Spiced cauliflower salad: Lawrence Murphy

On our day off we invited a few friends around for a barbecue.

We set about marinading some chicken and putting prawns on skewers ready for the hot coals.

Beer and wine were chilling in the fridge and all we needed were a few salads to complete our preparations. Vine tomatoes, chopped shallots and extra virgin olive oil is fab at this time of year and we also made one of our favourite vegetable salads – spiced cauliflower.

Ingredients – serves 6

1 medium cauliflower cut into small florets

1 onion finely chopped

3 cloves garlic finely chopped

Tspn cumin

Tspn coriander seeds

12 cardamom pods crushed

12 cloves

Tspn fennel seeds

Good pinch of saffron

Sea salt

Pepper

100ml olive oil

Method

1. Heat a large pan on a low heat and add the olive oil followed by the cumin and fennel seed. Cook for one minute, stirring.

2. Now add the onion and garlic and cook for 3 mins.

3. Stir in all the other ingredients and cook for 7 mins until the florets are softening but still have bite.

4. Pour the mixture onto a tray to cool and season.

5. Store in the fridge overnight to allow flavours to develop.