Meatless Monday: Cauliflower Marranca

It's not particularly photogenic, but it tastes really good!

A recipe from the original Moosewood Cookbook. Made a few changes - added tomatoes, used quinoa, measured the added fat, and added the crunchy topping. I'm not against fat but it does carry a heavy caloric punch. You need some to carry flavor and give richness but I see no point in gilding the lily, as my mom would say. The original gave no amounts for the fat (butter in the original) at all.

This is a good recipe to use up bits of cheese. Two cups is enough, but you can add a bit more, if you want to use up what you've got.

Cauliflower Marranca
(serves 6-8)

non-stick cooking spray
1 pound mushrooms, chopped or sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
3 ½ Tablespoons oil, divided
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained
½ teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
1 medium head cauliflower, cut into florets and core cut into bite-sized pieces
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt
black pepper
1 Tablespoon fresh or frozen chopped basil
3 cups cooked quinoa or brown rice
2 - 2 ¾ cups grated cheese (jack, mozzarella, cheddar, manchego)
¼ cup dry bread crumbs

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a large casserole dish with cooking spray and set aside.

Heat 1 ½ Tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and onion. Sauté for 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and their juice, and the oregano. Cook until most of the liquid evaporates. Add ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon black pepper. Pour all this into a large bowl.

Wipe out the pan, add 1 ½ Tablespoon oil, and heat over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, cook for 30 seconds, then add the cauliflower and 2 Tablespoons water. Cover tightly and reduce the heat to medium. Steam cauliflower until tender, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Pour into bowl with mushrooms. Add chopped basil, cooked quinoa/rice, and cheese. Taste and add additional salt and pepper, if needed.

Pour into the prepared dish, cover, and bake for 25 minutes (35 minutes if the grain is cold). Combine the bread crumbs with ½ Tablespoon oil and mix until all the crumbs are moistened. Raise the temperature of the oven to 425°F. Sprinkle the bread crumbs evenly over the top of the casserole. Return to the oven, uncovered, to bake until top is browned and crunchy, about 10 minutes.

Let sit for 5-10 minutes. It is very hot right out of the oven and it's easier to serve if allowed to set up.

Best if reheated in the oven to keep the topping crunchy but it reheats OK in the microwave too.

Adapted from Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen, Ten Speed Press, 1977.

Cauliflower-Leek Soup for The 52 New Foods Challenge

I've been reading The 52 New Food Challenge by Jennifer Tyler Lee, the creator of Crunch a Color. I received a pre-release copy. It's hitting the shelves this week and it's a thoughtful guide for getting more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains into your family's diet. The recipes are simple for each of the 52 foods featured in the book. If you are introducing a new food into your diet, one you've never tried before, do you really want to spend a lot of time on a dish you may not love? The important thing thing is to try it, and the recipe shouldn't become a barrier to that.

One of the chapter titles, "Keep Trying, Together," really resonated with me . Sometimes, it takes time for children (and adults too!) to like a new food. That means trying it more than once. The book has great tips for how to make this work:

• Use a reliable favorite like a stir fry or frittata. It's amazing how many new foods can work in a frittata!
• Experiment with tastes and textures. My daughter refused to eat the florets of broccoli but loved the stems. 
• Walk the Talk. I'm surprised when I hear about parents trying to get their kids to eat something new, and they don't want to eat it themselves. This is a learning process for everyone and the adults have to take part too.

There are lots of other creative tips for getting the 52 new foods into your family's diet. I think that's what makes this book so wonderful. Trying new foods can be intimidating and we all need ideas on how to make it work. The suggestions are positive and take the drama out of the situation. Who wants to battle with the kids (or maybe your spouse?) over eating some bok choy? Wouldn't you rather have some tools that help you and your kids through the process of trying a new food? This book has them. 

In the spirit of the book, I created a super-simple soup. Soup is another tasty way to add new foods to your diet. This recipe doesn't hide the cauliflower and the leeks, but they don't look like themselves. Their flavors shine through, however. The potato helps to thicken the soup without any cream. 

Cauliflower-Leek Soup

(serves 6)

4 medium leeks, white and light green part only

2 Tablespoons butter or olive oil

1 clove garlic, minced

about 4 cups cauliflower florets

5 ½ cups chicken or turkey stock

1 medium red potato, peeled and diced

½ teaspoon salt 

½ teaspoon black pepper

1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice

some possible garnishes: grated nutmeg, chopped chives, chopped parsley, a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil, grated lemon zest

To clean the leeks, make a cut lengthwise through each leek. Wash them well by immersing them in a bowl of water and swishing them around so that you loosen up any sand in between the layers. Leeks are infamous for hiding dirt between the layers. Thinly slice them crosswise.

Heat up butter in a soup pot over medium-high heat. Add garlic and leeks. Cook, stirring, until leeks are limp, about 4 minutes. Add cauliflower, stock, potato, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce to a simmer. Cook for 25 minutes until cauliflower is very tender. Puree soup in a blender or in the pot using an immersion blender. Return to the heat and add the lemon juice. Check for salt and add more if needed. To serve, ladle into a bowl, and garnish with one of the possible garnishes, or none of them, if you prefer.

Cauliflower with Orange Sauce

By http://www.flickr.com/photos/calliope (http://www.flickr.com/photos/calliope/54833239) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0) or CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Cauliflower is one of my favorite vegetables. Unlike green vegetables, it's nearly impossible to overcook. You have to intentionally cook it to death to even make it mashable, which has become a popular preparation of late. That bullet-proof cook-ability  makes it the perfect vegetable for new cooks. You overcook broccoli and it's gross. You overcook cauliflower? It still tastes just fine.

This recipe is a riff on a richer orange sauce. That sauce contains lots of butter and it's thickened with a roux*, which explains all that butter. This is lighter, which is fine for most of us. We don't need quite that much butter - there is still some for flavor but I used a cornstarch slurry for thickening. Chinese stir fries are thickened with cornstarch, and it's a great technique for thickening sauces without a lot of fat (in fact, you could use no fat).

Though there are folks who believe that we should all eat our vegetables unadorned by fat, I find this is rather spartan. My philosophy is a little bit of tasty fat, like butter, goes a long way to making our vegetables more tasty. If that small bit of richness gets you to your vegetables, I'm all for it!

Cauliflower prices vary a bit. This week, I can get a pound for 88¢. Last week, I couldn't find it for less than $1.59/pound. The recipe cost reflects the higher price.

Cauliflower with Orange Sauce
(serves 4-6, costs $3.50)

1 head of cauliflower (about 2 pounds), cored and cut into florets
juice of 1 orange (should yield about ¼ cup juice)
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
¼ cup minced onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon cornstarch dissolved in 1 Tablespoon cold water
½ Tablespoon butter
salt and black pepper

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the cauliflower for 8-10 minutes, until tender.

Meanwhile, heat the vegetable oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until softened. Add the garlic and coriander. Cook for another minute. Drain the cauliflower and add to the pan. Raise the heat to medium high and add the orange juice. When the juice comes to a boil, add the cornstarch+water. Boil until the sauce thickens and coats the cauliflower. Add butter, season with salt and pepper, and serve.

*Roux: flour cooked in a fat, often butter. Used as a thickener in sauces and soups like chowders and gumbos.

Meatless Monday: Chickpeas and Cauliflower in a Spicy Tomato Sauce

This is my yummy Indian breakfast

This is an easy East Indian-like baked dish. Chickpeas and Cauliflower are very common Indian ingredients. This can be as spicy as you like. It's flavorful without the chile so you can leave it out, if you don't like spicy.

Chickpeas and garbanzos are the same thing. Sometimes they are labeled one, sometimes the other. You can buy dried ones (they are even cheaper than canned) and cook them yourself, but you'll need to plan ahead. They take quite a while to soak and cook. See the note at the end of the recipe if you want to use dried chickpeas.

The recipe for the tomato sauce is here. It comes together in about 15 minutes, cooking in the microwave. You can make it ahead but reheat it before using it in this recipe.

Queso Fresco is a fresh Mexican cheese. We used it as a substitute for paneer in our recipe for Saag. It's very mild. You can make this without the cheese. It's still very good but you may need to add a bit more salt since the cheese adds salt.

Chickpeas and Cauliflower in a Spicy Tomato Sauce
(serves 6, costs $12.25)

1 recipe Spicy Tomato Sauce - Indian version, heated
non-stick cooking spray, oil or butter for greasing baking dish
4 cups raw cauliflower florests (about 1 small head or ½ a large head)
2 15 oz. cans garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained (about 3 ¾ cups)
½ pound queso fresco, cubed + plus more for garnish
½ teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons melted butter
2 Tablespoons chopped cilantro or parsley (about 6 large sprigs)

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Grease a large, deep casserole dish (about 3 quarts). Pour in tomato sauce. Mix in cauliflower, garbanzos, and queso fresco. Bake for 30-40 minutes, uncovered. The sauce will be all bubbly and the cauliflower will be crisp-tender. Sprinkle with melted butter, chopped herbs, and additional cheese, if desired.

Inspired by recipes from Moghul Microwave by Julie Sahni and How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman.

Note: If you want to start with dried chickpeas, here are instructions for cooking them. I try to use home-cooked beans because they have a better texture and are really, really inexpensive.

For this recipe, you will need 1 ½ cups dried chickpeas. Place them in a large pot and add water until they are covered by at least an inch of water. Let sit overnight. You can do a quick soak but I find chickpeas cook better with a long overnight soak. Drain completely. Add fresh water to cover chickpeas by at least a water. If you want to add some flavoring, add a couple of bay leaves and dozen whole peppercorns. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Cover partially and simmer for 45 minutes. Try a few chickpeas. If they are tender, drain, pick out the bay leaves and peppercorn, and you are ready to proceed with the recipe. If they still have a little crunch, cook 5-10 minutes more and try again.

Cauliflower with Orange Flavor

This recipe is inspired by a Spanish salad recipe. It can still be served as a salad if you chill it after cooking. But, the important difference is all the ingredients are cooked. In the original recipe, the cauliflower is blanched but the rest of the ingredients are added raw. Some folks like raw onions, many don't. So, here's a variation on the raw salad that is made even better by sautéing the onions. The original version also has segments of orange; this version gets the punch of orange flavor from orange zest.

Extra-virgin olive oil is fairly expensive. To keep the cost low, we use cheaper vegetable oil for the sautéing and finish it with a drizzle of the more flavorful but more expensive extra-virgin olive oil. You can leave off the drizzle; it's still very tasty.

The average non-sale cost of cauliflower is $1.49 but this time of year, you can find it on sale a lot. Look for those produce sales! Eating what is on sale this week can really save you a bunch of money and stretch your budget for delicious and nutritious fruits and vegetables.

Cauliflower with Orange Flavor
(serves 4-6, costs $2.80)

1 small head of cauliflower (about 1 pound), cut into florets
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ of a red onion, minced
1 small can (3.8 oz.) sliced olives or ⅓ cup chopped kalamata olives
2 Tablespoons water
zest of 1 orange
1 Tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper

Heat the 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic. Sauté for a minute or two until the onion becomes translucent. Add cauliflower,  olives, and 2 Tablespoons water. Cook, covered, until cauliflower is tender, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat, add orange zest, extra-virgin olive oil, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine. Serve hot, warm, or chilled. If you serve it chilled, you may need to add a bit more salt.

This is a vegetable dish that improves with reheating.

Cauliflower in Tomato Sauce

Here's a fairly quick and delicious cauliflower dish. It's quite versatile as well. You can eat it as a side dish. You can use it as a sauce for pasta (add some cheese or chickpeas to make it into a hearty main dish pasta). You can even use it as a sauce on simple grilled meats and fish. One of the nice things about cauliflower is it's very tolerant when it comes to cooking time. You can cook it a fairly long time, relative to many green vegetables, and it still tastes great. In fact, you can cook it to death and it makes a delicious puree. Like broccoli, it is a cruciferous vegetable, meaning it's full of great nutrients.

Cauliflower in Tomato Sauce
(serves 6; total cost is $5.20)

1 ½ pounds cauliflower, about 1 medium head
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1-2 pinches crushed red pepper
20 oz. tomatoes, chopped (Roma or cherry) or 1 28 oz. can peeled tomatoes
½ cup water (omit if using canned tomatoes)
2 Tablespoons minced fresh basil or parsley
¾ teaspoon kosher salt

Cut the cauliflower in small florets. Chop the core and stems into small chunks.

Heat the oil over medium heat in a large saute pan with a cover. Add the onion, garlic, and crushed red pepper. Saute until onion is starting to brown on the edges, 5 to 8 minutes. Add the tomatoes (and water if using fresh tomatoes) and reduce heat to maintain a simmer for 10 minutes. Add the cauliflower, fresh herbs, and salt. Stir, cover, and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Uncover and cook for another 5 minutes.

Roasted Cauliflower with Lemon and Mustard

We gave you the basics on roasting vegetables last week. Here's a delicious version of roasted cauliflower that is fancied up a bit. Rather than oil, it uses butter as the fat, which adds tons of flavor. Mustard and lemon add even more. The roasting temperature is lower because the butter will burn at high temperatures. Totally delicious.

Roasted Cauliflower with Mustard and Lemon
(serves 6; total cost is $4.20)

2 lbs cauliflower (1 medium head)
6 tbl butter
2 tbl fresh lemon juice
2 tbl whole grain mustard, such as Dijon
1 ½ tsp fresh lemon zest, minced (see Note)
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper
2 tbl chopped parsley

Preheat oven to 375° F.

Remove leaves and the tough core from the cauliflower. Slice into ¼" pieces. Place in a large bowl.

Melt butter over low heat. Add lemon juice, mustard, and lemon zest. Whisk to combine. Pour over cauliflower and toss. Pour onto a large rimmed cookie sheet, spreading the cauliflower into 1 layer. Make sure to scrape all the butter out of the bowl. That's the good stuff; don't waste it! Sprinkle cauliflower with salt and pepper.

Put in the oven for 15 minutes. Stir around, then return to the oven for another 20 minutes until cauliflower is tender.

Sprinkle with chopped parsley. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Note: The easiest way to zest a lemon is with a microplane. If you don't have one, you can use a vegetable peeler to take off just the yellow part of the peel. The white part (the pith) is extremely bitter, so don't peel too deep. The top yellow layer is full of tasty lemon oil and that's what you want.

Roasted Vegetables - all sorts

Roasted Veggies are a quick, easy and a very tasty alternative to steamed vegetables. Roasting concentrates flavors by evaporating some of the moisture and ups the ante by browning. Browning means flavor. I'm sure someone is looking at the above picture of roasted carrots thinking "Those are burned!" but they are not. As we say in the restaurant kitchen, they are well-caramelized. :-) Trust me. I ate them and they aren't burned.

Roasted veggies are great right out of the oven (careful! they are mighty hot) and they are great as a leftover. They can be added to soups, salads, omelets. Even a delicious snack, hot or cold.

The procedure for roasting is the same: grease up the veg, give a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper, and stick in a hot oven until just tender. Give them a stir halfway cooking to even up the browning. How long it takes depends on how big you cut the chunks of vegetable and how dense the vegetable is (carrots and Brussels sprouts are dense, broccoli and asparagus are not).

A hot oven and oil are key ingredients. No oil and the vegetables will steam. Not hot enough, the vegetables will overcook before they brown. But, once you figure it out, it's really easy.

Be careful when mixing different vegetables. It works if they will all cook in a similar amount of time. So, carrots and Brussels sprouts will work but carrots and green beans will not. When the green beans are done, the carrots will still be raw and by the time the carrots are done, the green beans will be sad, wilted and overcooked. Or plan to throw the green beans in after the carrots have had some alone time in the oven.

Here's some good vegetable choices for roasted vegetables. Roasting temperature is 400° F.

• Asparagus: 10 minutes for medium stalks, 5-7 for skinny stalks
• Beets: 30 minutes for baby beets, an hour for bigger beets. I like to leave them whole because they are easier to peel that way.
• Broccoli: 10 minutes
• Brussels sprouts: 30 minutes
• Carrots: 25-30 minutes
• Cauliflower: 25 minutes
• Green beans: 10 minutes
• Mushrooms: 10-20 minutes, whole. I don't like them raw in the middle so I cook them 20 minutes.
• Potatoes: 25-45 minutes, cut into chunks. Fingerlings can be roasted whole.
• Sweet Potatoes: 30 minutes cut in chunks
• Winter squash: 30 minutes, cut into chunks