Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Roasted Cauliflower... a great "MEAT"

As I’ve said before, I LOVE roasted vegetables. I just read that roasting, steaming or BBQ’ing as opposed to frying and boiling (ewwww!) helps to retain much more of veggies vital, life giving nutrients.




Cauliflower is a POWERFUL anti-tumor/anti-cancer veggie… AND it’s PACKED with Vitamin C and folate… SO EAT UP!!!



As soon as we boil any veggies, they lose a TON of vital compounds and nutrients. I DON’T BOIL ANY VEGETABLE AT ALL.. ever, unless I’m making a stock… then I boil it until its unrecognizable. I roast or BBQ all my veggies. Boiling turns them gray, and get’s ‘em soggy. Gross. Oh wait… I can’t say I don’t ever boil… When I make Broccoli salad with olive oil and lemon juice, I 2 MINUTE BLANCHE the broccoli, and I mean 2 minutes, and place them into an ice bath to stop the cooking… so, I guess that’s not technically boiling. Okay, back to the cauliflower…



Ahem…



I didn’t eat meat yesterday, {I only eat it every other day if I feel like it} so I made my veggies “look” and “taste” like meat. Cauliflower was my muse…



Here’s what I did… I washed it, patted it dry, took off all the green leaves, cut the stem to make it level with the head, and CUT IT INTO CAULIFLOWER STEAKS…






Cauliflower "steaks"

and seasoned them with salt, pepper, and dill. I placed them on a foiled lined cookie sheet (to ease clean up) and heated my oven to 400.







All roasted and gorgeous!

And after about 30 minutes or so, this is what they looked like… Its delicous like this… I ATE THE ENTIRE CAULIFLOWER myself for lunch… It takes on a very different, sweeter, nuttier flavor after its roasted. There is so much you can do with this… Cut it up and sprinkle with lemon juice, for a delighful salad, puree it to make “Mock Mashed Potatoes” and add white bean puree to it to give it texture…



It makes a gorgeous side dish, placed on the plate whole, or serve it to a vegetarian as “steak” so they can eat with everyone else… I do this same method with Eggplant, broccoli, carrots, big red onions (all onions really) and large, steak like slices of cabbage…SOOO GOOD!!!

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