Grilled Cauliflower Salad with Tahini Dressing
Every time I grill cauliflower I think to myself, "I need to make this more often," but then I never do. Thanks to the light flavor of the flesh of cauliflower, whenever I utilize the grill to cook it, that unique lightly smoky and charred stamp of a live fire is pretty prominent, although not over powering, making it an incredibly tasty veggie in the end. At the tail end of this winter, when cauliflower was still in my repertoire, but I began to feel the itch to be outside grilling more, I picked up a head and was determined to make a new grilled cauliflower recipe and came up with with this grilled cauliflower salad with a tahini dressing a bit on the fly and was super excited with how it turned out.
The main recipe I was working on at the time was for shawarma-spiced cheesesteaks, and I'll be sharing that one shortly, so it was having all the ingredients out to make those that led this salad to take on a Middle Eastern tilt. I began by making a tahini based dressing that I used lemon juice and sumac to add a bright citrusy flavor to, while also giving it a bit of an earthy, herbal depth with a combo of za'atar and cumin.
I had decided to use red wine vinegar-marinated onions in my cheesesteak and realized they could do double duty as a topper for this salad. I began their creation by thinly slicing a red onion on a mandoline—since red onions have such a sharp bite, I personally like using them in thin or finely chopped pieces so you still get a bit of that sharpness, but not some much that it overwhelms the palate.
I then transferred the sliced onions to a small bowl and tossed them with red wine vinegar, parsley, olive oil, sumac, and salt. I let those rest at room temperature and after about an hour, the onions had softened quite a bit, lost their harsh edge, and gained a pleasing tang that had a complimentary lemony kick thanks to the sumac—they tasted very fitting for both use in the cheesesteaks and this salad.
I knew I wanted smaller, bite-sized pieces of cauliflower for the end salad, but if I cut it that small at the start, it would have been susceptible to falling between the grates. So when I prepped the cauliflower, I kept the florets rather large and then tossed them with olive oil, salt, pepper, and za'atar before putting them on the grill.
Once I had the charcoal lit, I arranged the coals into a two-zone fire with all of the charcoal situated on one side of the grate. I then placed the cauliflower on the cooking grate close to, but not directly over the fire. For items that need long roasting times, this has come to be my favorite placement because the proximity to the intense heat means that the food will pick up good browning during the long cook, but not burn.
And alas, just over 20 minutes later the cauliflower was tender throughout with attractive browning all over. I did check on the florets a couple times and rearranged those that weren't browning to be closer to the fire, and others that were browning too fast to be further away to ensure everything was cooked to my liking in the end. Once the cauliflower was all done, I transferred the florets to a cutting board and roughly chopped them. Then I arranged them in a single layer on a large serving platter and added on a mixture of parsley and cilantro and topped with the onions, streaks of the dressing, chopped pistachios, and sesame seeds.
I was expecting the cheesesteaks to be the star of that meal that day, but I actually was digging this salad way more. Maybe its light touch after a winter of heavy eating influenced me, but the way the flavors all worked together had me eating more of this salad than the sandwich, which is saying a lot. Like I've experienced previously, the presence of the grill was well felt thanks to the way the mellow flavor of the cauliflower let that shine through, but it found an even more harmonious home in this dish than previous recipes I've done due to its salad form that introduced a strong double dose of herbs that brought a contrasting freshness, and then those tangy onions, whose slight crunch was added to by the salty pistachios. I had put together a large quantity of dressing, but not that much was actually needed to give the salad a mellow toasted sesame taste with a bit of bright lemon that tied the entire thing altogether. The only thing that was out of place was eating it during the winter—it certainly felt more like a spring or summer dish, which is why I hung on to it for a few months before finally sharing it out with all of you.
