Saffron infused tri-color pasta

Served with spicy triple colored Cauliflowers and Red Onion pickled salad

VEGAN, VEGETARIAN, GLUTEN-FREE OPTION, NUT-FREE

On one of our recent visits to a Persian restaurant, we were pleasantly surprised with a dish there – Penne pasta served Persian style – Saffron flavored. Although we were a bit skeptical about the flavor profile, we were brave enough to order it 😆 … and of course it turned out to be absolutely delicious. It was served with a delicious red onion and parsley salad which was also really unique. 

So, what comes next? We wanted to try it out at home, of course! 

It was Sunday and we decided to cook up a heavenly meal for lunch. Here was our ambitious menu – tri-color pasta infused with Saffron and just a touch of garlic. Served with tri-color Cauliflowers roasted with plenty of red pepper flakes. (Since the pasta did not have any spice, we decided to make the cauliflowers spicy.) We also attempted the red onion salad. 

So all of us got down to work – I put a pot of water to boil and cooked the pasta; 

My 12 year old – my sous chef – chopped up all 3 heads of cauliflowers 👏 kudos! We got white, yellow and purple heads. 

Tip – if you don’t find yellow cauliflower, toss white florets with turmeric 

We coated 1 white cauliflower with plenty of turmeric to make it yellow. So we got white, yellow and purple cauliflowers for the tricolor. We roasted them to a nice crunchy texture. 

Meanwhile, my 16 year old got down to slicing the red onions very thinly, again immensely happy with his knife skills …. another round of applause 👏. After I chopped up parsley, he went about finishing up the salad by adding parsley, lemon juice, salt, and a dash of rice vinegar.

Finally we made the simple Saffron sauce by infusing it in warm olive oil along with some garlic. This dish is very simple and will stand out with just the majestic Saffron flavor. The underlying garlic will add a little bit of oomph without overpowering. 

What’s the verdict? Needless to brag 😇 everything came out as expected and we all were super satisfied. 

What a pretty picture – we had all the colors of the rainbow on our plate. Happy Sunday! 

Triple color Roasted Cauliflowers – toss 3 colored florets with salt and red chilly flakes. Coat with Olive oil and roast in a hot oven at 450 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Take care to keep the colors separated and serve! 

Red Onion pickled salad – 

• 1 large Red Onion sliced thinly
• 1 cup Parsley finely-chopped
• 1 Lemon squeezed
• 1 tsp Rice Vinegar
• 1 tsp Olive Oil
• Salt

Toss together all the ingredients and set aside to marinate. Serve with any main course. 

Try our other fun pasta dishes –

Spicy Sweet Potato pasta with Curried Broccoli and Green Beans

Minty, spicy and creamy Fusilli pasta with Kale and Carrots

Creamy green lentil pasta with edamame and parsley