Whole Roast Cauliflower

Cauliflowers are fantastic at this time of year, and I’m lucky to live close to Lincolnshire, a county with rich, alluvial fenland soil ideal for growing this wonderful vegetable.

I cook cauliflower many ways but this is as simple as it gets and always looks impressive, either served to the table as a whole or sliced thickly and served as one slice on the plate as a side dish.

Ingredients (will serve 4 as a side depending on the size of the cauliflower!)

1 Cauliflower

1 tsp paprika (optional)

1 lemon

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Directions

1) Preheat the oven to 180C. Trim the outside leaves from the cauliflower to leave just the curds, but do not separate into florets.

2) Place the cauliflower on a sheet of tinfoil, anoint with a little olive oil, squeeze over the juice from the lemon, season well with salt and pepper and sprinkle with paprika (if using).

3) Wrap the foil tightly around the cauliflower and place on a roasting tin in the centre of the oven.  Cook for 60-90 minutes.

Unwrap and serve.  How simple is that?  The cauli should be lightly browned and still quite firm in the centre.  The beauty of roasting is that the flavour isn’t diluted with any water, I urge you to give this a go!