Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Pumpkin and Butter Bean Hummus

Don’t know about you but I when I was a kid, I was always excited about Christmas and I am happy to say that nothing has changed!

I loved waking up to a filled pillowcase left by Santa and I loved staying awake at the hope of meeting the fat guy. My mum will tell you that I gave her a tough time, insisting that I want to see the big man and have a chat with him.

Payback is a bitch, because my 2 boys have certainly taken a page out of my book in this regard.  It was an all too familiar scene on Monday night (Christmas eve) in our home, except this time I was the mum, trying to get the boys to bed so we could get on with the wrapping of the gifts. Yes I love reading on how to be more organised but have I put that plan into action?… No!!!

I spent most of my day on Monday getting gifts for the boys while hubby entertained them at home. Over breakfast hubby and I discussed the menu for Christmas lunch and the plan for the day, which went like this…. I would go out shopping for the gifts and would give him a call when I’m almost done. He will go into the garage, open the boot (trunk) of his 1964 Chrysler Valiant so that I can hide the gifts in there. He loves old cars and the car is famous, it was used in the Madiba TV Mini series staring , Laurence Fishburne. We had to find a spot to hide the gifts because the boys have a way off sniffing out gifts, but ask them to find their swimming trunks, toys or the remote for their RC cars, suddenly the can’t see anything…. I call it ALOO eyes…. (Potato eyes…. Potatoes instead of eyes)

Whilst I was shopping at the mall, the boys and their dad washed and cleaned the Valiant, immaculately might I add, as it was going to be used for a friends wedding the after Christmas. So I get back from the mall and as planned I get the gifts out of my car and into the valiant boot.

Fast-forward a couple of hours. Dinner and bath time done and dusted, so I went to get on with some preps for our Christmas lunch and table. It’s approaching 10pm and the boys are asking to stay up and meet Santa…seems like dejavu!!!

Eventually we get them to bed. I get back to my table deco and hubby heads off to the garage to get the gifts. A minute later he is back empty handed. “Have you seen the Valiant keys?” he asks. Now … I have naturally big, bold eyes, so you can imagine  the gremlin staring back at him. “What do you mean, have I seen the Valiant keys?” Huffs, puffs, F78k’s !!! , This was your plan, your key, your responsibility!!!

Is this another case of Aloo eyes????

So off we both go to the garage to look for the keys and half an hour later we still can’t find them. Could the keys be locked in the boot? We searched the garden, the house, under the beds, asked the kids in their sleep, asked the cats…. Nada!!!!

So that’s it…. Santa will not be stopping by at our house…oh no can you imagine their faces tomorrow?

It’s now past 11pm. I’m searching on Google how to unlock a 1964 Chrysler Valiant trunk (boot) without a key, hubby is looking for the 3 spare keys that he just told me he “had”. I even got a paper clip stuck in the boot keyhole.  We can’t let this happen to the boys!!! As time is going and its now almost 12pm we decide to get the back seat out so that we could get into the boot to get the gifts. So after sweating and shouting and working together we did it!!!

But still no key and now we still have to wrap all these gifts.

We shouted a little and laughed a lot, opened a bottle of bubbly, wrapped the gifts, said Merry Christmas and eventually headed off to bed at around 2h30am.  Sanity restored in our home. Hubby and I received the best gift on Christmas morning when the boys told us where “they” had kept the Valiant keys.  

After the night I had, I was happy to head into the kitchen to get on with Christmas lunch.

Like everybody we eat loads on Christmas day but somehow I get bored with the side veggies.  We had the regular meat and chicken but instead of the boring veg, I decided to pimp it up a bit, after all it was Christmas. We had mussels for starters. Recipe to be posted in the new year. 

I am going to share my Roasted Cauliflower Salad with a pumpkin and butter bean hummus sprinkled with dukkah. Hands down this was the winning dish of the day!!! And oh so easy to make!

Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Pumpkin and Butter Bean Hummus sprinkled with Dukkah

800 grams cauliflower florets

Olive oil

500 grams pumpkin cubes

3 cloves crushed garlic

1 tin butter beans, rinsed and drained

1 teaspoon cumin (jeera) powder

Juice of 1 lemon

1 teaspoon sesame seed oil

Smoked Maldon salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Good sprinkling of dukkah spice

Dressing

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Glug of olive oil

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

handful freshly chopped Italian parsley

Preheat oven to 180/ 350

Combine cauliflower, salt, pepper and olive oil and spread on a lined baking tray

Spread pumpkin on another lined baking tray

Pop them both into the oven

The cauliflower takes about 20 minutes; it should be nicely browned, not charred

When the cauliflower is ready, allow it to cool

Roast the pumpkin until soft, about 40-50 minutes

Whilst the veggies are in the oven you can get on with your hummus

In a food processor, combine the butter beans, garlic, salt, pepper, cumin, sesame oil and lemon juice and have it ready for the roasted pumpkin

When pumpkin is roasted add to the processor and blend until smooth or as chunky as your prefer

Check for seasoning

Combine the dressing ingredients with the cooled roasted cauliflower

Spread humus onto your plate, top with roasted cauliflower, sprinkle with dukkah from a dizzy height and make sure this side dish is seated right next to you on the table!