Chargrilled cauliflower with fried butter beans & pumpkin hummus

September 25, 2021

   

The long weekend rolled around and I had basically nothing planned. To occupy myself on Saturday I decided to cook the day away, picking out two dishes from Hetty McKinnon's Community to set us up for a week of veggie-heavy eating. These two dishes took up a good chunk of the afternoon - there's chopping and cooking and blending and boiling and it was a lovely meditative way to spend the day. I won't reproduce the recipe for the peas and mint with quinoa, feta and almonds here, but it's a lovely fresh spring dish - bursting with crispy greens and crunchy almonds, with the salty feta adding a bit of richness.

I paired it with char-grilled cauliflower with fried beans and pumpkin hummus. Pumpkin hummus is a pretty fancy name for what is basically some mashed pumpkin with tahini and yoghurt in it, but I'm more than willing to forgive the misnomer in light of how wonderful the dish is. The pumpkin mash combines its natural sweetness with tahini tang and some warmth from the cumin, while the charred cauliflower and fried beans are rich and a touch smoky. A bit of crunch from the pumpkin seeds on top and you can't go wrong. It makes a whole ton of food as well - this has been feeding us all week. It's a weekend project, but it's worth it.

Chargrilled cauliflower with fried butter beans and pumpkin hummus

(from Community by Hetty McKinnon)

~2kg of cauliflower, cut into florets

4 tablespoons olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

2 cans butter beans, drained and rinsed

1 cup parsley leaves, roughly chopped

1 cup coriander leaves, roughly chopped

1/2 cup lightly toasted pumpkin seeds

salt and pepper

pumpkin hummus

750g butternut pumpkin, peeled and diced into 2cm cubes

2 tablespoons tahini

1 garlic clove, minced

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon ground cumin

juice of half a lemon

2 tablespoons yoghurt

salt and pepper

Start by making the pumpkin hummus. Pop the pumpkin cubes in a large saucepan with a few tablespoons of water and a teaspoon of salt. Cook over medium heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding more water if the pot dries out. Once the pumpkin is basically falling apart, take it off the heat and leave to cool.

Mash up the pumpkin and stir through the tahini, garlic, salt, olive oil, cumin and lemon juice - it should easily mash up into a thick paste. Stir through the yoghurt and add salt, pepper and more lemon juice to taste. Set aside the hummus and get to work on the rest!

Mix the cauliflower florets with half of the olive oil and salt. The recipe has the cauliflower barbecued, but in our little kitchen we just popped it in a very hot cast iron pan in batches. Cook over very high heat, about three minutes on each side until it's nicely charred - we did it in three batches.

Heat the rest of the oil in your pan over medium heat - throw in the garlic, cumin, coriander and a shake of salt, cooking for 20 seconds before adding the beans. Stir to coat and cook over high heat for 5 minutes or so, trying to get a bit of crisp on.

Stir the beans in with the cauliflower and add the fresh parsley and coriander. Lay out a few spoonfuls of the pumpkin hummus and top with the cauliflower mix and a sprinkling of pumpkin seeds to serve.