Cauliflower Tabbouleh with Pickled Radish “Boils”

Immersive Ten Plagues Seder Menu: Plague 6 – Boils

Serves 6

Prep time: 15-20 mins | Pickling time: up to 24 hours (for the Radishes)

There’s nothing painful about our ‘boils!’ This refreshing tabbouleh salad is super simple to make, and with its zesty pickles on top, it is the perfect counterbalance to the rich unctiousness of our chicken marbella. This dish does require a little pre-prep, as the radishes should ideally be prepared the day before, but it’s only about 5 minutes’ worth, and the effect of the pickling on the radishes looks great, so stick with us!

This is an excellent way to use up any leftover radishes if it’s your custom to use them for Karpas and you have more than you need. And, of course, if cauliflower isn’t your thing, you can always use the radishes to top a green salad, or serve them on their own. If you don’t have any radishes you can substitute these with halved cherry tomatoes (but we’d skip the pickling process here!).

Ingredients

For the Tabbouleh:

• 1 medium Cauliflower
• 60g (1 cup) chopped Parsley
• 20g (⅓ cup) chopped Mint
• ½ large Cucumber
  deseeded and finely chopped
• 100g (~ ½ cup) Pomegranate Seeds (optional)
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Juice of a Lemon

For the Boils:

• 5-10 Radishes
• Juice of a Lemon
• 1 tbsp Sugar

Method

1. The day before you need this salad
   Clean your radishes and slice the tips off either end, then slice in half.
2. In a lidded container mix together juice of a lemon and 1 tbsp of sugar. Mix until the sugar is dissolved, then toss your radishes in the mixture, cover and leave in the fridge until needed. You don’t need the whole radish to be covered but if you feel there isn’t enough pickling liquid, add a little water.
3. You can prepare the entire dish one day in advance, but it is best if the rest is as fresh as possible.
4. Section your medium cauliflower into quarters, clean and dry thoroughly, before grating on the small-holed side of a grater. It should appear like a fine grain.
5. If you have a muslin you might want to pile your cauliflower grain in and squeeze over a sink, because it can retain a lot of moisture, but this step is optional. We’ve done it both with and without squeezing and it tastes great either way.
6. Set the cauliflower to one side, chop up mint and parsley and deseed and dice your cucumber.
7. Just before serving, in a large bowl, toss together the cauliflower, the herbs and the pomegranate seeds (if using).
8. Add salt and pepper (to taste), a generous tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and the juice of a lemon. Toss together.

Top with your pickled ‘boil’ radishes and serve at room temperature.

Serving Suggestion

The cauliflower in our recipe represents the soot that Moses threw towards the heavens to trigger the plague of boils. We don’t endorse throwing cauliflower, but you certainly could throw extra herbs or pomegranate seeds over the salad as garnish when you place it on the table!

Photo credit: Sophy Weiss Photography