Calgary’s Cauliflower Couscous

Cauliflower ‘couscous’ or ‘rice’ is having its moment, and you may have come across a version or two of this recipe before, but this is my favourite combination of flavours and textures. I just had to include it in my book as it’s something I make a lot of at home because it is so quick and simple and is a brilliant plant-packed, gluten-free alternative to using the grain itself.

Serves 4 as a main, or 6–8 as a side

Ingredients
1 large cauliflower (about 750g after trimming)
3 tbsp extra virgin
olive oil
½ tsp ground turmeric
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground nutmeg
grated zest of 1 lemon
juice of ½ lemon
15 mint leaves, roughly chopped
60g pistachios, toasted and roughly chopped
4 spring onions, chopped
100g goats’ cheese, crumbled
1 x 400g can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
½ pomegranate, seeds removed (optional)
juice of 1 lime
salt and pepper

Method
Core and cut the cauliflower into medium florets. Blitz the florets in a food processor until they resemble couscous. Do it in two batches if the food processor is more than three-quarters full. Don’t over-blend, otherwise it will become puréed – that’s baby food, not couscous.

Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and fluff with a fork, then season with the salt, pepper, turmeric, cinnamon and nutmeg. Then add all the remaining ingredients except the lime juice and toss together. Add additional olive oil, salt and pepper if necessary. Pour the lime juice over the top.

Extracted from Keep It Real by Calgary Avansino, published by Yellow Kite, £25

Photography by Kristin Perers