This recipe is all about layering flavors, colors, and textures to create a gorgeous vegetarian showpiece. The cauliflower, smoked whole, is a vegetable that truly shines with a good lick of dairy, be that cream, cheese, or the soy sauce and butter combo used here. You can of course replace the dairy butter with a plant-based alternative to make it vegan. Simply add a bowlful of steamed rice for a sharing main course for two or serve it as a side dish for a crowd.
Cauliflower: Boiled then Smoked
Cauliflower is a super dense vegetable that takes, perhaps surprisingly, a long time to cook, especially when kept whole. This recipe leans on parboiling the cauliflower to help jumpstart the cooking.
Simply bring a big pot of lightly salted water to a boil and plunge the cauliflower in for 5 minutes or so before draining and carrying on with the recipe. This cuts down the time on the grill and makes the surface more permeable for soaking up smoke and the flavors of the marinade.
Ciara Kehoe / Délice Maison
Take Your Time with the Shallots
For the satay sauce, I use echalion shallots (aka banana shallots)—as their name suggests, they are long in shape. They are larger and less fiddly to peel and finely dice, but any regular shallot would work just fine. Regardless of what sort you use, cook them super slowly over low heat to release all those natural sugars and intensify its flavors. It should take you about 15 minutes.
Yellow Fingers are Worth It
Do use fresh turmeric root if you can get hold of it. It looks a little like skinny ginger root, but it’s vibrant yellow inside. Fresh turmeric is way zingier and more citrusy in flavor than ground turmeric. Can’t find fresh turmeric? Use ground!
A word of warning: Your fingers will turn yellow when you grate them, so do wear gloves if that will bother you. I wear my yellow fingers as a badge of pride, a celebration that I managed to track down this sometimes-elusive ingredient.
Ciara Kehoe / Délice Maison
How to Set Up Grill for Indirect Heat
The cauliflower is slowly cooked over indirect heat, meaning the fierce fire should not be right below it. Here is how to set up your grill for indirect grilling:
For a charcoal grill : Light the coals on fire and place them on one half of the grill. For a gas grill : Only light half of the burners, keeping the other side off.
Away from the lit coals or above the burners kept off, you’ll get indirect heat. That’s where you will place the cauliflower.
How to Set Up Grill for Smoking
In this recipe, the cauliflower is smoked. Charcoal doesn’t produce smoke so you’ll need to add smoking wood. For my charcoal grill, I pop one or two fist-sized lumps of wood chunks on top of the lit coals before shutting the grill lid. On a gas grill, you can just rest a chunk of wood over each lit burner. If it smothers and falls off the burners, just add another one.
The Best Wood for Smoking
I don’t worry about the species of wood I use to smoke when there’s already a lot of flavor going on, like in this recipe. Oak, apple, cherry, or hickory are all great options. I always advise fist-sized chunks of wood placed on the lit coals or burners rather than small wood chips, which burn too fast.
Ciara Kehoe / Délice Maison
Plan Ahead for Hands-Off Smoking
This is a great recipe to prep up to 24 hours ahead and keep chilled until you are ready to grill. To plan ahead:
Make the spiced soy butter
Chop the cauliflower leaves and base stem, and drizzle in the sesame oil
Parboil and drain the cauliflower
Make the satay sauce, and warm it through again before drizzling it on the smoked cauliflower
Then, it’s just a question of firing up the grill and sitting back while it slowly smokes. Hands-off barbecue at its best!
How to Serve the Whole Cauliflower
I grill the cauliflower in a sturdy roasting tin, which I walk straight to the table for serving. No need to transfer it into a separate serving platter. The cauliflower will be soft and tender enough to scoop with a large spoon for serving.
Ciara Kehoe / Délice Maison
Highlight Grilled Vegetables
