I’m a happy omnivore, there’s no doubt about that. I love meat and vegetables equally.

That said, every meal I make doesn’t have to have the perfect meat/dairy/grain/veg ratio. For me, balanced eating means eating a variety of nutritious foods in a variety of ways.

On Sundays, instead of a roast I’ll often make a big pot of curry. Often after a trip to our local greengrocer, I’ll come back with a big, beautiful cauliflower. I always buy the cauliflower with the intention of making a healthy, low-fat soup, but this never actually happens – I end up making these fritters, instead.

If we’re having curry, I will fry them by the spoonful in an attempt to make something like a pakora. If we have fresh greens, I’ll make a big pancake-style fritter and we’l have that for dinner instead of the curry.

With an easy dipping sauce, fresh torn mint, some cucumber and fresh salad leaves, these fritters are unbelievably good.

If you like cauliflower you will love these, I promise. I use chickpea (also called gram) flour, but they are just as good made with plain white flour.

Cauliflower fritters

Serve smaller portions alongside your favourite curry, or make these larger portions to serve with a fresh and tasty salad. \ Janine Kennedy

Makes six large fritters or 12 smaller ones

1 large cauliflower head, roughly chopped and steamed until tender

200g gram (chickpea) flour, or an equal amount of plain flour

2 eggs

Juice from 1/2 lemon (or a whole lemon if it's small)

2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 tbsp mild curry powder

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 red chilli, finely diced (take out the seeds/membrane if you don't want much heat)

1 tsp fresh grated ginger

2 cloves garlic, minced

For the sauce:

2 tbsp mayonnaise

2 tbsp store-bought mango or mint and coriander chutney

Squeeze of lemon

Pinch of salt

To serve:

Sliced cucumber

Salad leaves

Red onion (optional)

Cherry tomatoes

Fresh mint

  • 1 Steam the cauliflower and let cool. Once cool, use your hands to break it up into smaller pieces. Add to a large mixing bowl.
  • 2 Add the eggs, gram flour, salt, spices, lemon juice, garlic, chilli and ginger to the cauliflower and mix well to combine (again, I just use my hands - you can also use a big fork).
  • 3 Heat a nonstick pan on medium high and add a generous amount of oil. Fry either six large fritters or 12 smaller ones on each side until golden brown. Remove from the pan and drain any excess oil on kitchen towel.
  • 4 While still warm, mix the sauce ingredients together and dollop on top of the fritters. Top with fresh vegetables and mint. These are also great (reheated) the next day or served on the side of your favourite curry.
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