.
.
I don't love cauliflower. I don't dislike it either, but it seldom occurs to me to buy it, cook it, or eat it.
My friend Guppy sang the praises of roasted cauliflower and I thought I'd give it a try. Wonderful stuff. Roasting does a cauliflower good.
Roasted Cauliflower
Cut a head of cauliflower into approximately 1 inch pieces.
Toss the pieces in a little olive oil and sprinkle with some salt and pepper.
Spread in one layer across a cookie sheet and roast in a 400F oven for ~20 minutes until the cauliflower is soft and lightly caramelized.
My test eater, who loudly expressed his displeasure at the sight of cauliflower in the shopping basket, declared roasted cauliflower to be "magic" and his new favourite vegetable.
The popular South Beach Diet book suggests steaming cauliflower until quite soft and then "mashing" it with an immersion blender until you end up with something that could reasonably replace mashed potatoes.
I tried it, and ended up with something that could reasonably replace wallpaper paste. Not good. Not even edible by my standards.
But a with a little tinkering I eventually ended up with something that I really liked.
Mashed Cauliflower with Maple Pecan Crust
Break 1 head of cauliflower into pieces
Steam until very soft
Mash with an immersion blender
Salt to taste
Add a pinch of nutmeg and a pinch of cinnamon, stir to blend.
Transfer the mash to a baking dish or individual ramekins.
Roughly chop a handful of pecans
Sprinkle the pecans with a little bit of cinnamon and scatter over the cauliflower mash.
Drizzle a little bit of (sugar free, if you're really serious about the low carb stuff) maple syrup over the pecans
Bake in a 400F oven until the pecans start to caramelize.
No matter what you do to it, you're never going to get cauliflower to taste like mashed potatoes (and why would you?) but this does make a very tasty side dish that I'd be happy to serve in place of spuds.
Posted by sasha at 09:36 PM Comments (3)