Whole Roasted Cauliflower with Vegan Mushroom Croquettes

Pre-heat the oven (fan-forced) to 200C

Remove the leaves from the based of the cauliflower - being careful to keep it whole.

Boil the kettle, and submerge the whole cauliflower in the boiling water with 1 tsp of salt. This will kill any microorganisms that hide in the caulie-crevices. Leave for a few minutes, then rinse under cold water.

Steam the whole cauliflower for 5 mins. I did this in a thick cast iron pot with about 2cm of water at the bottom, on a stove top on a med-high heat.

Crush the whole coriander seeds in a mortal and pestle, releasing the beautiful fragrant aroma's. Add the crushed seeds to a small bowl, along with the olive oil and salt.

Once the cauliflower has steamed, remove from heat and drain. Place the steamed cauliflower back into the cast iron pot, and baste in the coriander/oil basting.

Bake in the pot with the lid on for 20mins on 200C. Drizzle over a bit more olive oil if need be, and remove the lid and bake for a further 10mins, creating a beautiful golden brown surface.

Remove from oven, but keep in the pot with the lid off. Keep the oven on for the croquettes - to 180C

Heat the olive oil (or peanut oil) in a pan on a medium heat. Saute the finely diced onions for about 5 mins on a medium heat. Basically you want to sweat them first - to release their sweetness. Once they've sweated, increase the heat so that the start to slightly brown on the bottom.

Once the onions begin to brown, add 1 Tsp of salt and the finely chopped garlic and saute for a further 5-8mins until beautifully golden brown. Remove from the pan and place into a mixing bowl. Keep the pan for the mushrooms.

Next you'll want to finely chop up all the mushrooms. Add another tsp of olive oil to the pan you used to saute the onions. On a medium heat, saute the mushrooms until soft - approx 3-5mins. They should cook down and produce a bit of moisture/water to the pan. This is great as this liquid will help bind all the ingredients.

When cooked down, remove from the heat and add to the onions in a mixing bowl

In a blender/nutribullet add the walnuts, 2 tsp salt, nutritional yeast, phsyllium husk and almond meal and blend until fine.

Add the dry ingredients to the mushrooms and onion and mix well until all combined. You can, at this stage, use a blender to combine the ingredient (if you're wanting a finer consistency) but I just mixed without.

Use your hands to squeeze the mixture and then shape into croquette shapes, and place them on a lined baking tray. 

Bake in the oven at 180C for 15-20mins until golden brown. This mixture makes about 14 croquettes (depending on each individual size)

Serve on a plate of greens, fresh baby tomatoes and creamy avocado.