Cornmeal-Crusted Cauliflower and Truffle Mushroom Gravy

I love love love roasted cauliflower. Usually I just slice it up, toss it in a little bit of olive oil and lemon-pepper seasoning, and that's enough to make me want to devour the entire bunch. But for Thanksgiving this year, I wanted to try a new version: cornmeal-encrusted roasted cauliflower steaks, covered in a creamy, incredibly flavorful, white mushroom gravy sauce with truffle oil. Sounds heavenly, right? It was, and this would make a great addition to any holiday (or winter-time) dinner party plate...

Fall Coconut Curry

This dish is a warm bowl of goodness, a blending of my farmer's market veggies this week. Sweet Fall squash, seasoned tofu, cauliflower, and kale all stewed in a blend of coconut and curry spice.

Vegan Creamed Spinach and Roasted Cauliflower Slices

Creamed spinach is one of those things I loved as a vegetarian, and my sister-in-law always used to get a completely decadent version from a gourmet grocery store every year for Christmas. But, it's the type of dish that makes you feel kind of gross afterwords; it's rich, creamy, and delicious going down, but heavy and thick sitting in your stomach. That's not my favorite kind of food; my favorite food is food that makes me feel GOOD after eating it, but that's still delicious and satisfying. So I decided to take that creamed spinach and make it much healthier and vegan!

This vegan creamed spinach has a tofu base, so you can have it as a side or a meal; but it also uses a somewhat "creamy, cheesey" vegan white sauce, so it still tastes a little decadent. I paired it with a version of these "cauliflower steaks," which made for a delicious, healthy meal!

Lentil LOVE and Easy Cauliflower Purée

I don't want to sound like a total vegan cliché, but I love having a delicious fresh healthy meal after my yoga class. It just feels so good to eat something good for you after doing something good for you. And I have a new-found love of lentils. They are high in fiber, low in calories, totally filling, and I love their flavor. So after this week's class, I was going to just heat up some lentils and spinach, but there was a head of cauliflower in the bottom of my fridge just waiting to be used. I was tempted to simply steam it, but decided to do something a little more inventive, for minimally more effort...

Cauliflower Bake

Hands down, my most useful, and one of my absolute favorite Christmas gifts: the Vegan Yum Yum cookbook by Lauren Ulm. There are soooooo many awesome recipes in this book! I HIGHLY recommend it. I've only had it for a few days and have already tried and loved 2 dishes. Here's one of them: the red and white cauliflower bake. This would make a perfect vegan/veggie Christmas main course.

I edited a few things - originally, I cut back a bit on the nutritional yeast, although the original recipe doesn't actually call for too much more (2 Tbsp), so I may either be on the same page as Ms. Ulm flavor-wise, or maybe I'm developing my vegan taste buds. Either way, this dish is exciting for a number of reasons; here are my 2 main happy surprises with it: 1- I loved the marinara sauce. Usually I don't really like marinara that much, but this one had amazing flavor and still wasn't too tomato-ey, if that makes sense. 2- The white sauce rocked! My husband and I both loved it. It was thick and creamy and actually kind of cheesey tasting. Based on this, I can't wait to try Lauren's version of vegan mac & cheese (another recipe in the book).

Without further ado....

Cauliflower Bake
Adapted from Vegan Yum Yum's Red & White Cauliflower Bake
Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

• 4 cups (1 head) cauliflower, chopped into small pieces

Marinara sauce:

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 tsp dried Italian herbs
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 can stewed tomatoes,* blended (If available in your area, I recommend Muir Glen Organic Stewed Tomatoes)
• 1/2 veggie bouillon cube

Nota-ricotta:

• 1 package of extra firm tofu
• 2 tsp dried Italian herbs
• 1 tsp fresh chopped basil
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1.5 Tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• Salt & pepper to taste
• 2 Tbsp cornstarch mixed with 2 Tbsp water

White Sauce:

• 1/4 cup Earth Balance margarine
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 Tbsp tahini
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1.5-2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 cup plain soy or almond milk
• Salt & pepper to taste

Garnish, etc

• 3/4 cup bread crumbs (Italian for extra flavor - I used 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 Italian)
• 1-2 Tbsp fresh chopped Italian parsley
• 1-2 Tbsp fresh chopped basil
• A few cups of fresh spinach or baby greens (if serving the bake on top of greens)

Steps:

1. Make the marinara sauce: heat the olive oil, and add in the herbs. Next add the minced garlic, and saute for a minute or two. Then add the blended stewed tomatoes (don't use other canned tomatoes - these have such a good flavor!) and the 1/2 veggie cube, making sure it mixes in well. Keep stirring the sauce occasionally, and let it thicken as you cook it over medium heat for about 10-12 minutes, and then turn off heat and set aside.
2. While the sauce is still thickening, make the nota-ricota: prep the tofu by draining well (press with paper towels to remove excess water from the tofu). Crumble the tofu and place in a bowl. Mix in the rest of the nota-ricotta ingredients. Note- I didn't have individual dried herbs the recipe called for, so using an Italian herb mix here instead works very well. You can use dried basil, majoram, and rosemary instead though. Mix well and set aside.
3. Chop the cauliflower into small pieces and steam until tender; set aside.
4. Make the white sauce: melt the vegan butter in a small sauce pan over low heat, and then add the flour, whisking as you go. Add in the tahini, lemon juice, mustard, and yeast, whisking constantly. Next, add the soy or almond milk slowly, stirring constantly. Add salt & pepper to taste, and continue stirring and heating on medium-high until the sauce is pretty thick. 
5. Assemble the bake! Spray a 1.5-2 quart pan with non-stick spray, and press the tofu-ricotta all along the bottom. Next, mix together the white sauce & steamed cauliflower, and layer this over the nota-ricotta layer. Add the marinara sauce on top (you might have a little extra if you used a full 2 cans of tomatoes, but letting a bit soak into the next layer wouldn't be a bad thing since it's so flavorful and delicious!). Then sprinkle with the bread crumbs to complete the final layer.
6. Heat at 400 degrees for 25 minutes, until the bread crumbs are browned and the bake gets bubbly.
7. Cool for ~5-10 minutes after baking, and then sprinkle with fresh basil & parsley (optional). Also optional: serve on top of a bed of fresh spinach or baby greens. 

Notes:
Yum Yum indeed! This was delicious and hearty without being too heavy. I could taste a little nutritional yeast flavor, but it wasn't overwhelming and actually went well with the other flavors here. I thought it was delicious, and so did 3 friends (2 of whom are full-on meat eaters)! If you are serving to a bunch of meat-eaters, you can always cut the nutritional yeast down to 1 Tbsp for each of the white sauce and tofu-ricotta steps.

I really liked serving this on a bed of fresh greens (I used a baby spinach mix), since I think it balances it out well. Other good sides here include steamed asparagus or broccoli, Swiss chard or kale, or mushrooms. OR, you could layer some fresh baby spinach into the bake between the nota-riccota and cauliflower layers (which I did the second time I made this for some extra veg!)

This meal was really easy to make, although it did take about an hour all in. I'm definitely using this recipe as a stand-by meal everyone can love!

Cauliflower Mousse

From: Spa Cuisine at Home, Chef Nadine, BCAE class

Low in calories in fat, this makes for a healthy, creamy-tasting side that pairs easily with many dishes and is a nice change from your regular-old mashed potatoes.

Serves: 7

Ingredients:

• 1 head of cauliflower (1 quart raw)
• 6 oz Neufchatel cheese
• 3 egg whites

Steps:

1. Cut the cauliflower into small pieces and steam until just tender to the bite.
2. In a food processor, combine the egg whites and cheese and blend until smooth.
3. When the cauliflower is finsihed, add it immediately (while still hot) to the egg & cheese puree in the processor. Puree until smooth and looks like mashed potatoes.
4. Serve hot.

Notes: It's important to keep the cauliflower hot, since it needs to cook the egg.

Nutrition facts: (per serving): 81 calories, 5g fat (3g saturated fat), 5g protein, 1g fiber, 17mg cholesterol, 4g carbohydrate, 143mg sodium.

Quinoa with Roasted Vegetables

Adapted from: Spa Cuisine at Home, Chef Nadine

If you haven't ever heard of quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wa), go out and buy some now. It's awesome. Quinoa is so healthy, full of fiber and protein, and is not like any other grain. It's not quite cous-cous, not quite rice... it's better. It lends itself well to being the base for many recipes, and is very filling but still very healthy. Most grocery stores today should have it, but Whole Foods and Trader Joe's are a sure bet. I was first introduced to this wonder-grain in a cooking class I took through the Boston Center for Adult Education, called "Spa Cuisine at Home." Not sure if they still offer this class, but it was wonderful and I got so many great recipes and techniques. I've edited the original recipe a bit over time, but no matter how you vary your quinoa dish it's easy to work with.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup quinoa
• 1 and 1/4 cups of vegetable stock
• 1 cup of water
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (Optional; can use vegan Parm. for vegan, although I haven't tried)
• 1-2 cups of broccoli
• 1-2 cups of cauliflower (or full head of cauliflower)
• 1/2 cup of yellow onion
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 Tbsp olive oil, plus extra for greasing
• Salt and pepper to taste

Steps:

1. Heat the oven to 450 degrees. Chop broccoli and cauliflower into small pieces and spread over a cookie sheet greased with olive oil. To avoid florets getting over crisped, you can loosely cover the pan with tin foil for the first 15-20min of cooking. Set timer to 45 minutes to roast the veggies.
2. Chop the onion and garlic. Heat olive oil in a pot and add the onion, saute for about 1-2 minutes and then add the garlic and cook for about 1 more minute.
3. Add the quinoa, water, and vegetable stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 14 minutes- you will see a white line in the quinoa grains - until the liquid is gone.
4. Add the Parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper, mixing, and then add the roasted veggies. Serve hot.

Notes: There are TONS of variations of this dish! Sometimes I add fresh chopped spinach to it too. The original recipe calls for arugula, shitake mushrooms, and carrots instead of broccoli & cauliflower (also good, but I love the flavor the roasted broccoli and cauliflower gives to the quinoa). Another good variation is to serve cold and add peas, olives, chopped fresh asparagus, and some dill & parsley for a summer version (leave out the Parm cheese though).

Also note that you can use 2 and 1/4 cups of vegetable stock (as opposed to part water); I just prefer to water down the stock as they are often chock full of sodium. Also, note that it's a good idea to rinse the quinoa before use.

*See my post of other grains for more healthy dishes like this!