Cauliflower Ideas

 Cauliflower is cheap and in addition to the roasted cauliflower with garlic and parmesan, I've tried a couple more.  The other night we had a macaroni and cauliflower bake that I personally loved and the kids seemed to enjoy as well.  I wish I'd had another salad to add some colour!  It wasn't too bad on time - about an hour, but could be less with these easy tips.

1: I suggest using leftovers for the cauliflower.  I made a wonderful (and super easy) roasted cauliflower one night: cut out florets, place on a baking tray with large cut white onions and a couple of garlic cloves.  Add salt and pepper and bake for forty minutes; add some fresh parmesan before serving. 

Or 2: the cauliflower has to be boiled a bit before putting it in the oven.  There's no need to use different pots; once you only have about 4 or 5 minutes left for the pasta, add the cauliflower to the water as well. Simple.

Before you begin, heat the oven to 400F.  Put the water on for macaroni and cut out your florets.  I used 2 cups of cauliflower (less than half of a head) and 1 3/4 cups of dry macaroni.

For the roux (your white sauce); 2 Tbsp of butter, melted in a smaller pot, then add 1/4 cup of flour and stir - it should look like a pastry dough.  Slowly add two and a half cups of milk, you have to stir this as you add and ensure that it's not lumpy.  This will get thicker as it combines and then you add some more.  Keep it on the burner. 

Once you've mixed in all the milk and it has warmed up again, add about a 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar, 1/4 cup of shredded Monterey Jack and 1/4 cup of grated Swiss (I didn't have Swiss so I used parmesan - in retrospect I think I should have just used more cheddar).  Also, if your family goes for it, it's nice with chopped white onion and a small chopped clove of garlic (you might be able to leave out the garlic if you use the leftovers I mentioned above - something I will try). I was also thinking that a chopped red pepper would be nice as well.  Taste your sauce and add salt and pepper if needed.  Some Italian herbs might have also gone nicely with this.

Add the onion and/or chopped red pepper to the finished white sauce and put it all together in a casserole dish. Top it with breadcrumbs mixed with some additional cheese (I would not recommend the parmesan because if you broil it for a few minutes it smells like burnt hair... or I burnt my hair - I cannot be sure).   Put it in the oven for fifteen minutes and then switch it to broil for five more. 

We also topped ours with more cheddar because the sauce seemed to be missing something - oh right, because I forgot to add salt and pepper.. or Italian herb mix.  This would also make a nice side dish to pork or ham and I was also considering adding either cooked ham or pancetta to the actual baking time.  Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with it and it was within my hour.

Secondly, I used the last of the cauliflower in a soup. My Mom adds fresh mushrooms to this as well and it is delicious.  For mine the other night, I kept it just to cauliflower.

Roux: two to three tablespoons of butter, melted in a pot; add about 1/4 cup of flour (or enough to make it look like doughy crumbles).  I sautéed one onion in some butter in a pan on the side as well.

Add 4 cups of chicken stock - Mom used oxo and prepped it before she began making anything - you do need it available to add to the roux right away.  I've used Knorr's jelly packets but they are 1 packet to three cups of water and we need four; the other day I used Knorr blocks (one block per two cups of water) - these are salty but you can get reduced salt. Remember to add the stock slowly, ensuring the texture of the roux is smoothed via whisk before adding more. 

Once you have all the stock in, add onions and about one head (give or take) of cauliflower.  Heat to a boil and then reduce and simmer for about thirty minutes.  You can leave it longer as well.  Taste and season accordingly - I like the Italian herbs blend and some pepper (I use regular salt stock packets so I don't add more).  Add a medium sized box of heavy cream (Creamo/ Half and Half); warm and serve.  You can garnish with green onions or cheddar.  If you like it pureed, use a special hand thing (new on my list); the electric hand mixer with beaters is awful - you need one that has the blades like a blender (I've blended - it worked but super time consuming to move soup blend and find a place and blend the rest ... as you might imagine)

You can also use this recipe for cream of broccoli soup, broccoli and cheddar or carrot soup.  My husband wants me to try a potato and bacon next.