A Vegetable-First Dinner, From Habit Not Principle

No dishes, no meat, a lot of protein!

From as far back as I can remember until I was about eighteen, I was a vegetarian. Not the casual kind—this wasn’t a phase or a “sometimes I eat chicken” situation. I genuinely didn’t like meat. The texture, mostly. It bothered me enough that I just opted out.

So I learned how to cook vegetables properly.

I didn’t rely on wheat-heavy substitutes or crank the heat just to make things feel exciting. I spent years figuring out how to build real satisfaction with vegetables alone—using spice, acid, fat, and texture so dinner felt complete without trying to impersonate something else.

I eat meat now, but I still default to vegetable-forward meals. Not out of restraint or rules—just preference. This is where my cooking naturally lands.

This harissa cauliflower comes from that place. Roasted until deeply golden, chickpeas for substance, spice that wakes things up, lemon to keep it sharp, and yogurt to pull everything back into balance. It’s warm, grounding, and genuinely filling—the kind of dinner that reminds you vegetables were always enough.

It also happens to be one pan, which never hurts.