Some of my non-Indian friends complain that my recipes are too complicated and/or call for too many ingredients that they don’t have in their kitchens and/or take too long to pull together. This is weakness and I don’t usually like to reward weakness but here, anyway, is a very simple recipe for cauliflower roasted with spices. There’s minimal prep work and once the oven is at temperature it takes only 20 fuss-free minutes to be ready to eat. Never say I never did anything for you, you ungrateful bastards.

This is, again, a hybrid recipe that deploys Indian spices and an American approach to vegetables. The resulting flavour is very North Indian though.

Ingredients

• Cauliflower, 2lbs.
• Ghee or olive oil, 1 tblspn
• The following ground together into a coarse powder: 1/4-1 tspn hot chilli powder, a 1 inch piece of cinnamon, 1 tspn cumin seeds, 1/2 tspn turmeric powder
• Salt
• Half a lime

Preparation

1. Set the oven to 400ºF.
2. While the oven is heating up make the spice powder and break the cauliflower into small florets.
3. Place the florets in a large baking dish that can hold almost all of them in one layer, add the ghee/oil and toss to coat and then add the spice powder and salt and toss to coat.
4. Once the oven is ready bung the baking dish in, uncovered, for 20-30 minutes.
5. At the end of the cooking time remove the cauliflower to a serving dish, squeeze the lime over, toss and serve.

Notes

1. One teaspoon of hot chilli powder will yield a pretty hot result. Feel free to dial it down significantly. I’d say that if you’re eating this alongside dal and rice and other blander dishes then make it hotter; but if there are other spicy dishes on the table, dial it down.
2. At whatever heat setting you choose this would also go well with a simple roasted chicken. If you’re roasting your chicken at 400ºF too then just pop this into the oven with 20 minutes to go.
3. You could garnish the finished dish with a bit of chopped dhania/cilantro at the end too, I suppose.
4. After 20 minutes the cauliflower is still nice and crunchy. You can go a little longer if you like, but don’t go too far past 30 minutes else you’ll risk scorching the spices.
5. An alternative simple spice mix: salt, turmeric, mild chilli powder, garam masala and amchur (mango powder).
6. It’s even better if roasted in a cast iron pan.