Roasted Crunchy Cauliflower

In my opinion, cauliflower has been hiding in the dark for way too long and fortunately, that no longer seems to be the case. This underrated vegetable is now "the thing" to cook and eat, especially lately with the flurry of recipes that illustrates just how versatile it is: cauliflower "rice", cauliflower "pizza", cauliflower "mash", cauliflower "this" and cauliflower "that"- yes we get it, it's cool to eat cauliflower again (By the way- someone is going to have to explain how this whole vegetable trend thing works- first kale, now cauliflower, what next?). 

Anyhow, I've always loved cauliflower. Especially when it's roasted and super crunchy. 

Roast em' plain or add your favourite spice, herb or what not- these white curly florets become a blank canvas to endless flavour combinations. Here is one I cooked up lately:

Tons of fresh chopped cilantro, garlic, chickpeas and diced tomatoes. Colourful and fragrant, mmmm.

Roasting is one of my favourite ways to enjoy veggies for max flavour & crunch in a short time frame. 

Roasted Cauliflower with Cilantro, Chickpeas and Tomatoes

1 cauliflower head (cut into florets)

A BUNCH of fresh cilantro- chopped

1 cup chickpeas, cooked

2 tomatoes, diced

1 tablespoon pureed garlic (or 2-3 garlic cloves, finely chopped)

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Salt

Preheat oven to 400F/200C. 

In a bowl, gently mix the cauliflower, cilantro, chickpeas, garlic, olive oil and salt. 

Line a baking tray with parchment paper and lay out all these ingredients on there. Bake for 15 mins. Then pull out of the oven and sprinkle on the tomatoes and return for an additional 5 mins (the tomatoes' water content means they need less cooking time). Top off with an extra 2-5 mins on broil/roast mode to give it all a nice colour (but stay near the oven window during that time and check-in every now and then as things can burn up rather quickly!). 

Remove, serve on plates, grab a fork and enjoy!