“Here cauliflower is teamed with pesto-spiked white bean mash and crispy onions. The pesto will keep for about a week in the fridge. ”
Ingredients
- 3 banana shallots or 1 onion
- olive oil
- 1 large cauliflower
- 1 tesapoon ground dried chilli
- 2 x 400 g tins cannellini beans
- HERB PESTO
- 25 g unsalted nuts , (whatever kind you have)
- 3-4 sprigs of woody herbs, such as rosemary, thyme, flat-leaf parsley
- 1 lemon
Method
- To make the crispy onions, peel and thinly slice the shallots or onion into rings. Heat a good splash of oil in a pan and slowly fry the shallots for 15 minutes, until golden. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside on kitchen paper to crisp up.
- Trim away the cauliflower stalk, then boil the cauliflower whole in a pan of salted water over a medium heat for 3 minutes, then drain and leave to cool.
- Next rub in the chilli, sea salt and black pepper, and drizzle with a little oil. Leave to one side.
- For the pesto, toast the nuts in a dry pan over a low heat until golden, then either bash with a pestle and mortar or blitz in a food processor until combined.
- Pick and add the herbs with a pinch of salt and blitz or bash again until you have a thin paste. Season with lemon juice, oil, salt and pepper, and set aside.
- Heat the cannellini beans and a couple of tablespoons of their liquid in a pan over a low heat for 10 minutes, or until warmed through. Mash and stir through 1 to 2 tablespoons of the pesto.
- Preheat a griddle pan over a high heat.
- Quarter the cauliflower and char on the griddle for 6 to 8 minutes, or until golden and charred.
- Divide the mash between four plates and top with a wedge of cauliflower, a drizzle of the herb oil and the crispy shallots.
Source: Jamie Oliver