Roasted Cauliflower & Pistachio Salad

I'm really into cauliflower at the moment, in veggie curries & soups and like this roasted, dressed and served as a salad. It's a cheap and often overlooked vegetable, usually only eaten when covered in heavy, creamy sauces. Not that there is no place for cauliflower cheese but it's nice to have a bit of variety. It's a wet and windy end of March day as I write this so these photos which were taken on a much sunnier evening in my kitchen, are brightening my day and in particular those jewel like pomegranate seeds...

Ingredients:

• 1 small head cauliflower, broken into florets
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tsp cumin
• 1 pinch red chilli flakes
• Salt and black pepper
• 75g pistachio nuts
• 1/2 pomegranate, seeds
• Handful dill, chopped

Dressing

• 40ml olive oil
• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 2 tsp honey

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 190ºC/375ºF/Gas 5.

2. Toss the cauliflower florets in a bowl with the olive oil, cumin and red chilli flakes, salt and black pepper.

3. Tip the mix onto a baking sheet and place into the oven to roast for about 25-30 minutes or until golden with slightly crispy edges. Leave to cool slightly, then mix through the pistachio nuts and pomegranate seeds.

4. To prepare the dressing, whisk together the olive oil, apple cider vinegar, pomegranate molasses, lemon juice and honey. Pour over enough dressing to coat all of the cauliflower florets and serve.

Blueberry, Goats Cheese & Thyme Galette

This is a really delicious, oozy galette made with a spelt crust. It's equally good eaten as a tiny sliver alone for dessert or with a salad as great lunch. I have been really getting in to adding more savoury type herbs to sweet ingredients. It started out as a way to use more of the herbs that I'm growing but continued because there is really something to it, I like how the herbs bring there own sophisticated flavour to a syrup, jam or cake which could otherwise be a little too sweet. This recipe would work equally well with all of the blackberries filling the Irish hedgerows at the moment.

Ingredients:

Spelt pastry

• 250g spelt flour
• Pinch of sea-salt
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp honey
• 80ml cold water, you may not need the full amount.

Filling

• 75g goat's cheese, crumbled
• 200g blueberries
• 2 tbsp honey
• 3 sprigs of fresh thyme

Glaze

• 1 egg, beaten

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 190ºC/375ºC/Gas 5.

2. Add the spelt flour and sea-salt to a mixing bowl, stir together. Add the olive oil and honey and mix well. Slowly add the water bit by bit until the mix comes together to form a dough. Pat it into a round and place in the fridge to rest for an hour.

3. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured board to a large round. Then begin to crumble a base of goat's cheese in the centre of the round, leaving at least an inch for the pastry boarder. Layer the blueberries on top of the goat's cheese, then fold in the pastry sides to keep the filling in place. Scatter the thyme sprigs over the blueberries, then drizzle the honey over the top. Brush the pastry with the beaten egg.

4. Transfer to the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the pastry is golden and cooked through.