Vegan cauliflower mash with balsamic beets

Step 1

Heat up the oven to 200° C / 390° F and grab a very large baking tray. It's important not to overcrowd the tray so if your tray isn't large enough, you may need to roast the cauliflower and the beets separately.

Step 2

Divide cauliflower into medium, same size as much as possible, florets. Stir 2 tsp of olive oil through it and arrange the pieces on one half of the baking tray, cut sides down.

Step 3

Cut the tops of the garlic head off so that all the individual cloves are exposed, drizzle with olive oil, wrap in the piece of kitchen foil and place on the same tray.

Step 4

Finally, scrub and peel (you can leave the peel on if you like) all of the beetroots. Cut them into wedges, small ones 4 ways, medium ones 6 ways and really big one 8 ways. Coat in 1 tbsp of olive oil and season with salt. Arrange them on the other side of the tray.

Step 5

Bake for about 25-30 minutes, flipping the florets and beetroot wedges to the other side 15 minutes in - you want the florets to be charred on one side before flipping them over.

Step 6

Place roasted / steamed cauliflower florets in a blender (you can use a food processor but the dip won't be as smooth) together with almond milk, walnut butter, vinegar / lemon juice, squeezed out roasted garlic cloves (I used 6, use as many as you prefer). Process until super smooth - you will need to stop the blender and scrape down the sides from time to time. Season with salt, pepper and cumin. To make the dip / mash extra smooth and indulgent, you may want to add a little bit of walnut oil or extra virgin olive oil.

Step 7

Spread the cauliflower dip on a large plate / platter and arrange the roasted beets artfully on top. Drizzle with balsamic reduction, scatter roasted walnuts and fresh thyme leaves on top.

Step 8

Heat up the oven to 180° C / 350° F.

Step 9

Spread walnuts on a large baking sheet and roast in the preheated oven for about 8 minutes, until golden and fragrant. Cool.

Step 10

Place roasted walnuts in a food processor and process until you obtain a walnut butter. It took my very old Kenwood 3 minutes so it shouldn't take that long at all. Transfer the butter to a jar and store in the fridge (it keeps for at least 1 month).

Step 11

Place balsamic vinegar and maple syrup (or sugar) in a small pot, mix well and place on a low heat.

Step 12

Simmer gently to reduce to the desired consistency (the length of time depends on the quality of the balsamic vinegar, the more runny type of balsamic will take longer to reduce). The tricky part here is that it is only possible to judge the reduction once the mixture has cooled down completely so it's easy to over reduce or not reduce enough. That's not a problem though - if you over reduced, bring it back with a small splash of water. If not reduced enough, return the pot to the stove and simmer some more.