Spicy Peanut Butter Baked Cauliflower

Another week of lockdown is underway and I've been avoiding supermarket shopping by relying on fruit and vegetable box deliveries to top up what we've got left in the cupboard. As I don't get to choose what comes in our weekly fruit and veg delivery I'm being a lot more adventurous in the kitchen and enjoying trying new things and adapting recipes based on ingredients I already have in the cupboard, fridge and freezer. 

This week we got a cauliflower as part of our delivery and it's probably one of my least favourite vegetables and one I rarely buy. I sought out various ideas on how best to cook this cauliflower and decided spicy was the way to go! I came across plenty of recipes that looked delicious but I didn't have all the ingredients so based on what I had available to me this is what I made.

Ingredients

For the Spicy Peanut Butter Coating:

130g smooth peanut butter

2 tbsp light soy sauce

1 tbsp honey 

1 tsp vinegar or Chinese rice wine

1 or 2 tsp hot sauce or sriracha, to taste (I used 2 as we like spicy food)

2 TSP ground ginger, could of course use fresh ginger grated or puréed ginger but we only had ground ginger in

3 cloves of garlic

100ml water

1 tsp vegetable oil (or sesame oil)

Generous pinch of salt and black pepper

1 Cauliflower chopped into sliced florets

1 Carrot cut into thin strips or ribbons

½ Red Pepper cut into thin strips

Spring onions to garnish (approx 2)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Blend all the ingredients for the peanut butter coating. Taste and add more seasoning as required.

In a large casserole dish or baking tray lined with greaseproof paper, lay out the chopped florets and cover with the peanut sauce.

Bake for 20 minutes, then add the red pepper and carrot mixing the ingredients gently, at this point I also added another tablespoon of water to help mix and coat all the veggies. Then back in the oven to bake for another 10 to 15 minutes or until cauliflower is tender.

Serve on its own, as a side dish or with rice, noodles, salad and grains or in a wrap.

It went down really well and is definitely something I would make again. Next time I make it, I may make some extra of the peanut butter coating so I can water it down ever so slightly to use as a sauce. Would also work with chicken, pork or vegetable kebabs.