RECIPE 1: ROASTED CAULIFLOWER SALAD with LENTILS and DATES

I should've known better, I know better.

One important element to success in the kitchen is honing and then listening to your intuition. In the beginning little is "intuitive". Kitchen intuition is really a knowledge that has been so incorporated into the way we think that we no longer consciously engage in the thought process. For example if a recipe calls for baking broccoli in a 425 degree oven for 2 hours our "intuition/common sense" might light up, questioning what wouldn't burn left in an oven that hot for that long. However, if you're like me, you follow the directions - and end up with burnt broccoli! Luckily the next time you see an error in a recipe like that you will know it's a typo (which may happen more often than you think) and the author most likely meant 20 minutes, not two hours. But I cannot stress the importance of following a recipe exactly when first learning to cook. Your kitchen is a very loose, perhaps messy at times, interpretation of a chemistry lab but don't be intimidated. Only basic math skills and a sliver a of patience may be required for this science course. Just like my experience in chemistry, when a recipe I've tried doesn't turn out, it's usually because I didn't follow the directions! Put simply, follow directions in the beginning, develop a standard knowledge base and then allow your intuition and experience to guide you from there.

Now that I have thoroughly exhausted the importance of following directions, I will examine a recent recipe I tried where I really should have listened to my intuition.

I found this recipe in a Food & Wine Magazine edition from March 2014.

Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Lentils and Dates

Total: 45min Serves:4

• 1/2 C raw almonds
• 1 C green lentils, rinsed
• 1 head cauliflower, cut into 1.5" florets
• 1/4 C plus 1T olive oil
• 1/4t cumin
• 1/4t cinnamon
• 1/4t ground ginger
• pinch of cayenne
• salt and pepper
• 2T tahini
• 3T lemon juice
• 1t honey
• 10 dates, pitted and chopped
• 1/2 small red onion, sliced 
• 4C loosely packed arugula or spinach

I'm not going to list the steps as it is a tedious, and after following them, fruitless endeavor. However, leave a comment or email me and I will happily pass on the directions.

Overall Review:

I was very underwhelmed with this dish. I was also disappointed because there were a few elements of the recipe that concerned me but I followed the directions anyways, hoping to offer an authentic review of the recipe.

Bland Flavor:  One of the things that drew me to this recipe was the flavor profile. I adore cumin, it may smell like stinky feet but it tastes like comfort to me and along with the cinnamon, ginger and dates I liked the Middle Eastern vibe I was getting. The recipe only called to toss the spices with the cauliflower to roast. This element of the salad was delicious but left the rest of the ingredients lacking. In hindsight I would add a pinch of the ginger, cinnamon and cumin to the dressing to enhance the more flavors in the dish.

Poorly Dressed:  My biggest problem with this recipe is the dressing. It’s a salad, proper dressing is essential. I love tahini dressing and make my own variations quite often so when I read these dressing directions I became wary. It's important is to strike a balance of sweet and acidic with the heaviness of the tahini and the recipe called for lemon and honey, which are a great start. The ratio of lemon and honey to the tahini in the recipe though is inadequate in my opinion. I needed more of both. In addition to adding more of these two ingredients I would’ve thinned the dressing out with a bit of water. This was my other complaint with the dressing. It was too thick, too little of it and didn’t evenly coat the ingredients, creating an ultimately “dry” salad (The horror!).

Awkward Composition: I still struggle myself with discerning what I call the “fork factor” of a dish: how well can all the ingredients be delivered in one bite? I found this salad to fall short on the fork factor. Imagine trying to scoop chunky cauliflower florets, little lentils, loose arugula, bits of date and almond all into one bite. It was awkward and this is coming from someone who’s pretty good at spooning portions of food into my mouth. I think if there was more dressing on the salad the date and almond would be better incorporated as well as the lentils but I’ll stop with the dressing already.

Lentil Letdown: I adore all legumes, they are hearty, filling and nutritious. When cooked properly their texture and flavor can really enhance a dish. I was immediately suspect of the lentils in this recipe because it only called to cook them in water. While I love beans, I will freely admit…they can be boring! The hippy inside me just took great offense to that last statement but it’s true. I generally add salt, bay leaf, soy sauce, onion, garlic, molasses and the kitchen sink when I’m cooking legumes. However, it is important to wait until the legumes have come to a full boil before adding any other ingredients otherwise they will take forever to cook.

Needless to say I was not impressed with the lentils in this dish, they came out mushy and bland.

Despite my laundry list of corrections and complaints about this recipe, I'm glad I made it. The cauliflower was terrific and I highly recommend roasting it with equal parts ground ginger, cinnamon and cumin. I also developed more confidence in my intuition after seeing my initial reservations about the recipe evident in the outcome of the dish. 

The trial and error method can lead to disappointing outcomes at times 
but I look forward to my next adventure in the kitchen and I hope you do too!