Crusty Cauliflower
I’ve seen, and eaten, a few ‘tempura’ dishes over the last 6 months, but have never found a recipe. To be honest, i didn’t look very hard for a recipe, i was interested in the challenge of trying to create this one on my own. A special thanks to my sister to lending her nose to identify an ingredient or two that made the recipe close to perfect.
- 1 cup raw pistachios (soaked for at least 2 hours)
- 1/2 cup pinenuts (soaked for at least 2 hours)
- 2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 2-3 Tablespoons Nama Shoyu
- 1 teaspoon Turmeric
- 4 Tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1/2 lemon (juice only)
- nutmeg (will explain later in the post)
- pepper
- sea salt
- cayenne
- 1/2 cup water (max, this is added as needed)
- 1 head of Cauliflower
This recipe is super easy. If you subtract the dehydrating time you could accomplish the whole mess in about 10-15 minutes.
1. Soak pistachios and pinenuts in water for at least 2 hours, the longer they soak the creamier they become, which can affect how much water you use in the final mix (this will make sense later).
2. Chop the cauliflower into bite sized pieces. This solves two problems, one, you want them to be able to fit in your mouth, and two, you have to cut them relatively small to fit in the dehydrator.
3. Put everything else in the food processor. Pistachios, pinenuts, dash of sea salt and pepper, cayenne to taste, olive oil, turmeric, Nama Shoyu, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice. For the nutmeg…I took a nutmeg seed in one hand and a microplane in the other hand and ground a dusting over the top of the other ingredients
4. Turn on the food processor. As ingredients are blending add water as needed to create a creamy consistency. I’ve never used more than 1/2 a cup of water. Depending on how long you soak the pistachios and pinenuts you may not need to add any water at all, but even after allowing nuts to soak overnight I still needed 1/8 to 1/4 cup of water. Altitude and ingredients play a factor, as always.
5. Pour the blended mixture on to the chopped cauliflower and mix together.
6. Stick the whole mess (i’m not kidding here, its a mess) in the dehydrator for 2 hours or longer depending on the type of dehydrator being used.
Enjoy. You may want to vary the amount of apple cider vinegar depending on how your palate reacts to the taste, i happen to like it, many don’t.
Ooh!! That looks YUMMY!!! I’m saving this recipe to try sometime for myself!!
Thanks for sharing!!
Lots of love to you!
Wendi
XOXOXO
That looks really tasty!! Yum!
I want to try this and use other veg, have you tried it on different stuff?
Thanks for this!
deb
Sounds yummy! Question: You say dehydrator is optional — but how do you get the “crisp” without one? What is the process without a dehydrator?
Thanks!
gonna do this for sure…hummmm
Oh my God, please tell us how you get the crisp without the dehydrator because I’m in Brazil and have never even heard of such a thing! Don’t think we have those here either. The only way I know how to eat cauliflower is with olive oil, salt and pepper and I could reeeeeeeeeally use your variation. Thanks a lot.
[...] discovery last week…raw pakoras. It all started with a quest for tempura. We found this RECIPE on VEGANNOSAURUS REX. Unfortunately, my boyfriend really doesn’t like cauliflower. And we [...]
yummy! we mutated it a little, but it was seriously DELISH!
must get a dehydrator! that looks so very good!
Very cool! How many tries until you figured out the recipe for this?
You are a genius man!
Hmmm, I thought I kind of invented this a few years ago. One of my raw gurus showed me a raw Aloo Gobi recipe that was wonderful. I decided to go further and continued to keep it in the dehydrator until it became totally crisp and wonderful. I started bringing it to raw events and people went nuts for it. The recipe works in a similar way, but my ingredients are quite different!
First, I don’t like to use too many nuts in my recipes, and try to keep the fat content down where possible. Also, adding sliced onions make this dish absolutely wonderful….they add a lovely sweetness to the dish after everything has dried. Next, instead of using a lot of nuts, I use 3 parts sprouted beans to 1 part macadamia nuts (I also make a wonderful lasagna “ricotta” by using these sprouts instead of nuts). Maybe 6 oz sprouted beans to 2 oz macadamias, only 1 tablespoon of oil, and water to get the right consistency. About 20 oz raw cauliflower and half as many onions. Then, instead of Nama Shoyu and Cayenne, I use Indian Spices: Masala, Cumin, Curry powder, etc., with just a bit of Himalayan Crystal Salt to taste. Use these spices to your taste, but realize that the flavors will get a bit stronger as the dish dries. You can dry this dish to your taste…..the weight and content of it will vary tremendously depending on how far you dehydrate. You can end up with as little as 1/10 of the original weight by dehydrating it to the maximum, which is very nutritionally dense but not all filling!
P.S…..Debbie, the answer is “Yes”….you can use it with ALL KINDS of veggies. That’s what Rex was referring to when he mentioned “Tempura Recipes” in his opening remark. You have probably tried vegetable Tempura, and by making a milder sauce with a large array of veggies you get a lovely vegetable tempura recipe. You can use either Rex’ or mine…they will both work to provide the crust (the main difference being fat content) but you will want to relook at the condiments to change the taste based on what you’re trying to create in the recipe.
i see lots of raw recipe here and i found your blog really useful and helpful.
I got here by searching for this recipe. The information is pretty precise, but I have the tendency to mess it up right away. I hope that everything will come out tasty, but the fun is in the process, not the eating, right? I know that it looks a little weird, but I really enjoy a good plate of crusty cauliflower.
Wow! This is the first raw food recipe I’ve made that I’ve really, really loved and couldn’t stop eating (tooooo full now) and the first I’ve been motivated to respond to. I used up all the cauliflower, and then ate the rest of the sauce by the spoonful. I did add a titch of onion and cumin, and doubled the turmeric because I love curry. I know it’s tempura and not curry, but I’ve been so sad at the idea of giving up good Indian food that I couldn’t resist. Even the hubby and kids liked it (they’ve been resisting the raw thing). Wish I could find that raw pakora recipe somebody mentioned.
I really love this recipe! And you can substitute for other things in the batter. (at least, I did!) I used raw almonds, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds because I didn’t happen to have any pistachios or pine nuts. I also added onion to the mix, as another person here suggested. I really loved the flavor and the spices. Dehydrating really makes this a flavorful snack!
Nice recipe.I love to learn diffrent types of cooking,this sounds like Indian.I would definately try this one.Please check the site in my sig for some authentic Indian recipes.
[...] discovery last week…raw pakoras. It all started with a quest for tempura. We found this RECIPE on VEGANNOSAURUS REX. Unfortunately, my boyfriend really doesn’t like cauliflower. And we [...]
I recently came accross your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I dont know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog.
This looks so tasty! Such a great idea!
love your recipes. thanks for shring it here.