Spiced Chickpeas With Cauliflower and Roasted Lemon

- Total Time
- 1 hour 10 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- Kosher salt, as needed
- 1lemon, preferably a Meyer lemon, thinly sliced and seeded
- 1(2¼-pound) head of cauliflower, cut into bite-size pieces (about 8 cups)
- 1½cups cherry tomatoes, halved
- 2jalapeños, seeded and thinly sliced
- ½cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more as needed
- 1teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1teaspoon tomato paste
- ½teaspoon Tabasco or other hot sauce
- ¾teaspoon ground turmeric
- ½teaspoon ground cumin
- ¼teaspoon ground coriander
- 1(14- to 16-ounce) can chickpeas, drained and blotted dry
- 1pound baby or fingerling potatoes, cut into quarters
- 2rosemary sprigs
- ¾cup plain whole-milk yogurt (or substitute soy, nut or coconut milk yogurt)
- ¼cup chopped fresh dill or mint, plus more for garnish
- ¼cup chopped fresh basil, plus more for garnish
- ¼cup chopped parsley, plus more for garnish
- 1large garlic clove, finely grated or minced
- Fresh lemon juice, as needed
Preparation
- Step 1
Position racks in the top and bottom thirds of oven and heat to 425 degrees. Bring a small pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Add lemon slices and simmer until softened, about 5 minutes. Drain, pat dry with a clean kitchen towel and cut slices into quarters.
- Step 2
On a rimmed sheet pan, toss cauliflower, tomatoes and jalapeños with ¼ cup oil and ½ teaspoon salt. Fold in lemon slices. Place pan on bottom rack of oven and roast, tossing every 10 minutes, until well-browned, about 35 to 45 minutes.
- Step 3
In a small bowl, stir together ¼ cup oil, cumin seeds, tomato paste, Tabasco, ground turmeric, cumin and coriander.
- Step 4
On a separate rimmed sheet pan, toss together chickpeas, potatoes, spice-oil mixture and salt to taste. Top with rosemary sprigs. Roast on top rack until potatoes are golden, 30 to 40 minutes, tossing mixture halfway through. Remove pan and toss with more salt to taste.
- Step 5
While everything is roasting, make the sauce: In a small bowl, whisk together yogurt, dill, basil, parsley, garlic, ½ teaspoon salt and a squeeze of lemon juice. Taste and add more salt or lemon if needed.
- Step 6
To serve, toss roasted chickpeas and potatoes with cauliflower mixture. Drizzle with more oil, yogurt sauce and herbs.
Private Notes
Comments
For everyone finding the lemons indigestible in this recipe, or finding it hard to find Meyers, a finely chopped preserved lemon works wonders in a recipe like this and is much, much more palatable to eat whole. (The prolonged salting softens and cures the skin.) Just be careful with the added salt, as preserved lemons are already very salty.
For a simplified weeknight version, I made a few adjustments: I boiled the lemon as advised. Then, I marinated the cauliflower, tomatoes, jalapeno, rosemary, spices, tomato paste, etc. in a big bowl. Finally, I roasted some seasoned, cubed sweet potatoes and the chickpeas on their own, and then roasted everything together until it was crisped. I did make the yogurt sauce as noted. Very tasty! Love easy vegetarian meals like this.
When I cook from a recipe, I really like to know the why. Why in this case do you cook the cauliflower separately from the potatoes and chickpeas? My lemons weren't burnt before I got the chickpeas in the oven. The cooking times are not that for the two pans are not that different. If there's a good reason to cook this on two pans, I'd like to know it, but making this tonight I don't get it.
This recipe took me twice as long to make as the NYTs suggested it would, as their recipes typically do. That said, it was worth it. I definitely took the advice of roasting veggies at the same time, adding the tomatoes only for the last 10 minutes, and doubling the yogurt topping. I don't know that the latter required full fat yogurt, but of course it tasted a treat.
Fantastic recipe, with layers of delicious flavors. The yogurt tzatziki sauce is a must make and I will make it for other purposes too. I was worried about what seemed like a disproportionately large amount of cauliflower, so I used less, but I shouldn't have; it shrinks after roasting. Same with the jalapeno. I worried about too much heat but it was totally fine. The quartered lemon slices were wonderful little bursts of muted citrus when encountered during feasting. Yum!! Quite a lot of prep, but we will make this again and again.
I used a preserved lemon since I have some I need use. It’s was a perfect substitute! I found this recipe to be very tasty and see endless possibilities with variations
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