People equate being vegan 🌱with sacrifice. They assume that you’ve got to compromise on taste, flavor and comfort so that you can accommodate your moral position. However, the more vegan you become, the less you even think about non-vegan options; that’s the truth!
But, Sunday…
Sunday roasts! Sometimes I crave a traditional roast “feeling”—crispy roasted potatoes, a delectable main focus and steamed or roasted veggies to round out the “comfort-food”—to sit at the table with family and dish out “dinner” that is “anticipated” and know is going to hit the “spot”.
So! What about cauliflower? Really! Cauliflower has become the world’s most versatile vegetable. Hehe! Chefs have been using it to make pizza bases, all nature of crumbles and even “cauliflower steaks”—marinated and baked to perfection. What I wanted was a crispy, flavourful, tasty main focus, so I settled on the idea of making a cauliflower “schnitzel”—with a lemon, herb and garlic crumb! Sounded good to me. I was also after a smooth sauce to dip my schnitzel into and avocado seemed like a decent option.
Here goes…
Sunday roast—
Herb, lemon and garlic cauliflower schnitzel served with avocado 🥑 hummus, crispy roast potatoes 🥔 and roasted broccoli 🥦
Crispy Lemon and Herb Cauliflower Schnitzel. Vegan Sunday Roast
The Schnitzel and Roasted Broccoli
- â…› of a loaf of wholewheat or brown bread for crumbs (one day old bread)
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 lemon (for the peel)
- 1 tin of chickpeas (for the aquafaba)
- 1 teaspoon ground flaxseed
- 1 cauliflower
- ½ broccoli
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
The Avocado Hummus
- ½ avocado
- 1 tin of chickpeas (balance of the tin from above)
- Juice of ½ lemon
- ÂĽ cup vegetable oil
- Handful of Italian parsley
- 2 cloves of garlic
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
The Air Fryer Roast Potatoes
- 1 and ½ medium potatoes per person
- Vegetable oil
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Schnitzel
Dice the garlic 🧄 and grate the peel from the lemon 🍋 . Break up the bread. Add bread, peel, garlic and salt and pepper to a blender. Crumb the contents.
Add the bread mixture to a shallow dish. Add ½ the juice from the chickpea tin to another shallow dish. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of ground flaxseeds over the aquafaba. Blend the flaxseeds into the chickpea juice.
Wash and dry the cauliflower and broccoli. Slice the cauliflower into 1 ½ cm slices. Break any remaining cauliflower into florets. Break the broccoli 🥦 into florets
Dip the cauliflower slices in the aquafaba mixture. Coat throughly. Then dip each slice into the lemon and herb crumb mixture. Coat throughly.
Grease a baking tray. Lay the crumbed cauliflower on the baking tray. Sprinkle the balance of the bread crumb mixture onto the tray. Sprinkle the slices with vegetable oil. Bake in a medium to hot oven for 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and turn the slices over. Add florets of broccoli to the tray. Scrape the crumbs over the broccoli. Sprinkle broccoli and cauliflower slices with vegetable oil. Return to the oven until the crumb mixture browns and the cauliflower and broccoli are tender, but still firm about 18-20 minutes.
Avocado Hummus
Dice garlic, dice Italian parsley. Juice half a lemon. Rough dice ½ avocado.
Add garlic, lemon juice, avocado and parsley to a blender along with chickpeas from 1 tin. Add ½ the vegetable oil and 2 tablespoons of aquafaba to the blender. Pulse to blend, then blend in intervals of 20 seconds, scraping down the sides of the blender as you go and adding vegetable oil as needed to get the consistency you prefer. Add salt and pepper. Stir to combine.
Air Fryer Roast Potatoes
Dice potatoes into quarters. Add to a pot of cold water and cook until fork-tender.
Drain. Return to empty pot, shake the pot to rough up the potatoes slightly. Sprinkle with 2 ½ tablespoons of vegetable oil.
Lay onto the air fryer tray and roast at 190% Celsius for 10 minutes
Shake the tray.
Roast until slightly brown and crispy. About 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper.
Serve with a garden salad or slices of tomato and wedges of lemon.
All images are my own, shot with my iPad and manipulated using Art Studio
The recipe was developed by me