Cauliflower, Parsnip and Roast Garlic Puree with Crispy​ Roast Potatoes and Fennel Slaw

Last month I asked you all to set me a challenge on Instagram to create a breakfast, lunch, and dinner dish only using one colour.

And for the dinner dish, you challenged me to create something using all white and beige ingredients.

And so I present to you my delicious Cauliflower, Parsnip, and Roast Garlic Purée with Crispy Roast Potatoes and Fennel Slaw.

I absolutely adore this dish, it’s all of my favourite comfort foods on one plate; potatoes, cauliflower, and garlic topped off with this super fresh raw slaw made using fennel, an ingredient that I have recently rediscovered my love for and am now topping everything with.

When I was first tasked with the colour white, I had a little of a panic attack.

I’m so used to creating and using vibrant ingredients from all ends of the colour spectrum, so the thought of not being able to use anything of colour was a little daunting.

But I actually really loved it. I worked with what I knew best, cauliflower. And then I built my dish around that.

I added in some parsnip to give the purée a little boost of flavour as boiled cauliflower can have a rather washed out taste, and roasting it would bring colour to the plate.

As I could use none of my trusted herbs and spices, because of their colour-changing attributes, I knew that garlic was going to be the best bet. Garlic still adds a punch of flavour but as long as you are using the white variant, it keeps the colour the same.

Plus–cauliflower, parsnip and garlic are a match made in heaven, especially with an extra dollop of plant-based yogurt.

Once I had the base of my dish, I knew I needed something a little more substantial on the plate. So, I opted for the basic white potato and crisped them up as far as I was allowed to push the colour palate boundaries.

And then–to really make it sing, a fresh slaw of white cabbage and fennel.

What I really love about this dish is its complex simplicity. The ability to take simple ingredients, cook them in simple ways and with simple flavours, but when you pair their simplicity together, you create something that builds upon itself to create these rather complex flavours.

The flavour bounces off each other and perfectly marries into one overall bite.

Beige food has a bit of a bad reputation, I think. It’s normally associated with deep-fried, battered or processed food, but it can actually be something quite magical.

There are more naturally white wholesome ingredients than you think, allowing you to still capture the taste and texture qualities you are always looking for in a good, well-rounded meal.

This dish has that silky smooth purée that is packed with the sweet roasted garlic flavours that linger on the back of your tongue.

The crisp slaw rounds it all off coated in an extra thick creamy gloss made from the yogurt and mayo.

You can serve the slaw without the dressing if you prefer something with a little zing. Just omit the yogurt and mayo and add in a glug of olive oil, or some extra lemon juice instead to really give it some oomph.

It’s kind of reminiscent of a Sunday Roast, to me. The cruciferous and root vegetable flavours; the miniature versions of a proper roast potato. You could easily add a deliciously spiced nut roast packed with apricots to this dish and have a true celebratory meal. A nut roast is beige–kind of… right?!

Even though you probably will want to head back for seconds, if you find yourself with some leftovers, you can always water the cauliflower and parsnip purée down with some plant-based cream. This will make a delicious soup for the next day. Chop up any leftover potatoes and re-crisp in a pan or in the oven to make mini ‘croutons’ and you are good to do.

I had so much fun creating this recipe. I’m so used to packing my recipes with all the different colours of the rainbow, so I really had to get creative with finding and cooking ingredients of the same colour.

It’s definitely a challenge I’d love to take on again, and would love to know what you would create for dinner if you could only use white ingredients?

Enjoy the recipe, love Niki xx