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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. If you cannot find Aleppo pepper or Urfa biber, cayenne pepper, or ground Ancho or Chipotle pepper would work too.
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)
Sarah is a classically trained chef and Mom whose passion is spreading the gospel of salad. A native New Yorker, she now calls Miami, FL home.
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