Cauliflower salad with dates and pistachios

This is merely a template for what I consider an excellent warm vegetable salad: a sturdy vegetable roasted until nearly scorched at the edges but still a little bite inside, so it doesn’t collapse into mush. Something salty and crunchy; here I’m using chopped salted pistachios but you could use another nut or sunflower seeds. Next it needs something complex like pickled or roasted onions; here I’m using segments of scallions because I have scallions more often in my fridge than I have almost anything else. A warm salad can handle an extra-zippy dressing, as the heat mutes it, so I’m using a whole lemon in mine, but to harmonize, I’ve also added bits of chopped dried dates (but other dried fruit would work too). Together this is perfect for me, and I hope it takes very few tweaks to be perfect for you too.