roasted cauliflower with curry and walnuts

So I've been wanting to write about this little dish I made up for a while now, but I never remember to take pictures until after I'm done making it. Dinnertime with a toddler does not easily lend itself to artfully posing ingredients and plates of food. It's mostly full of conversations like these:

"I eat food?"
"Not yet. We're waiting for Daddy."
"Daddy comin'?"
"He'll be here soon."
"... Daddy come soon...Somefin to eat?"
"We have to wait until dinner's ready. See Mommy cooking? See the fire? It's so hot. I'm cooking dinner. It's almost ready."
"... (blink, blink)... Somefin to EAT?!"

Aaaaanyway, I took Jaina's nap time the other day to make some cauliflower, take some pictures, and try to figure out the amount of each ingredient that I used. I think that means I wrote a recipe. Enjoy!

 Cauliflower, walnuts, curry powder, and olive oil (salt & pepper not pictured)

Chop one head of cauliflower into florets and place in a glass or ceramic baking dish. You can combine all of the ingredients in a bowl first, then transfer to the dish, but I like to keep the dishes I have to wash to a minimum. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.

Drizzle oil all over the cauliflower (I zig-zag about six times across, let's call it five tablespoons), and sprinkle with one heaping teaspoon of good curry powder. Add about 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts.

 Next, I get my hands in there and make sure every piece of cauliflower is coated in oil and curry. If you use a spoon to mix it up, the curry powder won't disperse evenly. Make sure the walnuts get tossed in the oil as well, so they don't burn. Add sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste.

Bake for at least 20 minutes, stirring once during that time. Pierce with a fork after 20 minutes and see if the cauliflower is cooked to your liking. I like mine to still have some bite to it. 

My helper woke up from her nap just in time for an afternoon snack.

She wanted to wear her oven mitt too.

Mmmm, nothing says home to me like curry. I love that it's pretty much as easy as throwing a frozen pizza in the oven, and probably more satisfying. 

If I ever host Thanksgiving (which is unlikely, since I belong to a long line of Hostesses with a capital H - which is awesome), this is the kind of side dish I would serve. To be honest, though, I don't know if I've ever made this as an actual side dish. Usually I bust this out when I'm hungry at night and don't want to stuff my face with junk. It's an easy recipe to adapt to just a personal sized baker, like a brie dish. 

I hope this inspires you to try something new with cauliflower! Let me know how it goes if you try it out. (Recipe below)

Roasted Cauliflower with Curry and Walnuts

1 head of cauliflower chopped into florets
1 tsp. of curry powder
4-6 T. of olive oil
1/4 c. chopped walnuts
salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Add cauliflower, curry, oil, and walnuts to a 9x13 baking dish. Combine ingredients with tongs or hands, making sure to disperse curry powder. Season with salt & pepper to taste.

Bake for 20 minutes or until fork tender, turning once.