This week I had cauliflower and carrots so I came up with this. I’ve done a lot of Yotam Ottolenghi recipes and one of the the spice combinations that he uses is smoked paprika with Aleppo pepper together. It’s so simple but taste so good. I added saffron to the mix and a few other things. I used these vegetables as side dishes for dinner. Portion size is difficult to judge because I don’t know if you want a small side or a full plate for a meal. For me this made 7 side dishes.

Ingredients for around 7 servings

1 small cauliflower – break down to florets

2 lb carrots – peel if not organic, slice 1/2 – 3/4 inch thick

1 small red onion – peel, cut in half, slice

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 Tablespoons water (the water helps to bloom the saffron)

pinch saffron – crumble

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

1/2 teaspoon Aleppo pepper

1/2+ 1/2 teaspoon sea salt (1/2 the salt is to season the vegetables and the other 1/2 is for cooking the carrots. (or to taste…you might want more or less ((I used my homemade lightly smoked pecan sea salt)

fresh ground black pepper to taste

1 lemon – just the zest

3 oz dates – remove pits and slice

2 Tablespoons parsley leaves – chopped

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Precook slightly the carrots. You can do this stove top or in the microwave oven. Timing is difficult to tell you exactly because all carrots are different sizes. Mine were very large carrots and I put them in a microwavable bowl with around a cup of water and 1/2 teaspoon sea salt for 7 minutes. I usually have normal supermarket size carrots that would be more like 3 minutes on the stove top or 4 minutes in the microwave.

In a large bowl add the cauliflower, carrots, and onions.

Either stove top in a pan or in a microwaveable bowl add the oil, water, saffron. paprika, Aleppo pepper and bring to boil. This mixture gets poured over the big bowl of vegetables. Mix it up. Spread out in a single layer on sheet pans. Sprinkle lightly to taste with fresh ground black pepper and sea salt.

Use the middle rack and put the overflow on the lower rack. This will need around 25 – 35 minutes. Check at 25 minutes. You want the cauliflower slightly charred. Switch the lower rack vegetables with the middle rack vegetables and check every 5 minutes till done.

When vegetables are finished add the lemon zest, chopped parsley, and dates.

ENJOY!!!!