Recipe: Kokako's Crown Pumpkin Salad

Kokako Cafe's roasted crown pumpkin with raw cauliflower salad and chipotle aioli. Photo / 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.

For a guide to what else is in season at the moment, try this handy wall chart from Commonsense Organics or this one, from Healthy Food Guide.

Roasted Pumpkin

• 600g roasted crown pumpkin
• 20ml canola oil
• salt and pepper

Cauliflower Salad

• 200g grated cauliflower
• 40g sliced jalapenos
• 40g coriander
• 20g spring onion
• juice of 1 lemon
• 20ml olive oil
• 40g toasted sliced almonds
• salt and pepper

Chipotle Aioli

• 200ml aioli
• 2 chipotle chillies, boiled and pureed until smooth

Method

1. Peel and slice crown pumpkin around 1cm thick. Season and oil and roast in a 200 degree 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 15mins 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.

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.

Get more info on Kokako here, or drop by their vegetarian cafe at 537 Great North Road, Grey Lynn. To make sure you're on the list for more recipes, sign up to our newsletter. We're also on Facebook and Twitter.