Mole-roasted cauliflower

Katy is the flavour queen in our house. Her passion for food and travel has taken her on a food tour of Mexico, where she fully emerged herself in the regional food of Puebla, Wahaca and Mazunte, and learnt to master the 40-ingredient mole! But fear not, this version only has 14.

We’ve created this recipe using some exceptional ingredients for the Cool Chilli Co - an importer of the finest Mexican produce. Their products are available to purchase via Nourished Communities - a brilliant new online farmers’ market that supports food businesses impacted by Covid 19.

Mole is spicy, smokey, earthy and slightly sweet; depending on the texture it can be used as sauce or a marinade. Here, we’ve used it as a sauce and poured it over roasted cauliflower before baking the whole dish in the oven to encourage those charred smokey flavours. The sauce darkens and almost forms a crust over the cauliflower, and before serving we top this dish with heaps of fresh coriander, lime juice and our pickled chillies.

The sauce recipe makes 4 portions but the rest of the recipe is designed to serve 2; the sauce freezes perfectly and is ideal for topping homemade enchiladas.

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 45 minutes for sauce (can be made ahead); 35 minutes for mole-roasted caui

This recipe serves 2.

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Ingredients :

for the mole sauce:

• 2 ancho chillies

• 4 chipotle chillies

• 2 tbsp olive oil

• 2 brown onions

• 4 cloves garlic

• 2 heaped tsp ground cumin

• 1 tsp cinnamon

• 1 tsp falkey sea salt

• 1 tin chopped tomatoes

• 1 tin chilli soaking water

• 50 g (⅓ cup) raisins

• 2 tbsp smooth peanut butter

• 1 avocado leaf, optional

• 25 g dark chocolate

other ingredients:

• 1 small cauliflower, or ½ if large

• 1 brown onion

• ½ bock feta

• Fresh coriander

• 1 lime

• 1 tsp red pepper flakes or chilli flakes

• 4 tbsp pickled chillies

to serve:

• Cooked brown rice

• Charred sweetcorn?

• Fresh salsa?

Method:

for the mole sauce:

1. Start by steeping the dried chillies in a generous amount of freshly boiled hot water for 20 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, peel and dice the onions and peel and slice the garlic. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan and fry the onions for 8-12 minutes. Allow them to soften well and slightly caramelise. Add the garlic halfway through.

3. After 8-12 minutes add the cumin, cinnamon, and sea salt, and stir well to prevent things from catching. Cook out the spices for 2 minutes. 

4. Now remove the chillies from the hot water, split them open, remove the seeds and roughly chop. Add these to the saucepan.

5. Add the chopped tomatoes, 1 tin of water (use the chilli water!), raisins, peanut butter, and avocado leaf, if using. Stir well and bring things to a gentle simmer. 

6. Simmer gently for 30 minutes with the lid on.

7. After 30 minutes blend your mole sauce until silky smooth and stir through 25 g dark chocolate.

for the mole-roasted cauli:

1. Preheat the oven to 210 degrees and have an oven rack near the top.

2. Chop the cauliflower and cauliflower leaves either into wedges approximately 3 cm thick across the back, or into even sized florets. Cut the onion into thin half-moon wedges approximately 1 cm thick. Toss these in a roasting dish or skillet and dry-roast in the preheated oven for 16 minutes to add good char to the overall flavour profile and remove excess moisture.

3. Meanwhile, warm up the mole sauce if it’s cool.

4. After 16 minutes, remove the cauliflower from the oven and turn the oven down to 190 degrees. Spoon your mole sauce over the roasted cauliflower; use half of the above recipe for 2 people.

5. Crumble and scatter over the feta cheese, drizzle with a little olive oil, and sprinkle with some red pepper flakes or chilli flakes if you wish.

6. Return to the top of the oven and bake for 14-16 minutes.

7. Once cooked top with fresh coriander, a squeeze of lime juice and lots of pickled chillies.

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A vegcentric wine pairing? An oak-aged Malbec from Argentina.

This is congruent rather than a contrasting wine pairing, that is to say the flavours of the food and the wine here go hand in hand… The smokey chillies, earthy cumin, and dark fruity raisins are all echoed in an oak-aged Argentinian Malbec. Read more here.