cauliflower Archives • Ant & Anise

The Paleo Diet Challenge: Day 28

One thing I’ll take away from the Paleo challenge is a more positive attitude towards cauliflower. It may not be dramatic and life changing, but I’d say it’s a step in the right direction.

I mentioned cauliflower early on in the challenge, and I’ve made it a few times since then. The funny thing is, for as long as I can remember, I haven’t liked cauliflower at all. Bland, white and not a lot of flavor. What’s to get enthusiastic about? Why even bother with it at all? Sure it’s crunchy, but if you’re looking for crunch, I think broccoli is a much better choice. It’s more nutritious too.

When I was younger, I can remember my Mom serving steamed cauliflower on occasion. My favorite part was, undoubtedly, not the vegetable but the cheese sauce we’d pour, copiously, over top. Cheese sauce was the only reason to eat the cauliflower, really.

But when grains are out of the question cauliflower muscled its way onto my plate, and is no longer the side-vegetable-made-edible-only-with-cheese-sauce. I think it’s because cauliflower is similar to chicken or eggplant, which happily take on other flavors you’re cooking with. Even some sauteed onion and garlic give a simple but much-needed boost to cauliflower’s appeal, like they do in cauliflower rice.

The last time I set out to make some cauliflower rice, instead of chopping the cauliflower into small florets before they went into the food processor, I thought I’d take a shortcut by leaving the pieces fairly large. Seems logical enough (well, it did at the time), but I had to keep pulsing more and more to get the bigger chunks down to a rice-like size. Before I knew it, the cauliflower went from long grain to short grain, and then to something even smaller. Yikes!

Not exactly a kitchen disaster, though. Instead of cauliflower rice, we ended up with cauliflower couscous. Smaller, but just as good as the rice and a great base for the stir-fry here. Cauliflower in a whole new light. Very positive, indeed.

Cauliflower 'Rice'

Here is a very basic version of a Paleo staple that works well as a base for stir-frys and pastas. For a finer-grained result -- more like 'couscous' than 'rice' -- simply pulse it longer in the food processor.

Ingredients

1 head cauliflower, cut into equally-sized small florets
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small white onion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced

Instructions

Place the cauliflower florets in a food processor and pulse until they resemble rice. If you're aiming for a smaller texture like couscous, pulse a few more times.
Heat the oil in a large saute pan over medium-low heat. Add the onion and saute for 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally so that it cooks evenly. Add the garlic and saute for another few minutes, stirring occasionally. You're aiming to get an even, light golden color and a softened texture. Turn the heat down if the onions and garlic start to brown too much.
Once the onions and garlic have softened, add the cauliflower and stir in to incorporate. Continue sauteeing for 5-8 minutes, or until the rice (couscous) is a little softened but still has some crunch, like an 'al dente' texture with pasta.

More on the Paleo diet challenge:
Why I’m doing it in the first place
My plan for the 30 days

The Paleo Diet Challenge: Day 12

And just like that, the miracle 3 pound loss has come back. All at once. Geesh! Maybe this isn’t a miracle diet after all. Now I’m just back where I started, which I’m fine with.

You know a few days back I was feeling a little stressed? Some of that is due to being in charge of what to eat, every single night. Bob and I both cook, and usually alternate the dinner part: Sometimes he does it all or I do it all, and sometimes we just work on separate components that come together on the plate. (And sometimes we do order take out, but that’s a pretty rare event these days.)

But now I’m getting a few blank looks and the what can we eat for dinner question. It’s true, it’s not as easy as just yanking out a (homemade) meat sauce from the freezer and boiling up some pasta. It does require a little more thought. So there it is, that extra pressure for me to lead this thing, since it was my idea in the first place.

Luckily, with a few guidelines I’m able to set Bob up to make dinner tonight: Cottage pie, a proper English dish, using mashed cauliflower on top instead of mashed potatoes. He completely takes over dinner, and I’m relieved. With a side dish of some peas, sauteed with some onion in bacon fat (kept in the fridge for such occasions), we’re set.

(I used to really despise peas for several years, and wouldn’t go near them. Too many memories of overdone, bland boiled peas when I was younger, I think. Once I discovered the onion and bacon fat trick, I was sold. Just a little jazzing up was all the peas really needed.)

It really helped my anxiety level to not worry about dinner, after almost two solid weeks of every day thinking what to make. The bonus is, of course, that the cottage pie was big enough to have plenty of leftovers. Why didn’t I think of doing something like this earlier in the challenge?

More on the Paleo diet challenge:
Why I’m doing it in the first place
My plan for the 30 days

The Paleo Diet Challenge: Day 3

All right, my weight basically stays the same all the time, within a 3 pound range. This morning when I stepped on the scale and saw my weight lower than it’s been in years, I almost fell backward into the bathtub. Surprise! Almost 2 pounds gone in 2 days. What’s with that? And I’m not feeling hungry in the least between meals. Strange.

What to do about breakfast this morning? While I enjoy eggs I don’t eat them very often, as in once every couple of weeks. Yesterday’s triumphant Mediterranean egg breakfast aside, I didn’t feel like facing eggs two mornings in a row. I decided on a big bowl of fruit — a couple of kiwis, a banana, a few apricots and some strawberries. Simple and more or less satisfying. Strict Paleos would be scolding me for not having protein but meh, I’m a newbie at all this.

The big hit today was dinner. I made some cauliflower “rice” for the first time. Admittedly my expectations weren’t terribly high, as I find cauliflower and (white) rice to be pretty uninteresting on their own. But, turns out my weight drop wasn’t the only surprise of the day. Cauliflower masquerading as rice may fool you into thinking it’s a real grain.

Atop the rice, er, cauliflower, was a saute I make when local spot prawns make a brief appearance every year. We typically have this over pasta and I could probably eat it for, I don’t know, every day for two weeks never be tired of it. First, it’s easy and quick to put together, perfect for when you come home after a long day and want to eat something right now. Also, it doesn’t require much precision in measuring out ingredients, which makes me feel very Jamie Oliver-ish. For Bob, I add heavy cream to make it a more of a rose sauce but I like it just as well without any cream at all.

The double tomato spot prawn saute (sans cream, since I was cooking for one) had a depth of flavor, almost a beefiness, that was particularly satisfying. It kind of feels like my taste buds are on high alert. So far so good even though it’s only day 3.

Double Tomato Sautéed Spot Prawns

Serving Size: 1

Serve this on top of cauliflower 'rice' for a delightful summer meal. This recipe can be easily doubled (to serve 2) with no adjustments. If scaling the recipe further upwards (to serve 4 or more), keep to 3 garlic cloves.

Ingredients

1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon dried pepper flakes
2 tablespoon oil from jar of sundried tomatoes (plain olive oil would do just fine too)
4-6 sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, chopped
2 fresh tomatoes, chopped
3/4 cup chicken stock
splash of white wine (optional)
6-8 spot prawns, shelled
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
cauliflower rice, for serving

Instructions

Heat the oil in a large saute pan on medium heat. When the oil is hot, reduce the heat to medium-low and add the garlic and (if using) dried pepper flakes. Saute for a few minutes until the garlic is softened up, reducing the heat further if needed to ensure it doesn’t turn brown.
Add the sun-dried and fresh tomatoes, then the chicken stock and (if using) white wine. Bring the sauce to a boil an reduce it for 6-8 minutes, until it reaches a thicker consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste.
A couple minutes before you’re ready for serving, stir in the spot prawns. They only take 1-2 minutes to be done, so keep an eye on them. Once the spot prawns have turned white and are firm, turn off the heat, stir in the parsley and you’re ready to go. Serve on top of cauliflower rice.

More on the Paleo diet challenge:
Why I’m doing it in the first place
My plan for the 30 days