Roasted Cauliflower, Chickpea & Wheat Berry Toss

There are never enough hours in the day to get everything done. It feels like the instant my head hits the pillow, I'm already asleep. And when I wake up in the morning, I'm bleary eyedly stumbling towards my coffee.

So I'm all about getting as much shut-eye as possible. And that's where easy lunches come into play.
I refuse to give up sleep to prepare food, so I always put my lunch together the night before. Leftovers play a big part in what I eat for lunch, so I'm always looking for meals that are brown bag approved. To me, that means if I have to use cutlery to eat it, I'm only required to use a spoon OR a fork. And, preferably, it can be eaten at room temperature without causing too much of a mess.

If you've been reading the blog for a while, you know that I have a deep and abiding love affair with legumes - and the mixture of legumes and grains always strike me as a perfect combination of ingredients for a packed lunch.

This recipe was adapted from the fabulous blog No Recipes. I tarted mine up with more ingredients and reduced the oil but, I must say the dressing is just killer! I hesitate to say it, but it was even better day two.

Roasted Cauliflower, Chickpea and Wheat Berry Toss

(lightly adapted from No Recipes)

Ingredients

2 cups uncooked wheat berries
1 head of cauliflower, stalks discarded and florets cut into bite sized pieces
1 tbsp olive oil
2 red peppers, roasted, peeled, seeded and diced
1 15 oz can chickpeas
1 tbsp capers, drained and rinsed
3 tbsp parsley, chopped

dressing

3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp truffle oil (if you have it, if not, use some more olive oil)
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
2 tsp sesame oil
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Cook wheat berries according to manufacturer's directions. When finished cooking, place in a large bowl.

2. Preheat oven to 400º. Toss cauliflower florets with olive oil and place on a large baking tray. Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until lightly browned, stirring once or twice. Add to wheat berries. Stir in peppers, chickpeas, capers and parsley.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together all ingredients. Pour over wheat berry mixture and toss to coat.

The Return of Monday Nights with Kat

You know what's awesome? Sleeping for 10½ hours. I can feel my sanity returning!

In spite of the lack of Bachelor/Bachelorette on tv right now, Kat and I have restarted our Monday night cookery fun. We had double fun last Monday because it was Labour Day! That meant we could get to work around 3.

Have I mentioned how much I love just sitting in the kitchen chatting over tea?

I love it. Like, seriously.

We had three killer recipes that night, beginning with Roasted Garlic, Sun-dried Tomato Chickpea Dip

We easily could have eaten the whole bowl!

From there, we moved on to a Lucy Waverman-inspired dish: Sicilian Quinoa with Roasted Cauliflower. She does hers with pasta and anchovies.

Lucy's version, from her cookbook.

 We replaced the pasta with quinoa, the anchovies with kalamata olives and made the Parmesan optional.

Capers, garlic, red pepper flakes and olives

Seriously, this was AMAZING.

Served on my Nana's china!

Quinoa is such a powerhouse grain and it just worked so beautifully with the salty/briny flavours of the capers and olives and the spiciness of the pepper flakes.

Ingredients:

8 cups small cauliflower florets (1 medium head)
1/3 cup olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 cup quinoa
2 tbsp chopped garlic
1 tsp chili flakes
2 tbsp capers
¼ cup chopped kalamata olives
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

Instructions:

Step 1: Preheat oven to 450°F.
Step 2: Break florets into bite-sized pieces and place in a bowl. Toss with 2 tbsp olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Spread on a baking sheet and roast, tossing occasionally, for 10-15 minutes, or until browned and tender.
Step 3: While cauliflower is roasting, bring 2 cups of salted water to a boil. Add quinoa and cook for 15-20 minutes, or until all water is absorbed.
Step 4: Heat remaining 1/4 cup oil in a large, deep skillet over medium-low heat while pasta is cooking. Add garlic, chili flakes, capers and olives and sauté for 3 minutes or until garlic is pale gold and softened.
Step 5: Add cauliflower and lemon juice and cook for 2 minutes, or until cauliflower is heated through.
Step 6: Toss quinoa with parsley, cheese (optional) and extra-virgin olive oil. Stir together with cauliflower until well coated with sauce.

For dessert, we whipped up a Pear-Cranberry Crumble (the recipe was originally for a Pear Cranberry pie with streusel topping, but we opted to dump the pie crust).

Fresh out of the oven

I think the next picture really speaks volumes about how good we thought the dish was.

All gone!