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+ servings
whole baked cauliflower

Whole baked cauliflower with marinade

centre piece recipe for holidays.
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 50 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Course Main Dish
Cuisine Autumn, Baking, Fusion, gluten free, International, One pot, Vegan, Vegetarian, Winter
Servings 8 people

Ingredients
  

marinade

  • 3-4 roasted tomatoes
  • 3 tbsp tomato ketchup
  • 3-4 cloves garlic
  • 1/4 inch fresh ginger root
  • 1 small green chilli
  • 1/4 tsp paprika
  • 1/2 tsp   dry oregano
  • 1/4 tsp crushed black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp Rock salt

for baking the cauliflower

  • 1 medium cauliflower
  • 1 medium Onion ( skinned and quartered)

Toppings

  • 1 tbsp Hemp seeds
  • 1/4 tsp   dry oregano

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven at 180 degrees.
  • Wash and remove the stalk of the cauliflower. Set it on a kitchen towel for all the water to drain. See footnotes on further prep for the cauliflower.
    cauliflower to be baked
  • Into the blender add all the ingredients for the marinade.
    marinade ingredients of whole baked cauliflower.
  • Blend them into a smooth paste.
  • Place the cleaned cauliflower on the baking dish and add the quartered onions on the side.
  • Now pour half the marinade on top of the cauliflower.
    marinade for cauliflower
  • Flip over and cover the base of the cauliflower with the marinade as well.
    cover the base with marinade
  • Flip over back and cover the dish with a foil.
  • Place this on the middle rack of the oven. Place a dish of water at the lower rack and bake for 30 minutes.
  • Remove the foil, sprinkle the hemp seeds and oregano and bake again for another 20 minutes.
  • Remove from the oven. Check the doneness of the cauliflower with a fork which passes easily through it.
  • The dish is now ready to serve.
    whole baked cauliflower

Notes

Prepping the Cauliflower:
since the cauliflower is bunched up it is possible that they may carry some caterpillars inside the florets. To avoid this choose a cauliflower with separated florets so you can see as much as possible. After washing and removing the excess leaves and cutting of the additional stalk, pour some hot water on the cauliflower and rinse again. 
Alternatively, dunk the cauliflower head in salted water that is on a rolling boil and leave it in for 5 minutes. Drain carefully, this should remove most caterpillars hiding in them.
Now I have omitted this step as I don't see any of the caterpillars in the cauliflowers here. 
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