A healthy Greek Cauliflower stew with mellow potatoes that soak all the delicious flavors of the herby and spiced, light tomato sauce. Served with raw extra virgin olive oil and a big piece of feta cheese on the side!
Table Of Contents
For Greeks, any vegetable can be the main ingredient for a delicious veggie dish. Like for example Green Beans turned into a Green Bean Stew, eggplants to make a Baked Eggplant Imam, or Artichokes to make this delicious Baked Artichoke Casserole and so much more. Because in Greece, whatever is available (in season) in your garden can be your lunch or dinner.
This delicious Cauliflower stew is another bright example of this. This nutritious winter vegetable is turned into a flavorful stew with minimal effort and only a few other ingredients (mainly pantry basics).
In Greece, we call it Kounoupidi (=cauliflower) Yiahni (=in tomato sauce).
How To Make
To make stewed cauliflower in tomato sauce you need to roast the cauliflower in the oven first. This is done to preserve its crispness but also to enhance its flavor by rubbing it with olive oil, herbs, and spices. No need to cook it for more than 10-15 minutes as it will get cooked in the sauce as well. We only give it a light roasting.
Second, prepare the tomato sauce and stew the potatoes in it. Until they become knife-tender. And I say knife because fork-tender is a tad more cooked. We don't want them to cook completely, just to become tender enough to run a knife through them.
Lastly, add the roasted cauliflower to the pot and cook for half an hour to 40 minutes until there's only a little sauce left.
Recipe Tips
- We want the sauce to be absorbed by the potatoes almost completely. When you remove the food from the heat allow it to sit for 30 minutes. This will give time for the potatoes to absorb the sauce even further resulting in truly flavorful and mellow potatoes.
- Use a starchy potato variety such as Russets or Yukon Gold to help thicken the sauce.
Make It Low-Carb
You can skip the potatoes in this recipe and use meat in their place to make low-carb meat and cauliflower stew. For instance use chicken cut in quarters, chicken thighs, or drumsticks. Or even pork neck or shoulder cubes. Beef for stew also works well in this recipe.
To use meat in place of potatoes just follow the same cooking process. Sear the meat and cook it in the sauce until tender before you add the roasted cauliflower.
Can I Make It With Other Vegetables?
Sure you can! Broccoli of course is the second best option here, but eggplant, zucchini, and even cabbage also make a delicious stew. If using cabbage skip the roasting, cut it into chunky pieces, and saute it together with the potatoes.
Serve With
This stewed cauliflower in tomato sauce is best served with a drizzle of raw extra virgin olive oil on top and a big piece of feta cheese on the side. The salty, savory feta pairs so well with the sweet flavors of this stew.
I like adding a squeeze of lemon to it as well (I just can't stop using lemon on tomato sauce dishes after figuring out how well these two pair).
As for side dishes, try a Spicy Red Pepper And Feta Dip, or a Crispy Cheese Pie. These deep-fried Keftedakia are also a delicious side dish to this stew!
Recipe
Cauliflower Stew With Tomato Sauce And Potatoes
Ingredients
- 1 kg (2.2 pound) cauliflower in chunky florets
- 650 grams (1.4 pounds) potatoes peeled and cut into 5 cm (2-inch) pieces
- extra virgin olive oil
- 100 grams (1 small) onion minced
- 2-3 garlic cloves finely chopped
- 2 teaspoons tomato paste
- 400 grams (14 ounce) whole canned tomatoes
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- ½ teaspoon sweet paprika
- 2 bay leaves
- 5-6 allspice berries
- 1½ teaspoons sweet red pepper flakes or spicy if you prefer
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- salt and pepper
- 2 cups hot water or vegetable stock
- Optional: feta cheese to serve with
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°C / 390°F.
- Prepare the cauliflower. Add the cauliflower florets to a parchment paper-lined sheet pan. Season with salt, pepper, thyme, coriander, and paprika. Drizzle lightly with olive oil and toss to combine.
- Roast cauliflower for 10 to 15 minutes until it gets some color here and there. Take out of the oven and set aside.
- Heat a generous splash of olive oil in a medium-sized cooking pot.
- Saute onion and garlic until translucent.
- Add the potatoes and saute as well for a minute or two.
- Add the tomato paste and cook for a minute stirring with a wooden spoon.
- Pour in the canned tomatoes. Break them into smaller pieces with the spoon.
- Add the dried oregano, pepper flakes, allspice, bay leaves, and season with salt and pepper.
- Pour in 2 cups of hot water (or vegetable stock) and bring to a simmer over moderate heat.
- Cook covered until potatoes are tender when you run a knife through them (don't let them overcook to the point they start to fall apart though).
- Add the cauliflower to the pot and put the lid back on. Cook for 30-40 minutes more shaking and tilting the pot now and then. Don't stir with a spoon so it won't become mushy. Take the lid off towards the end and raise the heat a bit if necessary to help the sauce thicken. There should be only a small amount of sauce left in the pot.
- Take the pot off the heat and allow the food to sit for 30 minutes for the potatoes to absorb the sauce even more.
- Serve drizzled with extra virgin olive oil, freshly ground pepper, and a big piece of feta cheese on the side!
Really delicious. I added a little lemon juice (lemon juice seems to make everything even better). A lovely recipe which I'm sure we'll be eating often. Εφχαριστω' Fotini!