Advice and Tips
Warming & Slimming Cauliflower Cheese (Oh Yes…)
This is a fab take on a childhood fave – serious comfort food but this version won’t pack on the usual comfort food pounds!
Cauliflower is a wonderful vegetable with a clever knack of being able to replace potatoes in pretty much everything, mashed (well you need to puree it with a hand blender to mash it) it goes well with stews & casseroles, sausages and onion gravy, as a healthy alternative to potato (perhaps along with some butternut squash) as a topping on a cottage / shepherds or fish pie, and the flavour goes soooo well as an alternative to rice with any home-made (or takeaway) curry – while doing some serious damage limtation at the same time! Win-wins are what I’m all about, and so is the mighty cauliflower!
To make mash you just steam the cauliflower in chunks, for 10 or so minutes till soft but not mush, then puree with a hand blender, adding some celtic sea salt & black pepper, maybe a little butter or olive oil, or some coconut milk if serving with curry. Cumin seeds or mustard also go really well, and you can mix it up with other veg such as squash, carrots or broccoli…
Anyway, that is one of cauliflower’s side dish roles, in this she is the main contender (in my view). Again, as with most of my ‘recipes’ they are really invitations to get experimenting with whatever you have to hand, there are so many variations I can only begin to suggest a few. Here’s the basic method, then it’s up to you!
INGREDIENTS:
Up to 1 small cauliflower or half a larger one per person.
2-3 eggs per person
Some other veg if you want to spice things up – I added some kale.
Butter and coconut oil.
Celtic sea salt & black pepper (feel free to try other herbs and spices, and garlic if you want!)
A very strong hard cheese, parmesan is great as you can get more flavour with less cheese…
METHOD:
If you want the cauliflower al dente then you don’t have to steam it, but if you prefer it softer then lightly steam cauliflower chunks for a few minutes to soften. Cut the cauliflower into fairly small chunks. I did this without steaming first and like the extra bite.
Heat the butter & coconut oil (I like a bit of both for this, nice buttery taste but also gets in the fabulous coconut benefits) then add the cauliflower. Saute until the cauliflower is nicely browned and softened. You could add garlic here, or some chopped bacon. Add any extra veg after cooking the cauliflower for a few minutes, if you add spinach add it very near the end as it doesn’t take long. Add seasoning to taste.
When the veg are done to your desired level, crack in the eggs. Jiggle it all about, for a few moments on the heat to begin to cook the eggs, then take off the heat to finish – this is better if the egg doesn’t get too hard. If you wanted extra creaminess you could add a dollop of Total 0% Greek Yoghurt at this point too, but the egg alone is great.
Transfer to a plate, you could have this alone or as a side dish (fewer eggs per person if a side dish than if that is the main protein) and then grate the cheese over the top – using a really strong cheese means you don’t need much, but you get all the flavour.
Enjoy!
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