Kokako's crown pumpkin salad

Ted Baghurst

Here's a gem from this fair-trade friendly cafe's new menu - roasted crown pumpkin, raw cauliflower and jalapeno salad with chipotle aioli and almonds. Thanks to their hard skin, crown pumpkins are readily available for most of the year - and so are cauliflower, which are put to their crunchy, raw best in this salad.

Roasted pumpkin

600 g	Crown pumpkin, roasted (Main)
20 ml	Canola oil

Cauliflower salad

200 g	Cauliflower, grated
40 g	Jalapeno chilli, sliced
40 g	Fresh coriander
20 g	Spring onions
1	Lemon, freshly juiced
20 ml	Olive oil
40 g	Sliced almonds, toasted

Chipotle aioli

200 ml	Aioli
2	Chipotle chillies, boiled and pureed until smooth

Directions

1. Peel and slice crown pumpkin around 1cm thick. Season and oil and roast in a 200C oven for 25-30m or until golden brown. Remove and keep warm.
2. In a small pan cover chipotle chillies with water and bring to the boil. Simmer for 15 minutes and allow to cool in the liquid. Finely chop drained chipotle chills and stir through aioli.
3. In a large bowl grate cauliflower and combine with jalapenos, chopped coriander, sliced spring onion, juice of 1 lemon, olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
4. On a warm plate arrange roasted pumpkin in a circle. Carefully heap cauliflower salad in the middle. Drizzle with chipotle aioli and a sprinkling in toasted almonds.