Spiced Cauliflower Roti with Lentils and Pickled Onion

This is one of those meals that is much more fun put in the middle of the table than carefully arranged on individual plates. You have warm homemade rotis, roasted spiced cauliflower, soft garam masala lentils and sharp lime-pickled red onions, then everyone can pile theirs up however they fancy.

The recipe was created by Oliver Lean while he was a student at The Vegan Chef School, and I originally shared it here because I thought it was such an interesting way of turning something as ordinary as a cauliflower into the main part of dinner.

There are a few different elements to make, so I wouldn’t describe this as one of my quickest weeknight dinners, but none of them is particularly complicated. You can also get the onions pickling while everything else cooks, and once it all reaches the table it makes a lovely sharing meal.

What are these rotis made from?

The rotis in this recipe are a little different from traditional wheat-based roti or chapati because they’re made using gram flour and tapioca flour, along with coconut oil and water.

Gram flour, sometimes labelled chickpea flour, is made from chickpeas and has a slightly nutty flavour. Combined with the tapioca flour, it produces a flexible flatbread that can be used to scoop up the lentils and cauliflower or folded around the filling.

If you’ve never made your own flatbreads before, don’t worry too much about producing sixteen perfectly circular rotis. Mine certainly wouldn’t all be identical! What matters rather more is rolling them reasonably thinly so they cook through properly in the pan.

The spiced cauliflower

Cauliflower is brilliant at taking on spices because on its own it doesn’t have an overpowering flavour. Here it is tossed with garam masala, turmeric, oil and salt before being roasted until tender with slightly charred edges.

Those browned bits are worth waiting for. There’s a big difference between cauliflower that has merely become soft in the oven and cauliflower that has actually started to roast and caramelise around the edges.

If you enjoy cauliflower cooked this way, have a look at my cauliflower and chickpea curry too. That’s a much saucier dinner but uses the same idea of pairing cauliflower with warming spices.

Garam masala lentils

The lentils make the meal much more substantial and provide the soft, savoury part of the filling alongside the roasted cauliflower.

They’re cooked with onion, garlic, ginger and garam masala until very soft, so you don’t want firm salad-style lentils here. The finished mixture needs to sit nicely inside the roti rather than rolling straight back out again!

If garam masala is one of those jars you’ve bought for a recipe and aren’t entirely sure what it actually contains, my guide to garam masala explains more about the blend and ways you can use it.

Don’t skip the pickled red onions

The quickest part of the entire recipe might also be one of my favourites. Thinly sliced red onions are simply covered with fresh lime juice and left for at least ten minutes.

They add a lovely sharpness against the warmer spices and richer coconut-oil rotis. I’d definitely make them even if you usually look at optional-looking accompaniments and decide you can’t be bothered. I do that too, but sometimes the little extras really do make the finished meal better!

You could prepare the onions a little earlier if that makes life easier and leave them to pickle while you get on with everything else.

Making the rotis

Once the dough is mixed, divide it into roughly 16 pieces and roll each one into a small, thin round. You may need a little extra flour on your worktop and rolling pin if the dough starts sticking.

Cook them individually in a hot non-stick frying pan, turning once bubbles begin to appear and the underside has started to brown. Once each one is cooked, put it onto a plate and cover it with a clean tea towel while you cook the others.

Covering them matters because you don’t want the first few becoming dry and stiff while you’re still standing at the hob cooking number fifteen!

How to serve spiced cauliflower roti

I think this is best served as a sharing meal. Put the roasted cauliflower, lentils and pickled onions into separate bowls, pile up the warm rotis and let everyone make their own.

Fresh coriander and a little extra chilli are easy additions for anyone who wants them, while a spoonful of yoghurt works nicely against the spices. Use a plant-based yoghurt if you’re keeping the whole meal vegan.

If you’ve got people around the table with very different attitudes towards chilli, serving chilli flakes separately is much easier than making the entire meal hot and discovering someone doesn’t want to eat it.

Is this recipe vegan?

Yes, the base recipe is vegan, including the rotis, cauliflower, lentils and pickled onions.

Just check any extras you serve alongside it. If you’re adding yoghurt, choose a plant-based version to keep the meal vegan.

For more meat-free curry-night ideas, my vegetarian curry recipes collection has plenty more to choose from, including chickpea and vegetable curries.

Can I make any of it ahead?

There are several components here, so doing absolutely everything at once can make the kitchen feel busier than it needs to.

The pickled onions are an obvious one to prepare ahead, and the lentils can also be cooked earlier and reheated thoroughly when you’re ready to eat. I’d rather have the cauliflower freshly roasted if possible because that’s when you get those lovely slightly charred edges.

The rotis are nicest warm from the pan, but if you’re making sixteen of them you’re inevitably going to have some sitting around while the rest cook. Stack them underneath a clean tea towel as you go and they’ll stay softer and warmer.

A few more curry-night ideas

Although this isn’t a curry in the traditional bowl-of-sauce sense, it fits brilliantly into the sort of meal where you’d otherwise be tempted to order several dishes from a takeaway.

You could serve the cauliflower and rotis alongside my easy aloo gobi, add air fryer onion bhajis, or choose one of my curry recipes if you’re feeding more people and want several dishes in the middle of the table.

If you’re specifically looking for another vegan curry, my cauliflower and chickpea curry is an easy one, while the one-pot chickpea curry is packed with lentils and vegetables too.

About the recipe creator

This recipe was created by Oliver Lean while studying at The Vegan Chef School in London, under chef and founder Day Radley.

I always think it’s worth being clear about that because this isn’t a recipe I developed myself. I’ve shared it on Just Average Jen because it’s a lovely example of how vegetables, pulses and spices can become a really interesting meal without needing meat or a long list of expensive meat substitutes.

If you’re someone who usually thinks of cauliflower as the slightly boring vegetable pushed around the side of a Sunday dinner plate, this is a considerably more exciting way to use one!

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