A delicious salad of hazelnuts, roasted cauliflower, cabbage and chanterelles
By Pascale Smets
This is the holy trinity of recipes: delicious, seasonal and probably virtuous (it is a salad after all). It can be eaten as a meal in itself or served alongside some pork chops or a roast chicken if you’re that way inclined. It can be served as soon as it’s ready (so basically hot) or later at room temperature as there is nothing here that’s going mind waiting a few hours. The method looks alarmingly long but in fact it’s dead simple. You’re basically just frying or roasting a bunch of vegetables and letting their individual flavours speak for themselves, enhanced by a bit of seasoning and a squeeze of lemon.
Ingredients
(For 4)
1 large or 2 small cauliflowers
12 savoy cabbage leaves (use the dark, outer ones)
Or 300-400g of Cavolo Nero (a type of black Italian kale)
250g mushrooms (chanterelles if possible but chestnut or shiitake would also be fine)
50g of blanched hazelnuts
Olive oil
Juice of half a lemon
5 big cloves of garlic, skin on, cut in half
1/4 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
Method
Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and preheat your oven to 210°c. This is one of those rare instances where I don’t use a fan setting as I want a slightly charred effect you get from a conventional fan setting.
Break your cauliflower into decent-sized florets and blanch for 3-4 minutes, drain and run under the cold tap to cool them down and stop them cooking.
Leave in the colander for a few minutes to dry out before transferring them to a shallow roasting tray and either brush or drizzle the cauliflower with 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil so it is well coated. Dot the halved garlic cloves in among the cauliflower and roast everything for 20 odd minutes or until charred spots start to appear and the cauliflower is cooked but still has a definite ‘bite’.
Timings will depend on the size of your original cauliflower and/or florets but you’re aiming for a bit charred and a bit crunchy but definitely not raw.
While your cauliflower is roasting, wash and dry your cabbage or kale leaves and remove the tough central spine (I do this with scissors), then snip your cabbage into finger-width ribbons – the longest you can manage (so cut parallel to the spine).
Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large frying pan or wok. When the oil is properly hot toss in your kale or cabbage ribbons plus a couple of generous pinches of salt. It will spit, so watch out and wear oven gloves.
Fry very quickly on a high heat, the cabbage ribbons should end up glossily coated in oil and slightly floppy with charred spots. When they are ready transfer to your serving dish using tongs so you leave behind any excess oil.
I often do large quantities of kale like this and no one can believe there is nothing more to it than a bit of oil and salt and a high heat – it’s truly delicious done this way.
Turn off the hob but while there is still some heat in the pan tip the hazelnuts in an roll them around in any remaining oil and give them a few minutes to get a bit of colour.
In another smaller pan (just big enough to hold your chanterelles in a single layer) heat 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil and add your seasoned mushrooms, fry quickly on a high heat draining off the juice they give off but making sure to keep it.
The idea is to dry your mushrooms out and intensify their flavour by frying, not braising them. You may have to pour the juice off more than once, don’t let it simply boil away, you need it for your dressing.
When everything is ready assemble your salad.
Pile the cauliflower (having removed the garlic) on top of the wilted blistered cabbage and scatter over the fried chanterelles.
Whisk the lemon juice into the saved mushroom ‘liquid’ and check the seasoning.
Don’t be surprised if you only have a few tablespoons of dressing, it’s enough as everything already has plenty of flavour.
Drizzle this over the cauliflower and chanterelles and then scatter over the hazelnuts and parsley and serve immediately or much later.
Pascale’s Instagram address is @pascalehomewares