We both really enjoyed this dish as a light Sunday lunch with a slice of bread. Well, for Heikki this was more of a breakfast really… The flavors are bright and clean, and a nice texture is provided by edamame and cauliflower. For a heartier salad, I would add a handful or two of toasted cashews, or maybe a sprinkling of sunflower seeds.

The Marinated Cauliflower:

• 200 g cauliflower, in small florets
• juice of 1/2 lime
• grated zest of 1 lime
• pinch of salt, sugar, and cayenne pepper

I mixed all the ingredients together and let them marinate in the fridge for a few hours.

For the Salad:

• 1 and 1/2 dl quinoa, plus 2 and 1/2 dl water for cooking
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 4 dl edamame (frozen’s what we have)
• 1/2 onion, thinly sliced

This is how I usually cook the quinoa for nice and fluffy results: rinse the quinoa well, place the quinoa and the water in a small cooking pot, and cook on high heat until the water starts boiling. Then I reduce the heat to low and cook, tightly covered, until all the water has been absorbed and the quinoa has steamed a bit, for about 20 minutes. This time I added two garlic cloves in the cooking water as well, and after the quinoa was done, removed them from the pot and saved for later use in the dressing.

The edamame we get is frozen, and I just cooked it in plenty of water for about 3 minutes, then rinsed with cold water to cool down.

After the quinoa and the edamame had cooled to room temperature I tossed them together with the onions in a salad bowl.

The Dressing:

• 1/2 dl olive oil
• juice of 1/2 a lime and 1/2 an orange
• the two cooked garlic cloves from the quinoa
• 1/2 dl chopped cilantro
• 1/3 teaspoon cumin (jeera)
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar, or more to taste
• 3/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• plenty of freshly ground black pepper

I mixed everything except salt and pepper together in our mini food processor until smooth and light green. Then I seasoned the dressing with salt and pepper, tossed the salad and the cauliflower florets with the dressing, and garnished with a few yellow cherry tomatoes.

This makes quite a large batch for two, so we had leftovers – they tasted mighty delicious after half a day of refrigeration as well.

Since the sunflower that had decorated our living room for a few weeks had just started to wilt, I used a few of its petals to garnish our soup. They were actually quite tasty as well! I’m also thinking that coconut milk instead of the cashew nuts would probably be a nice tweak.

Here’s what I threw in the pot (enough for 3-4 as a main):

• 3 large beets
• 1 medium cauliflower
• 2 red onions, roughly chopped
• 1 red chili
• 3 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 7 and 1/2 dl water
• 1 dl cashew nuts
• juice of 1 lime
• zest of 1/2 lime
• (pinch of cayenne)

I heated up the oil in the cooking pot and fried the onions until they’d browned. Meanwhile, I prepped the veggies: peeled and thinly sliced the beets, chopped the cauliflower, and de-seeded and sliced the chili.

When the onions were soft and browned, I added the chili to the pot, fried it for a bit, and added the beets, the cauliflower and the garlic. I fried the vegetables for a few more minutes and then added the water, the cashews, and the salt in the pot. Now, I cooked the soup until the beets were tender, for 20 minutes approximately.

I puréed the soup with our immersion blender until it was completely smooth, and stirred in the lime juice and the zest, a little cayenne pepper for extra heat, and checked the salt.

I think that chopped cilantro leaves would be a nice compliment to this curry as well, we just didn’t have any on hand at the time of making.

Here’s what I used (serves 4):

• 1 medium head cauliflower, cut into smaller florets
• 2 onions, finely cubed
• 6 small potatoes, cubed
• 3 dl cooked chick peas
• 1 dl green peas
• 4 dl coconut milk (one can)
• 1 tomato, finely cubed
• 1-2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt (or to taste)
• 1 teaspoon (muscovado) sugar
• a 3 cm long piece of a ginger root
• 6 cloves garlic
• 3 tablespoons peanut oil

The Spices:

• 2 teaspoons mustard seeds
• 2 teaspoons fennel seeds
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• a pinch of asafoetida powder
• 2 teaspoons dried red chili, crushed
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons turmeric
• 2 teaspoons coriander powder
• 1 teaspoon Garam Masala powder
• (1/2-1 teaspoon hot chili powder)

First I chopped up all the veggies and pulsed the garlic and the ginger in our mini food processor into a coarse paste. My ingredients made about 3 tablespoons of ginger-garlic paste.

Then I fried the cumin, mustard, and fennel seeds in the peanut oil on high heat until they started to pop, and added a pinch of asafoetida, lowering the heat to medium. Right after asafoetida I stirred in the ginger-garlic paste, the crushed chili, the coriander, and the turmeric powder, and fried for a few seconds more. Now, I added the onions to the pan, and fried them until they were a little soft, for a few minutes.

I poured the potatoes and the cauliflower florets in the frying pan, and stirred to coat with the spice mixture. Then I added the green peas and the chick peas in the pan, stirred again, poured in the coconut milk, and added the salt and the sugar. Now I let the curry simmer for about 15-20 minutes until the potatoes had softened.

Before serving, I stirred in the lemon juice, chili powder, and Garam Masala, and then served the curry over basmati rice, sprinkled with the cubed tomato.

This batch made enough soup for three lunches – two for me and one for Heikki.

The Soup:

• 1 small head of cauliflower, cut in florets
• 300 g (one medium) sweet potato, peeled and chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 5 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 teaspoons garam masala
• 1 and 1/2 dl coconut milk
• 4 dl vegetable stock
• salt to taste
• about 1 tablespoon of lemon juice

I fried the onion and garlic in the oil until soft, then added the sweet potato and cauliflower, and fried for a few more minutes. After frying the veggies, I added the coconut milk, vegetable stock, and garam masala, and let the soup simmer until the vegetables were soft, for about 20 minutes. While it was boiling, I prepared the cashews.

Then I puréed the soup with out immersion blender, added a little bit of salt (might not be necessary if the stock is very salty), and stirred in the lemon juice. Before serving, I sprinkled my bowl with cashews.

Cashew Nuts:

• 1 dl cashews
• 1 tablespoon agave syrup
• 1 tablespoon water
• pinch of cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon chili flakes
• pinch of salt

First I toasted the cashews lightly on a dry frying pan, and meanwhile mixed the rest of the ingredients together. When the nuts had browned a bit, I lowered the heat to medium, poured the syrup mixture in the pan, and stirred until the cashews were shiny and covered with the syrup, and the water had evaporated. Now, I poured the nuts on a plate covered with aluminium foil and let them cool down until the soup was ready to serve.

My cashews came out really sticky, which basically means that I didn’t caramelize them enough. That’s not a problem when sprinkled in a soup, but the leftover cashews were a nuisance to eat…