Roasty, toasty, savoury freekeh is delicious with roasted cauliflower, tart apples and a zesty tahini and parsley dressing. This is a great new salad to add to your repertoire.
2teaspoonvegetable stock powder, or 1 litre liquid stock
1small cauliflower, cut into florets, or half a large one
2-3teaspoonground cumin
cup½ slivered almonds
2cupsbaby spinach
1red onion, thinly sliced
1red skinned apple, thinly sliced
Olives, optional
For the dressing:
3tablespoontahini
Juice of 1 lemon
1clovegarlic
Handful of parsley
¼teaspoonraw sugar, (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
For the salad:
Preheat your oven to 200°C fanbake.
To cook the freekeh, put the freekeh, oil, stock powder, a few pinches of salt and 4 cups of boiling water into a saucepan. Cover and boil for 30 minutes. If all of the liquid is absorbed after this time, turn off the heat and leave to sit, covered, for 10 minutes.
If all of the liquid is not absorbed in this time, drain the freekeh, return to the pan, cover and leave to steam over the lowest heat for 5 minutes.
Tip the freekeh into your salad bowl and allow to cool a bit. I served my salad warm, or you could make the whole thing ahead of time and pop it in the fridge until ready to serve.
While the freekeh is cooking, get your cauliflower roasting. Put your cauliflower on a roasting tray, spray with olive oil (or toss with 1-2 tablespoon liquid olive oil), liberally sprinkle with ground cumin, and season with salt and pepper. Roast for about 20 minutes, stirring once or twice, or until softened and golden around the edges. Remove from the oven and allow to cool a bit.
Heat a frypan over a medium heat and add your slivered almonds. Toss and keep them moving for about 5 minutes or until lightly golden. Set aside to cool.
Add all ingredients to your salad bowl and toss to combine. I reserved a few sliced onions, apples and almonds to garnish the top of the salad.
Serves 4 or more, depending on whether you serve this as a meal or a side dish.
For the dressing:
Put tahini, lemon juice, garlic and parsley into a blender or food processor. I used my stick blender in a small bowl. Blend until smooth, then add water gradually to thin the dressing to your desired consistency. I used about ¼ cup.
Taste and add sugar, salt and pepper to adjust seasoning. My lemons are only just ripe, so my dressing was very tart and improved a lot by a touch of sugar to round out the flavours.