{ enough for 4 tacos }
This is the most exciting food I have eaten in a while. And with that I’m not saying that the food I eat is usually boring, no, I’m saying that this is fucking awesome. Pardon my … not French.
Cauliflower may not be the most exciting thing you can think of, but what if it’s deep fried in a batter full of beer? I mean… Come on. And thrown in a soft shell corn taco with avocado creme, pickled red onion, pineapple pico de gallo and then excitedly squirted with fresh lime juice? What if it looked like this?
It doesn’t get much better than that!
The Beer Battered Cauliflower
- 1/2 of a cauliflower
- 100 g flour / spelt or other
- 25 g cornstarch
- 125 ml beer
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 chili powder
- 1/4 black pepper
- 2 tablespoons of chia gel*
- Enough oil for deep frying
*whisk 1 tablespoon ground chia with 3 tablespoons of water; leave for 15 minutes to thicken.
Cut the cauliflower into little nugget sized chunks and set aside. Heat up the oil in a pot over a medium to high heat. Mix all the batter ingredients and dunk a little pea sized amount of the batter into the oil to test if it’s ready; if it is ready, it will bubble happily. Place a few cauliflower chunks at a time in the batter, let them drip off and then place them in the oil; flip a few times and cook until golden brown. Place on paper towel.
The Pineapple Pico De Gallo
- 1/4 of a pineapple
- 1 small red onion
- 10 San Marzano tomatoes
- 1 handful of cilantro
- 1 clove of garlic
- Salt and pepper to taste
Finely dice the pineapple, the red onion and the tomatoes. Try to leave out the watery and seedy part of the tomatoes. Chop the cilantro and garlic. Toss in a bowl with salt and pepper to taste.
The Avocado Creme
- 1 avocado
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon cane or coconut palm sugar
- 1/2 of a lime / just the juice
- Salt and pepper to taste
Scoop out the avocado and place in a little blender, mini chopper or food processor. Blend until completely smooth. Add the remaining ingredients to taste and blend again. Pour into a bowl and place in the fridge until ready to use.
Other great garnishes:
Shredded red cabbage
Pickled red onion
Fresh corn
Chili mayo
Fresh lime
Enjoy!
Living in Alaska, my family used to do a lot of beer battered halibut. Now that I’m vegan though…this might have to be on the menu. Seriously genius!
Parsnip is also a great vegetable to beer batter!