Pomegranate Cauliflower Salad with Chestnuts

Imagine little roasted florets sprinkled with red seeds against a backdrop of bright green tendrils. This Pomegranate Roasted Cauliflower Salad is a recipe bursting with contrasting flavours and textures.

Why I Love Pomegranate Cauliflower Salad with Chestnuts

These 3 ingredients make up some of my favourite things to eat and is a healthy cauliflower recipe. I couldn’t wait to jump at the opportunity of creating a salad that would incorporate all of them.

The crunchy seeds of the pomegranate against the powdery texture of the chestnuts are so contrasting. Whilst the bitterness of the snow pea sprouts is offset by the sweetness of the honey in the dressing.

It is also a visually pretty salad. Pomegranate just makes everything look so good!

Why I Love Chestnuts

Chestnuts were a snack we had all the time when we were growing up. We always bought our chestnuts from the same local street vendor in the market in our neighbourhood.

The heat in Malaysia is stifling throughout the year with very little respite. Chestnuts are roasted in a mammoth wok and stirred through very hot coal.

Every time I approached the vendor, I was completely engulfed in a bubble of heat and I always wondered how they could stand in front of that wok for hours on end.

The roasted chestnuts were ordered by weight. The vendor would scoop out the chestnuts and place it in a colander to separate the coal from the chestnuts. He would then weigh the chestnuts on an old school scale.

Like most things in Southeast Asia back then, everything was wrapped up in newspaper.

The vendor would make a cone shape out of the newspaper and put the chestnuts in it. It was always too hot and too fiddly to eat whilst walking so we had to wait till we got home. Total torture with the smells wafting throughout the car!

How to Peel Chestnuts?

Peeling chestnuts back then was hard work so my sister and I never bothered.

Well, truth be told, mum spoilt us, and we took full advantage of it. She would sit on the couch and very patiently, peeled the hard-outer shell, which she pinched between her fingers. Then she would painstaking peel off the inner husk.

One of my fondest memories was when she would literally toss the chestnuts into the air and between my father, my sister and I, we would bulldoze each other out of the way in an attempt to catch it!

The best time to peel chestnuts is when they are still hot as the inner husk separates from flesh. Chestnuts can be either roasted or boiled but before you do so, cut a small X on the tip.

With the heat, the X on the outer shell will open up slightly giving you a small window to get your fingers in there to pry it open.

How to Cut Cauliflower Florets?

Cutting the cauliflower into small florets make for pretty salad ingredients.

Snap off the green leaves at the base of the cauliflower. Then cut off the big stem as close as you can get to the florets.

Then with a smaller knife, I dig in and cut the cauliflower off from the smaller stem in its natural cluster. Sometimes the florets are too big. Place them upside down and cut smaller florets off from the stem again.

In floret form, they become really versatile and you can present them in so many different ways to create completely different looking salads.

These Tofu Skin Salad with Cucumber and Cauliflower and Purple Cauliflower Salad with Lemon Mustard Tahini are the prefect example of how a little imagination can go a long way.

How to Deseed A Pomegranate?

I use the whacking method! It is definitely messier, but I find it is faster and de-seeds with minimal wastage without bruising them.

Cut the pomegranate in half. Stretch the fruit a little to help loosen the seeds from the shell then place it flat on the palm of your hands over a bowl. I prefer to do this in the sink to reduce the mess.

With a wooden spoon, whack the back of the pomegranate. The seeds will start to fall through your fingers into the bowl. The white parts of the pomegranate will inevitably fall in too so be sure to remove them when you’re done.

Pomegranate feature sin quite a few of our salads, including our dessert fruit salads if you were looking for something different to serve at the end of your meal: Red and Green Fruit Salad with Vanilla Persian Fairy Floss and Pomegranate and Red Dragon Fruit Salad.

How to Make Pomegranate Cauliflower Salad with Chestnuts

How to Roast Chestnuts

Let’s start this process with the ingredient that takes the longest to prepare. The chestnuts. Cut an X on the top of the chestnuts to create a small opening. Place in the oven at 200°C or 400°F for 25 minutes.

Once they are done, remove the baking tray and allow it to cool but don’t let it go cold. The outer shell and inner husk are easier to peel off when they are warm. Chop them into small pieces when they are peeled.

Prepare the Pomegranates and Onions

Whilst the chestnuts are roasting, deseed the pomegranate as above.

Slice the onion and caramelise in a pan. The onion will add to the sweetness of the salad and help to offset the bitterness of the snow pea sprouts.

How to Roast Cauliflower

Prepare the cauliflower florets as above, place them in a mixing bowl and add some olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

After the chestnuts are done, place them in the oven for 10 minutes at 180°C or 350°F. After 10 minutes, remove the sheet pan and turn the cauliflower florets so they are evenly roasted. We are looking for those nice brown tips.

Allow all cauliflower, onions and chestnuts to cool down and then mix all these ingredients together. Be gentle as you don’t want the cauliflower to disintegrate.

How to Make the Honey Yoghurt Dressing

Using a mortar and pestle, pound the cumin seeds as much as you can. You don’t want the whole seeds in the dressing. Pounding the seeds releases the pungent flavours better than just adding cumin powder.

Add the seeds to the yoghurt and honey and mix well.

How to Assemble the Salad

This roasted cauliflower salad requires layering rather than placing everything in a bowl and mixing everything into one large clumpy, creamy salad.

Select a shallow platter rather than a bowl.

Place half the snow pea sprouts at the base of the platter.

Put half the mixed salad ingredients on the top.

Pour half the yoghurt on the top or spoon them out in dollops.

Then place the rest of the snow pea sprouts on the top.

Then add the remaining salad ingredients and then the dressing.

Do not mix it all and serve as is.

If you prefer you can always serve the dressing on the side and guests can help themselves. I would make extra dressing though as guests seem to always scoop out much more than they need.

This salad is a mouthful of contrasting textures and flavours. Sweet vs bitter and powdery vs crunchy. Eaten together with that creamy honey yoghurt dressing is simply yum!

That’s all!

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