Anna Paul Inspired Turkish Spiced Cauliflower Steaks
Course: Main4
servings
If you spend any amount of time on social media, you’ve probably seen Anna Paul’s viral Turkish pasta recipe taking over food feeds. Anna introduced the world to this comforting pasta dish that features heavily spiced ground beef combined with noodles coated in a garlic yogurt sauce, topped with a sizzling, buttery drizzle infused with red pepper flakes. As soon as I saw it circulating online, I knew I had so make some kind of iteration.
Having traveled to Turkey before and being familiar with the flavors, I felt comfortable taking Anna’s dish in a new direction, marrying the flavors with one of my winter obsessions: Cauliflower Steaks.
While my other Cauliflower Steak plates used my tried and true oven method, I recently received an air fryer and was curious to see if I could make it work. IT DOES! If you don’t have an air fryer, never fear, my fool proof oven method is here. But the air fryer method is much simpler.
These Anna Paul Inspired Turkish Spiced Cauliflower Steaks look impressive, and are easy to make, but the dish does have several components:
1. Tomato Cucumber and Chickpea Salad
2. Aleppo Pepper* Butter
3. Garlic Yogurt Sauce
4. Cauliflower Steak
5. Turkish Spiced Beef
To build the Anna Paul Inspired Turkish Spiced Cauliflower Steak Plates, you dollop the Garlic Yogurt Sauce onto the plate, then spread it into a circular base upon which you will place your Cauliflower Steak. Then, top the Cauliflower Steaks with the Turkish Spiced Beef followed by the Tomato Cucumber and Chickpea Salad and drizzle with the remaining Aleppo Pepper Butter.
*Some recipes for the Viral Anna Paul Pasta online call for Urfa biber, which is a type of Turkish chili pepper, but I could not find it here in Miami, so I used Aleppo pepper. Both Urfa fiber and Aleppo pepper are Turkish chili peppers with rich, complex flavors, but they have key differences in taste, heat level, and preparation, with Aleppo pepper being a little hotter and Urfa biber a little smokier.
Ingredients
1 large head of cauliflower (if you can’t find a large one, use two small)
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp Aleppo pepper, divided
1 tsp smoked paprika, divided
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp sumac
1/2 tsp dried oregano
Kosher salt
1 cup canned chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/2 English cucumber, diced
1 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1/4 cup chopped mint
2 small lemons
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, divided
black pepper
1 1/2 cups Greek yogurt (I prefer 2%)
3 peeled garlic cloves, divided
1/2 small white onion
4 tbsp butter
1 lb. ground beef (chuck is ideal, but something leaner will work too)
Directions
- Slice the base off the cauliflower and cut away any pieces that aren’t connected to the stem end (save them for roasting another day). Slice the remaining slab of cauliflower vertically into two, 1-inch thick slabs. These are your “steaks”. Set aside.
- Prepare the spice blend: In a small bowl combine the cumin, 1 tsp Aleppo pepper, 1/2 tsp smoked paprika, ground cinnamon, sumac, oregano, and 3/4 tsp Kosher salt. Set aside.
- Prepare the salad: In a medium bowl combine the chickpeas, diced cucumber, quartered cherry tomatoes, parsley, mint, 2 tbsp lemon juice (from one of the small lemons), and 1-2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil. Season to taste with Kosher salt and pepper.
- Prepare the yogurt sauce: Using a microplane grater, zest the remaining lemon and add to the Greek yogurt along with 1 tbsp lemon juice, 1 garlic clove grated using a microplane grater (or minced), 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil and Kosher salt to taste. Refrigerate until ready to use.
- Dice the onion finely and slice the 2 remaining garlic cloves thinly.
- In a small frying pan, melt the butter over medium low heat and whisk in the remaining 1 tsp Aleppo pepper and 1/2 tsp smoked paprika. Pour half the butter into a heat safe dish (like an 8 x 8 glass Pyrex baking dish) and keep the remaining butter in the frying pan on a low burner.
- Coat the cauliflower steaks with the Aleppo pepper butter (the half you poured out) using your hands or a pastry brush to ensure they are evenly coated with the butter. Season the cauliflower steaks lightly with Kosher salt and place in your air fryer basket. Air fry the cauliflower steaks at 400° (F) for 15 minutes, flipping once.
- Place a large sauté pan (12-inch) on the stove over high heat. Season the ground beef with 1/4 tsp Kosher salt. Place the beef into the pan and press into one large meat disk, covering the entirety of the sauté pan. Do not stir the beef. Allow the beef to cook until a fragrant crust develops. Once this occurs, break up the beef slightly using a spatula and slide it over to one side of the pan to create a little of bit of room for the onion and garlic. Tilt the pan so that the residual fat pools on the now empty side. If there isn’t 1 tbsp of beef fat in pan, add a small amount of your preferred cooking oil. Add the onion and garlic to the pan and reduce the heat to medium high. Sprinkle a small bit of salt over the onion/garlic mixture and stir to combine. Add the spice blend to the beef and stir to combine. Once the onion/garlic mixture has softened, stir it into the beef and cook the mixture until the beef is thoroughly browned.
- Build the plates by dividing the yogurt sauce equally between the 2 plates and spreading it into a 4-5 inch diameter circle. Place 1 cauliflower steak on top of each plate. Divide the spiced beef between the plates, spooning it right on top of the cauliflower steaks. Top the spiced beef with the tomato cucumber and chickpea salad. Drizzle the remaining warm butter over the plates and serve immediately.
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