SPICED CAULIFLOWER AND COURGETTERS WITH YELLOW RICE, PISTACHIOS AND CORIANDER

You've got crunch, spice and tang - what more could you need?Ingredients
2 heads of cauliflower florets 
2 courgettes, chopped
2 tsp Nigella Seeds
2 tsp turmeric
2 onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tsp yellow mustard seeds
2 cups basmati rice
2 vegetable stock pot
10 tbsp coriander, chopped
4 vine tomatoes, chopped
3 spring onions, sliced
1 Lime
6 tbsp pistachios
2 tbsp raisins 

1. Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees. Remove the outer leaves from the cauliflowers. Separate the cauliflowers into florets. Chop the top and bottom off the courgettes, cut in half lengthways and then cut lengthways again so you have eight strips. Chop each strip into three pieces.

2. Put the cauliflower and courgette into a roasting tray and sprinkle on 1 tsp of nigella seeds and half of the turmeric. Season with a 1/2 tsp of salt and drizzle over 2 tbsp of oil. Mix well to make sure the veggies are nicely coated with the spices and oil. Pop in the oven and roast for 25 mins.

3. While the veggies cook, cut the onion in half through the root, peel and then chop into small cubes. Peel and chop the garlic.

4. Heat a saucepan over medium heat and add 2 tbsp of oil. Add the onion and cook for 3 minutes, add the chopped garlic, the remaining turmeric and the mustard seeds and cook for another minute. Pour in the rice, give it a stir to make sure it is nicely coated with the turmeric, then pour in 700ml of water. Add the vegetable stock pot and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and pop on the lid. Cook for 10 mins and then remove from the heat. Leave the lid on for another 10 mins for perfectly cooked basmati rice!

5. Now chop the rest of the ingredients to make a salsa. Roughly chop the coriander. Chop the tomatoes into 1cm pieces and place in a bowl. Remove the root from the spring onions and slice as thin as you can. Add the sliced spring onions to the tomatoes and mix with a pinch of salt and the chopped coriander. Grate in the zest of the lime and squeeze in its juice. Chop the pistachios.

6. When the rice is cooked, carefully mix in the raisins and half of the pistachios. Serve the veggies on top of a generous amount of rice and then finish the dish with your salsa and a sprinkling of pistachios.

Saturday, May 14, 2016