people; a city under construction – I have never been anywhere with so many new houses and buildings going up, literally one after the other, side by side; lots of sand and desert, yet plenty of green in certain areas with trees and lawns and shrubbery; malls to rival the best almost anywhere; crazy drivers and traffic that make me feel right at home; cool and dry winter days; fresh fruit and vegetables that would win prizes at the state fair - the broccoli heads are bigger than mine and you can barely get your arms around the cabbages; and that is just for starters. I am looking forward to exploring more!

And, finally, to Tahany’s recipe for koshary, with the addition of a little extra oil on my part and some supplementary instructions.

Ingredients
1 cup uncooked white rice, rinsed
3 cups or 710ml water
1 (16 ounce or 500g) package uncooked elbow macaroni
2 cup or 350g lentils, soaked in water (for 10 minutes)
4 tablespoons or 60ml vegetable oil, altogether
6 onions
2 garlic cloves
3 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
4 ripe tomatoes, diced
1/2 cup or 118ml tomato paste (about 2/3 of the little 6 oz can)
3 teaspoons or 17g salt, altogether (and a little more for the macaroni pot)
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper, altogether
5 teaspoons ground cumin, altogether
1/4 teaspoon red pepper or cayenne

Method
Soak lentils for 20 minutes. Drain and rinse; drain again.

Mince one onion. Thinly slice your remaining five onions.

Heat one tablespoon vegetable oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir in minced onion; continue stirring until onion becomes gold. Add three cups water.

Stir in 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, 2 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin. Bring to a boil. Add lentils, and reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until the lentils are half cooked.

Pour the half-cooked lentils into the rice cooker. Add one cup washed rice and add enough water to cook. I usually figure that you need about 1/2 an inch or one centimeter of water more than the rice level. Leave to cook in the rice-cooker.

Fill a large pot with lightly salted water and bring to a rolling boil over high heat. Stir in the macaroni, and return to a boil. Cook the macaroni uncovered, stirring occasionally, until it has cooked through, but is still firm to the bite, about 8 minutes. Drain well in a colander. Return macaroni to cooking pot, cover and keep warm. (I also drizzled it with a little olive oil to keep it from sticking together but this is optional.)

Heat three tablespoons vegetable oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Cook the sliced onions in the oil, stirring often, until they begin to brown.

Meanwhile, mince your two garlic cloves and chop your tomatoes.

The frying onions should be a nice caramelized brown color and crispy by now. Tip your pan to one side and push the onions up the slope. Allow to drain and then remove the onions from the pan and drain them further on a paper towel-lined plate or bowl.

Heat this leftover oil, deliciously flavored with the fried onion, and add the minced garlic. Cook the garlic in the oil until it becomes gold and then add three tablespoons vinegar. Do not let the garlic burn!

Add the chopped tomatoes and tomato paste, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, 2 1/2 teaspoons salt, 2 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin, and 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer about 12-15 minutes, or until the ripe tomato pieces get mushy. I think I had my heat too high for simmer because I had to add some water to keep the sauce from drying out. Use your judgment here.

Serve by placing a spoonful of rice with lentils, and then macaroni, on serving plates. Sprinkle with some of the browned onions, then top with tomato sauce.

When Tahany brought the koshary to my going-away lunch, she had made it into a casserole. Much easier for bringing to share. Everyone loved it and many went back for second helpings. Including me. I made this for my daughters yesterday and they loved it too!

First lentils with rice.

Then macaroni and onions.

Finally the sauce.

Delicious!

If you are serving it as a casserole, make sure everyone dips down when serving to get a bit of each layer. You don't want to miss any part of this wonderful dish.

Enjoy!

Harira or حريرة

Harira or حريرة is a rich soup full of tender lamb, chickpeas, vegetables and noodles, the perfect iftar meal to break a Ramadan fast or a delicious meal anytime of the year.

The western world has the Food Network. Over here, we have the Asian Food Channel. And, as luck would have it, they opened a store and class kitchen in Singapore, just after I moved back to KL. 

The couple of times I've returned to Singapore, there was always an agenda and no shopping or class-taking time.  Imagine my delight when I was invited to go again, all expenses paid – yay, even an executive club room in the hotel, which means open bar and canapés at happy hour! – with my days off and no agenda. 

I immediately got online to sign up for a class.  I really didn’t care what they were teaching; I just wanted to be in the AFC kitchen. The class available on my Saturday there was called Exotic Favorites and we learned to make baklava, a lamb and tomato soup named harira, and the roasted eggplant dip baba ganoush, as part of a traditional mezze.

Now, a confession:  I lost my notes.  All I have left are a bunch of photographs, my memories and this pen.

Pretty cool, huh?

So I am recreating this harira rather slap-dashly and with the help of a few different online recipes.  

I don’t see how it can turn out badly, since all of the ingredients are fresh and tasty but it will not be the same as the one we made at AFC.  For one thing, since we didn’t have two hours for the soup to simmer, the chef had made stock from the lamb and started with that instead of putting it all in together to simmer, as below.  But, hey, all alone here, just me and the hound, I have all the time in the world for simmering.

Ingredients

Olive oil

400g or 14oz lamb

1/2 kilo or 1lb fresh tomatoes

2 medium onions

3 stalks celery – well-washed

1 big bunch cilantro or coriander leaves

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Good pinch of saffron

Sea salt

Black pepper

Cayenne

60g or about 3 oz tomato paste

1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

30g or about 3 oz fine pasta, broken into short lengths

1 lemon, cut into wedges for squeezing at will (at serving time)

Method

Cube your lamb and brown it in a little olive oil.  Season with black pepper, sea salt and cayenne.

Add two liters or a little more than two quarts of water to the pot.  Bring to the boil.

Meanwhile, chop the celery, tomatoes, onions and the stems of the cilantro and add them to the pot.    Chop up the cilantro leaves and save them for later.

Add in the cinnamon, ginger, saffron and tomato paste.  Simmer, covered, for two hours.  Or more. 

About 10 minutes before serving, add in the chickpeas, dried pasta and chopped cilantro leaves.  Check the seasonings and add more salt and cayenne as needed.  Cook till pasta is al dente.  

According to our AFC chef (I believe his name was Khalil) harira is a traditional iftar soup, originally from Morocco, which means it is commonly eaten during the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan as part of the sunset meal. He said sometimes lentils are added as well, for more substance.

In a side note, I love Google Translate.  When I looked up harira, it gave me that lovely word you see in the title. (Arabic is so beautiful. If only I could read it.) When I turned it around and asked what that word meant, the translation was “calorie.” Now I have one thing I can recognize on a nutrition label, should such a thing exist, when we move to Egypt.

For a vegetarian version, forget the lamb and start from where you add water to the pot.  Add vegetable stock (homemade or from a couple of cubes and water) and go from there.  You might want to add the lentils for extra protein. 

Here are a few photos of the AFC kitchen and store. It seems that since then, the Asian Food Channel was bought out by an American company so the test kitchen is no longer open, more's the pit. 

* I paid for my own class and received no compensation for writing this post.