Tag: cauliflower

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pesto potatoes and cauliflower

Jordan and I were brainstorming a menu for our supper club dinner last week with two goals in mind. One, make something simple, and two, use up the lingering produce from our CSA. Well, I must say Jordan was hit with a tremendous stroke of genius when he came up with this idea. The roasted potatoes and cauliflower are delicious in their own right and then you toss them in a fresh basil pesto and top them with a bit of parmesan. Yep, totally awesome.

You can either roast the potatoes in the oven or pan fry them. The first time we made this dish, we fried them. The second time we were cooking for a crowd and decided to roast them instead. Both methods turned out well, but roasting easier and is less hands-on so I chose that for the recipe below.

Roasted Potatoes and Cauliflower with Pesto  
1 bunch basil, leaves removed from stems
1 small handful pine nuts, walnuts or pistachios
1/2 cup parmesan, grated
1 clove garlic, grated
1/4 cup olive oil
1 lemon, juiced
salt and pepper
4 – 6 potatoes, russets or yukon golds, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 head cauliflower, cut into small to medium-sized chunks

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

In a food processor, process the basil with the nuts and parmesan. Add the garlic and some salt and pepper.  Add the lemon juice. Slowly add the olive oil to emulsify the mixture. Taste for seasoning and pour into a small bowl. You can make the pesto days ahead of time and refrigerate it, or even weeks ahead and freeze it.

Peel the potatoes and cut them into cubes. Toss them with some olive oil and a nice pinch of salt. Roast for 30 – 40 minutes,  tossing occasionally, until they start to brown. After 40 minutes, add the cauliflower and roast another 20 minutes. Once the potatoes and cauliflower are brown, remove them from the oven and season with additional salt. Pour them into a large bowl and add half of the pesto. Toss to coat. Taste and add more pesto if needed. Sprinkle with parmesan just before serving.

We served these potatoes the first night with a roasted pork shoulder. We had the leftovers the next morning with eggs sunny side up.  Both ways were delicious!  It’s worth noting that these potatoes reheat surprisingly well—so make extra.

-Emily

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alice’s cauliflower soup

Boy oh boy, cauliflower is in season! This week at the farmer’s market we purchased a huge head of cauliflower. It was at least basketball sized … and only cost $1. Talk about bang for your buck.

Jordan and I really enjoy cauliflower, as I’m sure you’ve noticed from prior recipes. This week we decided to fall back on an old favorite – cauliflower soup. We’ve made this recipe several times, but this is its first debut on the blog. Why you ask, if it is so delicious, has it never be discussed? Because the pictures I’ve taken up until this point have all be so ugly that I couldn’t bear to post them.

This recipe is from Alice Water’s Chez Panisse Vegetables, which is a fabulous cookbook. Each chapter highlights a vegetable, explains its taste and season, and then offers a few simple recipes for how to best prepare it.

French Cream of Cauliflower Soup, from Chez Panisse Vegetables
1 large cauliflower
1 onion
2 T butter
4 T creme fraiche
salt
nutmeg
chervil (I never can find chervil, so we’ve used parsley and chives)

Cut off the stem of the cauliflower and any green leaves. Break into florets, wash in cold water.

Peal and slice the onion thin. In a soup pot, stew the onions and florets in butter with a little water for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, without letting them brown. Add water to cover and cook for 25 minutes, covered over medium heat.

Puree the soup in a blender or using an immersion blender. Reheat gently until just under boiling. Add the creme fraiche and season with salt and nutmeg to taste. Serve very hot with herb garnish.

Yep, that simple, and it is amazing!  You don’t even need to have stock on hand (Awesome, since I more often than not forget to buy it). If any of you end up with gigantic heads of cauliflower, most probably larger than your own heads, try out this recipe. It is perfectly simple and the true cauliflower flavor shines through.

-Emily

Update: We enjoyed six meals from this single batch of soup! $1 cauliflower + $0.50 onion + $4.50 creme fraiche = about $1 per meal!

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quick cauliflower

We’ve been getting really into cauliflower lately … sauteed cauliflower, baked cauliflower, broiled cauliflower, maybe even braised cauliflower … perhaps because it’s cheap, but certainly because it’s delicious.

We made this quick side dish last night with ingredients we had languishing in the fridge.

Cauliflower with Fontina, Chives and Chili Flake
1 head of cauliflower, cut into florets
1 T olive oil
Salt, pepper, chili flakes
Chives, sliced
1/2 -3/4 cup grated fontina cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Toss cauliflower with olive oil, salt, pepper and chili flake. Bake for 20 – 30 minutes, or until fork tender. Turn oven to broil. Sprinkle with fontina. Melt cheese under the broiler for a few moments. Sprinkle with chives and enjoy!

-Emily

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buttermilk reincarnated: vichyssoise

Remember that leftover buttermilk from my butter-making experiment? Well, I just couldn’t let it go to waste and so I spent a little time browsing for buttermilk recipes online. After sifting through dozens of buttermilk fried chicken and buttermilk pancake entries, I found … vichyssoise with cauliflower and buttermilk. First thought: “Yum!”. Second thought: “Thank you Martha!”.

Vichyssoise with Cauliflower and Buttermilk, adapted from Martha Stewart Living
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
5 leeks, white and pale-green parts only, thinly sliced and rinsed well (about 3 cups)
1 white potato, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
Freshly ground white pepper (I used black because I didn’t have white, but the white would make it a prettier soup)
Large pinch nutmeg
1 small head cauliflower, cut into florets (about 4 cups)
Coarse salt
3 1/2 cups homemade or low-sodium store-bought chicken stock
1 cup buttermilk (ta-da!!)

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add leeks, and cook, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes. Add potato, a generous grinding of pepper, and the nutmeg, and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Stir in cauliflower, a large pinch of salt, and 3 cups stock. Simmer, partially covered, until cauliflower has softened, 12 to 15 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove 2 florets, and transfer to a cutting board; thinly slice lengthwise. Set aside for garnish.

Working in batches, puree vegetable mixture in a blender (I used an immersion blender-much easier), filling no more than halfway each time. Return to pan. Stir in buttermilk and remaining 1/2 cup stock.  Season again with salt and pepper. Serve hot or cold, garnished with cauliflower slices.

Hot this is soup referred to as potato and leek soup, cold as vichyssoise … if anyone can explain this to me, I’m all ears.

Conclusions: While not the most photogenic of dishes, this soup is delicious! Quick, easy and really comforting. We ate it for three days and weren’t too upset about that fact.

-Emily