Meera Sodha’s vegan recipe for roast cauliflower and kimchi couscous salad

You can take the girl out of Scunthorpe, but you can’t take Scunthorpe out of the girl. This is possibly why I didn’t latch on to the bowl food movement a decade ago, but I’ve since grown, both as a woman and as a food writer (not physically, mind; I am still only 5ft 2in), and these days I can see the benefits of being able to fashion delicious ingredients, some of them ready-made, such as kimchi and hummus, over grains and binding them all together with a lovely dressing. It’s very useful to have a template with which to create a delicious, nutritious meal using whatever you have in the fridge, so now I’m on board with the bowl.

Roast cauliflower and kimchi couscous bowl

Keep the dressing and the condiments, but otherwise use this recipe as a rough guide – feel free to switch out the grain, roast vegetables and herbs for whatever you have.

Prep 15 min
Cook 40 min
Serves 4

For the salad
1 large cauliflower (or 2 small ones), trimmed and cut into florets (750g net)
Rapeseed oil
Salt
2 sweet potatoes (400g), washed and cut into 2cm cubes
250g giant couscous – I used wholewheat
100g baby-leaf spinach, roughly chopped
20g parsley
100g kimchi, shop-bought or homemade, drained if need be, then sliced
200g hummus
2 tbsp pumpkin seeds

For the dressing
2cm x 2cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
1 lemon, zest finely grated, then juiced, to get 2½ tbsp
1 tbsp light agave syrup
90ml rapeseed oil
1 tsp salt

Heat the oven to 220C (200C fan)/425F/gas 7, and line two large baking trays with greaseproof paper.

Cut out the base from the cauliflower and remove and discard the outer larger leaves; keep the inner tender ones. Break the cauliflower into 4cm florets, cut the inner leaves into 3cm strips and cut the stalk into ½cm pieces. Put all the cauliflower in a bowl with three tablespoons of rapeseed oil and a half-teaspoon of salt, then mix really well. Tip on to one of the lined trays and spread out evenly.

Put the cubed sweet potato in the same bowl, add a tablespoon of oil and a quarter-teaspoon of salt, toss to coat, then tip on to the second tray. Roast the cauliflower for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown, and the sweet potato for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the dressing. In the same bowl, mix the grated ginger, lemon zest and juice, agave syrup, oil and salt, and whisk to combine.

Cook the couscous in plenty of boiling water, according to the packet instructions, then drain really well. Transfer to the bowl of dressing, add the cooked cauliflower and sweet potato, stir in the spinach and parsley, toss and taste for seasoning.

Divide the salad between four large bowls, top each portion with two tablespoons of hummus, a tablespoon of kimchi and a sprinkling of pumpkin seeds, then serve.