In season, fresh cauliflower is a vegetable I love to pick up at the supermarket and marvel at. I don’t always have predetermined plans for my freshly acquired produce, but this recipe is for just such occasions.
Whole-roasting cauliflower might seem an odd thing to do in already warm weather, but it’s an easy addition to your repertoire while the veggie is in-season and cheap. It can be served as a warm side, a cold salad, with leftovers, as a bento filler, a bibimbap topping or a curry add-on. It truly is the simple dish that keeps on giving.
Piccalilli (aside from being fun to say) is a style of lightly spiced cauliflower mustard pickle, the result of South Asian flavors integrated into colonial British cuisine. Rather than a literal piccalilli, here the term is more of an adjective describing a tart dressing flavored with turmeric and mustard to pour over a roasted brassica.