I’ve had this recipe ready to share for the past week, but I was so happy with it, I kept it to myself all week, almost to protect it in case none of you liked it!!! I do hope you like the look of it and maybe give it a go, the flavours and textures are so good, this is definitely food straight from my heart, food that feeds my soul, and makes me smile :))
I regularly make ‘shish taouk‘, Lebanese marinated chicken kebabs, for my menfolk and friends and family; I love the smell of the marinade, even more so as it cooks, and everyone I’ve ever made it for has loved it, but I’ve never had the chance to enjoy it too.
I’ve tried out marinating aubergines and mushrooms with the same mix but without major success, so having realised what great carriers of flavours the cauliflower and chickpeas have been recently, it struck me that I should try them out with the shish taouk marinade…and, oh yes, it works! It works REALLY well!!!!
This makes a wonderful main dish for us vegetarians, or could be used as a side dish; I ate it hot on the day it was cooked and cold the next, and then even more magic occurred when utilised the leftover chickpeas…read on for the details…
Here goes..
For the marinade:
1 head of garlic, cloves peeled and left whole
3/4 cup olive oil
Juice of 3-5 lemons
1 heaped tablespoon paprika
1/2 tube/100g of tomato purée
2 heaped tablespoons sumac
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 heaped tablespoon mayo or plain yoghurt
To be marinated:
1 whole cauliflower, peeled and broken into florets of medium to large size
2 cans chickpeas, drained and washed
Mix all of the marinade ingredients together, then add the chickpeas and cauliflower and mix as much as possible to spread the marinade all over the cauliflower, maybe cover the pot and give it all a good shake.
Put it in the fridge for 24 hours with a lid on and keep shaking it and stirring it up to spread the flavours around.
Heat the oven to 190C, cover the pot with foil and bake for 30-40 minutes. When the cauliflower starts to soften, remove the foil and roast until the cauliflower slightly chargrills and the garlic is roasted and the chickpeas are browning. I reckon to do it justice you need to allow another 20-25 minutes once the foil comes off to allow for things to get properly roasted and lovely and crunchy.
You’ll know when it’s done when the cauliflower looks a bit chargrilled and the chickpeas have a crunch and the remaining marinade is bubbling away.
And with the remaining chickpeas…you guessed it, I turned some of them into yet another homous recipe, mixing them with tahini sauce.
And with the final remainder of the chickpeas, I laid them out in a single layer on an oven tray and put them back into the oven until they roasted some more and turned them into snack chickpeas.
Wow, wow, wow – that looks amazing, Elaine!! What a great idea to marinate them in the spices. I have a head of cauli that I was going to roast but now I want to make this instead – it will have to wait until I’m back home though. Can’t wait to try it!
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Thank you so much, I’m so glad you like the look of it xxx
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My oh my! This is one very tempting dish. I am drooling here. I can see that this dish is packed with flavor. A very innovative dish. 🙂
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Thank you so much :)))
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there I was about to make this, I have a cauliflower sitting in the fridge, I thought I hope this isnt one of the – marinate over night recipes – but of course it is. I thought no matter, I’ll do it anyway, but I havent got a whole head of garlic, boo hoo. And I was so interested in trying this out. Some other time…..
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You can always just amend it and use what you’ve got and see how it goes?
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yes I know you are right! I have some hing powder which would no doubt work nicely as it would in ayurvedic cuisine, now that you mention it. Cauliflower is so bland by itself that I figured the garlic would be necessary, but Ill give it a think!
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Okay, let me know how it goes 🙂
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Have you got any garlic at all?
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yes a sad clove or two, I will investigate!
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Okay..
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Wow, look at that coating on the cauliflower! Bold flavors are the best!
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Thank you 🙂
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Could I halve everything, d’you think Elaine? This looks so marvellous; but with just me …
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Absolutely! halve away 🙂
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Am going to report back on this … You may regret it.
[grin]
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Good luck x
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Couldn’t find any sumac. Bummer.
Suggestion re alternative, perchance, Elaine? – I mean, once you’ve woken up and had your breakfast? [grin]
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Morning!!! Just up and on my second green tea 🙂 I googled it as someone else asked me that too…sumac is a dried berry and has a citrus flavour, so although there’s lemon juice in there too, the suggestion is to add some lemon zest…I’ll look again and see if I see any other ideas x
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This is the best ever! I love Mediterranean flavors! I am so going to try this. Saving this :). One question, can i use ZAATAR instead of sumac alone ? Drooling !
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Thank you 🙂 I was saving this for your guest blog but I couldn’t wait!!!
I’m not sure about that one, za’atar is quite strong and would bring other flavours into the dish that I haven’t tried, I think it would change the flavour quite dramatically…
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Hmmm.. The other day I was at the store and saw Simran and zaatar. Picked ZAATAR since it already had sumac in it! Will try.
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Okay, let me know how it goes x
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It certainly roasts up beautifully. I’ve never tried sumac. I had to look it up to see exactly what its flavoring was. I love cauliflower. but I usually eat it raw. I’ll have to try this once I return to real food. I’m getting a whole bank of future recipes from you! Thank you! 🙂
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My pleasure 🙂 sumac is a dried berry and has quite a citrus flavour, lovely sprinkled over roasting vegetables too x
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That looks amazing – my favourite recipe of yours to date! 🙂
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Cool! Thank you xx
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Yay!! thank you xx
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This looks really good. I’ve never heard of sumac. what is a good substiute in this dish?
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Sumac is a dried berry and has a citrus flavour, I’m not sure what a good substitute would be. One suggestion online is grated lemon zest, even though there is lemon juice in the recipe.
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Elaine, I bought sumac from amazon and this was the first thing I tried with it! I followed it exactly throughout, except that I used a glass dish to bake and roast, so it took much longer than I expected. I’m skeptical about using aluminum for highly acidic foods because of its toxicity, and I did not have a big non-stick pan. Anyway, towards the end, I lost patience and just roasted it on stove top, with some additions like turmeric and cumin. It was awesome, we loved it with chapati. The kids loved it too! Great recipe 🙂
In my opinion, a substitute for sumac in Indian cuisine would be dry mango powder.
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Hi, thank you for the feedback and for trying the dish. I’ll have to try it out your way now 🙂 does mango powder have a citrus flavour too then?
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It adds sourness to a dish, and the powder tastes much like sumac 🙂
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Okay, interesting 🙂
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What a very tempting appetizing special recipe! Yum yum yummm! x
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Thank you xx
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😃😃
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This is good Elaine. I love cauliflower and I am going to use this recipe for next time. 😛
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Great, thank you :))) x
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That last pic is so inviting! Look at the coating on the chickpeas! Yum x
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🙂 xx
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I love this recipe and cauliflower in general. I have a similar recipe, sometimes I break an egg over as a Tchaktchouka, very tasty 🙂
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Ooh, that sounds good! What is tchaktchouka??
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Reblogged this on Ace Food & Health News and commented:
#AFN2014
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Wow this is so vibrant!
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Thank you 🙂 and so tasty!!!
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That looks really amazing!
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Thank you, it tastes good too :))
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I’m making this tonight with a spatchcock chicken and only 3 hrs marinating as I left it too late. Will let you know how it turns out : ) x
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Lovely!!!! Hope you like it xx
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It was delicious!!! Wanted to take a photo and post on your FB page but I forgot in the anticipation of eating!! Really gorgeous Elaine xx
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Lovely!! I’m so pleased xx
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I will make this. THIS weekend. It looks amazing! I love chickpeas and am always looking for compelling and delicious ways of feeding it to my kids!
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Cool! I hope you enjoy it 🙂
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Hang on, I changed my mind. I’m going to be making this one instead!!
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Okay 🙂 still check the comment I just made on the other one x
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It went down very well, will become a regular on our table 🙂 So glad I finally got round to trying it! Thanks Elaine 🙂
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Oh cool, oh I’m so glad!!! I held my breath when I saw your comment come up!! Fab news 🙂
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It was so, so tasty and made a great meal with some left over salad. Mine ended up being slightly different than yours – firstly because I thought I had sumac in the spice drawer but couldn’t find it, and secondly I was going to make your recipe but with only one can of chickpeas. So I made up the same amount of marinade, then started peeling the leaves of my cauliflower. By the time I’d revealed the inside, I realised it was a very small cauli, probably half the size of a regular one. But I threw all the marinade in anyway. I guess it ended up a little saucier than yours, but it was so, so delicious!
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Lovely! I bet all that sauce was fab??!
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It really was, it ended up sort of disappearing (I think the chickpeas ate a lot of it) but it was so tasty, want to eat it again soon! Might try with added chorizo or chicken legs some time 🙂
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Cool!!! I always end up liking the plate 😉
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Do you mind if I reblog this recipe and say that you made it and liked it?
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Of course, go ahead! 🙂
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Done xx
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This is flavor craziness!! I am definitely trying this… and I’m sharing this with my daughter who is crazy about chick peas! Fabulous, just FABULOUS recipe!! 🙂
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Yay!!! Thank yoooouuuuuu xx I hope you guys enjoy it xx
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Hello gorgeous!!! Thank you xx
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Have written this down for my vego daughter and shall be cooking it here for sure!
Wonderful flavoursome fare!! 😀
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Cool!! I made it again this weekend, it’s sooooo good!! And I’ll be posting what I did with the leftovers (I forced myself NOT to scoff it all!!) very soon…
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This looks delicious! I am going to have to try this recipe out. Thank you for sharing! 🙂
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Thank you for finding my blog and liking it :))
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I’m not a vegetarian, but I lve my veggies. This is a lovely recipe.
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Thank you 🙂 it’s packed full of flavour x
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