Our Romanesco Salad is brimming with zingy flavour. Wow, your guests with this stunning-looking vegetable. Its nutty flavour is just sensational tossed in our tangy caper dressing.
If you have never tried romanesco then you are in for a real treat, like broccoli and cauliflower but so much milder, sweeter, earthier and oh so tender.
You Will Need
How to Make It
Step 1 - Prepare Your Romanesco
You prepare Romanesco pretty much as you would cauliflower. Wash it under cold running water remove the stem and leaves.
Break it into florets.
Drop your florets into your rapidly boiling water, add a pinch of salt, then boil until tender (be careful not to overdo it and turn it to mush). Approximately 3-5 minutes.
As it is much more tender than either broccoli or cauliflower which means that it does not require long to cook, so keep an eye on it so it doesn’t turn to mush. Try it blanched, char-grilled roasted or sautéed.
Once cooked strain over the sink in a colander, drain well and add to a large mixing bowl.
Step 2 - Prepare the Other Ingredients
Trim, peel and finely dice the red onion.
Then dice your dried tomatoes, if you are using sun-dried tomatoes in oil make sure you rinse the oil off first and pat dry.
Wash, dry your parsley then pick the leaves from the stems and roughly chop.
Use a peeler to make parmesan flakes.
Step 3 - Blitz the Dressing
Place all your dressing ingredients in a small food processor or high-speed blender.
Season and blitz until well combined, taste and adjust seasonings to your liking.
Step 4 - Assemble the Salad
Add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl with your romanesco florets and season.
Pour over your dressing and toss to combine.
Arrange in a salad bowl and scatter the Parmesan flakes to garnish, serve and enjoy!
Serving Suggestions
The delicate flavours in romanesco lends itself beautifully to fish and seafood dishes or white meats such as chicken or pork.
We served it with some lightly grilled salmon fillets but it is also great with baked snapper, roast porchetta or with a herb-roasted chicken.
Tips and Questions
What is Romanesco?
- This vegetable gets it's stunning spiralled pinnacles from a naturally occurring Fibonacci sequence. It is part of the brassica family along with other veggies like cauliflower, cabbage and kale.
- It is has lime green, yellow florets that are tightly packed in conical clusters with a distinct nutty flavour and can be prepared much like you would regular cauliflower or broccoli.
- While it can be compared to both broccoli and cauliflower it is not a cross between the two but a product of selective breeding by 16th century Roman farmers (hence the name).
What Can I Use Instead of Romanesco?
If you can’t find this gorgeous brassica then you can easily replace it with any type of cauliflower that takes your fancy or even with broccoli, broccolini even some raw zucchini ribbons would also work well in this salad.
A Word About Dried Tomatoes
- I much prefer using vacuum packed dried tomatoes instead of the sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil because I feel they have a much more intense tomatoey flavour.
- You can also use the ones in oil for this recipe, rinse and dry them thoroughly before adding to your salad
Can I Make It Ahead?
- Yes this is a great make ahead salad that can be made several hours in advance. The more you allow the romanesco to sit in the tangy lemon caper dressing the tastier it will become.
- This dressing can be made 4-5 days in advance and kept in a sealed container in the fridge.
- You can also prepare the day before, First blanch the romanesco and stir through the dressing. But, add the remaining ingredients on the day.
How to Meal Prep for Lunches
- This romanesco salad makes a great weekday lunch option, the longer it sits in the dressing the tangier almost pickley it becomes ?.
- Make up the salad and portion into containers, for added protein try some flaked salmon, grilled chicken or chickpeas for a vegan option.
Some More Brassica Salads to Try
Recipe Card
Equipment
- Bullet or High Speed Blender or Small Food Processor
- Colander
Ingredients
- 1 head romanesco (approximately 680 grams / 1.5 lbs)
- ½ red onion (approximately 60 grams / 2 oz)
- ¼ cup parsley chopped
- ¼ cup dried tomatoes1 diced finely
- Sea salt and cracked black pepper
- ⅓ cup olive or avocado oil
- ¼ cup lemon juice freshly squeezed
- 4 tbsps capers
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 2-3 anchovies optional use 2 tsps nutritional yeast for vegan
- 2 tbsps Parmesan flakes2 optional you can use nutritional yeast for vegan
Instructions
- Place a large pot of water on your stove to boil. Wash your Romanesco and cut out the core, then break into florets.
- Drop your florets into your rapidly boiling water, add a pinch of salt, then boil until tender (be careful not to overdo it and turn it to mush). Approximately 3-5 minutes.
- Once cooked strain over the sink in a colander, drain well and add to a large mixing bowl.
- Trim, peel and finely dice the red onion.
- Then dice your dried tomatoes.
- Wash and dry your parsley then pick the leaves from the stems and roughly chop.
- Place all your dressing ingredients in a small food processor or high speed blender.
- Season and blitz until well combined, taste and adjust seasonings to your liking.
- Add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl with your romanesco florets and season.
- Pour over your dressing and toss to combine.
- Arrange in a salad bowl and scatter the Parmesan flakes to garnish, serve and enjoy!
Video
Notes
- I much prefer using vacuum-packed dried tomatoes instead of the sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil because I feel they have a much more intense tomatoey flavour. But you can also use the ones in oil for this recipe, rinse and dry them thoroughly before adding to your salad
- You can make your own parmesan flakes by using a vegetable peeler.
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