Harissa Roasted Cauliflower with Dates & Pine Nuts

This recipe is from the Foraged Dish archives. It’s a favorite this time of year, and the photos were old (and embarrassing! 😛). I made it for dinner recently and took the opportunity to reshoot, and write simpler directions. Recipe is the same!

Cauliflower: under-the-radar fall veggie (squash gets all the glory this time of year), but versatile, well-loved, and absolutely delicious. In this dish, the cauliflower gets tossed in harissa for a touch of heat, and then mixes with rich dates and pine nuts. Lemon zest and parsley brings brightness. A great side dish for a fall dinner party.

Harissa Roasted Cauliflower with Dates & Pine Nuts

Published August 23, 2016 by Caitlin Sherwood

Serves: 4   |    Active Time: 30 active minutes

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Ingredients:

1 head cauliflower

2 tablespoons Harissa paste

2 tablespoons olive oil

Salt & Pepper

1/4 cup pine nuts

1/4 cup dates, pitted

Small handful parsley, flat leaf

Zest 1/2 lemon

1 tablespoon rosemary

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450°F. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk Harissa paste with olive oil. Cut cauliflower into bite-sized pieces. Place florets in bowl, and toss in Harissa mixture. Spread out on sheet pan, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake for 20 minutes, until crisp on edges and tender. Set aside.
2. Meanwhile, toast pine nuts in a small skillet over low heat until golden. Watch them closely to avoid burning.
3. Roughly chop dates, and mince parsley and rosemary.
4. When cauliflower is ready, transfer it to a serving bowl. Add additional salt or pepper to taste. Zest half a lemon over the cauliflower.
5. Sprinkle dates, pine nuts, parsley, and rosemary over cauliflower and serve.

Chocolate Chip Energy Bites

This is an older recipe from Foraged Dish that I wanted to spruce up with new photos and a video. These energy bites are so darn delicious — they’ve been in my snack draw at work and I SO look forward to snack time each day! 

Last week I went on a hike in the Front Range with nothing in my bag but my camera, my phone, and a ziplock stocked with these Chocolate Chip Energy Bites. I thought I had my car key too, until 30 minutes in when — oh no! - I noticed the pocket where I keep my key was open. Open and empty. 

I immediately turned on my heels and spent the whole hike downhill with my head turned down, eyes constantly scanning the trail. I tried to soothe my inner chatter box, which, by the time I made it back down to the trailhead with no sign of my keys in sight, was freaking out.  In the end, I had to call for a ride to go get a spare key (thanks, Dad!). 

But I digress. Casualties of hiking alone are not what this post is about!

These energy bites call for only six ingredients and they just go into your food processor and you roll them up. That’s it!  Why macadamias and cashews? Macadamia nuts are extra buttery, which lends very well to this recipe, which taste a lot like a healthy version of cookie dough! At the same time, cashews are a bit starchier than most nuts, and their sweet flavor also gives these bites a bit of a “cookie dough” flavor. 

Mini chocolate chips are best in this recipe because they distribute into each energy bite well. Each bite has a bit of chocolate and a bit of nut mixture, which sticks everything together. 

Happy hiking! Take these with you — and don’t lose track of those keys!! 

Chocolate Chip Energy Bites

Published January 15, 2018 by Caitlin Sherwood

Yield: 12   |    Active Time: 20 minutes

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Ingredients:

1/3 cup dates, pitted

1/2 cup macadamia nuts

1/2 cup cashew pieces

Pinch of salt

1 tablespoon honey

3 tablespoons mini chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Add dates, macadamia nuts, cashews, salt, and honey to bowl of food processor. Secure lid on food processor and run until the nuts are ground into a corse meal that begins to clump.
2. Add mini chocolate chips to food processor and pulse, 2-3 times, just until chocolate is evenly distributed.
3. Scoop a heaping tablespoonful of the mixture into your hands and roll into a ball. Repeat until all of the mixture is used.
4. Enjoy immediately or store in an air-tight container in the fridge.

Maple Ginger Red Kuri Squash

The unconventional Christmas has been my convention--my Dad was always a proponent of getting out of town during the holiday blur and Christmas at my moms was always lighthearted and casual with new recipes. We rarely ate the same thing year over year, choosing to test out creativity with ingredients like kuri squash, maple syrup, or ginger. 

The first year we left the country for Christmas I was probably eleven. We headed south, to Cuba, where the weather is hot and humid. The climate was so unlike the winter I knew that it was easy to forget what time of year it was all together. It felt like a surprise when Christmas day finally arrived and the plaza surged with people. Christmas in Cuba came and went without warning, though the people were jolly, and the festivities left a looming smell of tobacco on everything.  

Christmas in Vietnam was even more jumbled. On the coast it was again hot and humid, but with no national religion there were zero signs of silver bells or holly. Distracted by the sites, we barely noticed, until Christmas Day arrived, and children and adults alike crowded the streets wearing red Santa Claus hats. It was a confusing site to be honest: was this an expression of skepticism, celebration, or some of both? The next day all traces were gone. 

Two years later Christmas came and went without much more than a bat of an eye. I can't even tell you where in India we were on that day-- perhaps in a train car, or eating in a roof-top restaurant. The next week we went and saw the Dalai Lama speak and that was our gift, though the thought of presents was far out of mind. Perhaps that trip is part of why ginger is now nestled so close to my heart. 

The next year I spent Christmas at home. The snow came. We decorated our small tree. My mom got a coupon to The Honey Ham Store and we went and stood in line (for what felt like hours). My dad and I went to Christmas dinner and there were hand knitted sweaters, stockings, and snowy family hikes. I spent the week mystified. I guess people really do these things? These...Christmas things? Ugly sweaters? Those aren't just in movies? It was as if I had never experienced a Christmas before in my life though I most certainly had--and not just abroad, but back home, before the traveling began. Still, there was something about my age that left me with a little culture shock. 

I still shy away from the whimsy: flashing lights, long lines of people, shopping malls. Perhaps it's because of those years abroad or maybe I was never cut out for it (I do hate shopping). What I do love is bringing everyone together over a meal in the middle of an otherwise frosty winter. Touches of green (pine branches, eucalyptus wreaths, rosemary trees), glowing candles, and cozy dishes that warm your soul. Maple syrup is an ingredient that does that, don't you think? 

Maple Ginger Red Kuri Squash

Paleo, Primal, Gluten-Free, Grain-Free    |   Caitlin Sherwood    

Ginger, maple syrup, and butter are baked with red kuri squash.

Serves: 4   |    Total Time: 50 minutes

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Ingredients:

• 1 red kuri squash
• 1 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 1 heaping tablespoon fresh ginger (grated on microplane)
• Sprinkle of sea salt flakes

Directions:

1. Preheat over to 350° Half the squash and remove the seeds. Then, cut into wedges. Place in baking dish.
2. Melt butter in small dish. Stir in ginger and maple syrup. Using a brush, spread mixture over squash wedges. Sprinkle with salt.
3. Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until squash is cooked through and crisp on edges.