Drain the chickpeas and give them a quick rinse, drain and set aside.
Place the stock in a small saucepan. Crush the saffron and drop into the stock. Heat this stock up on the smallest ring and on the lowest setting, while you get everything else going.
Prep Work - Vegetables
Chop up the cauliflower into bite-sized pieces.
Drain the marinated vegetables and slice any overly big pieces.
Dice the onion (chop it up fairly finely).
Slice the tomatoes into rings and set aside.
Roasting the Cauliflower
Cut the cauliflower into bite-sized pieces.
Arrange the cauliflower pieces on a baking sheet and drizzle 1 Tbsp of EV olive oil all over. Sprinkle a ¼ tsp of salt and some freshly ground black pepper and roast for about 20 at 180˚C/350˚F. Flip halfway through the cooking time.
Let's fry the Onions and Chickpeas
Heat the olive oil in the saucepan over medium heat.
Sauté the onions for 2 minutes.
Tip in the drained chickpeas, allspice, turmeric, salt and a few good twists of pepper. Stir and cook for 1 minute to let it heat up.
Mix the cornflour and water and drizzle this onto the chickpeas and stir well. Cook for 2 minutes on medium heat. Take it off the heat, stir in the lemon juice and set aside.
Let's assemble and cook our Vegetable Maqluba
Grease your saucepan of choice all over. Then start with the layering the bottom with the sliced tomatoes. You'll get 2 layers. Season with salt and pepper, a small sprinkle will do.
Add the marinated vegetables and season with salt and pepper. No need to separate the different vegetables. Pack down with a potato masher.
Follow this with the cauliflower. Season and pack down.
Next, add the chickpeas, once again flattening. But gently, as you don't want to cruch the chickpeas.I forgot photos for this step.
Finally the rice, pack, flatten, season with salt and pepper.
Take a small saucer, place it face down on the rice (or use the back of a large spoon), and slowly pour all the stock in. This stops a gap/hole appearing in the rice as you're pouring the stock in. You also don't want to mess up the packed rice and vegetables.
Place the pot on the stovetop, turn the heat on high for 2-3 minutes to bring everything up to simmering point although you'll probably only see the edges bubbling. When you start seeing the bubbles at the edges, move on to the next step.
Put the lid on, turn the heat right down and cook for 40 minutes. Then, take it off the hot hob and leave the maqluba to rest for 10 minutes before unveiling.
Take a large plate or serving platter, place it over the pot. Holding the plate tightly against the saucepan, give it a gentle shake. This will loosen the packed rice slightly. Now, gently ease the saucepan off the plate and you'll be left with a beautiful maqluba tower.You can see me doing this on the traditional maqluba recipe video at 12:15 minutes.Scoop up any stuck bits and place on the top of your tower and then scatter with the pine nuts and chopped parsley.If you packed the saucepan as mentioned, it shouldn't collapse. But if it does, no big deal, scatter with pine nuts and parsley and pretend that's what you were going for!
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F, for the cauliflower.