Chilled Cauliflower Purée

I recently inherited a copy of the book Clean and Lean recently, which is a really interesting read (thanks Cait).  Great recipes too, although taking the next step and actually doing the clean and lean program isn't quite on the radar just yet! Maybe one day... (or not - I just could not imagine giving up wine and bread for 2 weeks)

Reading the book combined with eating a chocolate cake make out of black beans led me to think about sauces, mayonnaises etc and whether there was a way to make them healthier (there's the tie in). The preservatives in a classic mayo must be verging on out of control. Also I'm becoming suspect of eating things where I can't tell what is in them (like tomato sauce...there are definitely no tomatoes in that stuff!) Anyway, back on to the topic, a while ago I made a pasta sauce that was mainly peas puréed and it was delicious. Tonight we had a bowl of cooked cold cauliflower in the fridge left over from the AFL BBQ (where my salad only made it to the half finished stage) and I thought it could be a chance to get out the stick mixer again for some more pureeing. 

Quantities could be varied and if you don't want a garlicky flavour you could cook the garlic first (or use less):

3/4 cup cauliflower cooked (boiled/steamed) and chilled 

1 clove of raw garlic crushed 

20 g butter melted 

Squeeze of lemon juice

Milk (a few dashes as required) to get  creamy texture

S & P to season 

Place all ingredients apart from the milk in food processor or in a bowl if stick mixing and blend. Add milk slowly until you get a thick slightly creamy texture. 

Serve. 

Suggested tips: do not use the same fork/spoon that you use to scoop up the garlic to taste test. A big dose of raw garlic is a bit of a challenge! 

We had it with a plate of stir fried veges and leftover chicken. The veges were stir fried with just olive oil and some salt and pepper (chicken not so healthy but whatever) and the CCP on the side (chilled). I tried and failed to do the swishing down the side of the plate so it just looked like a random cream coloured blobby sauce snaking around the plate. Tasted good though. 

Suggested uses for the Chilled Cauliflower Puree (CCP): 

1. Heated as a sauce (pasta, gnocchi maybe with veg?) although WB has clarified that it wouldn't be like a regular pasta sauce since it's not as creamy - buyer beware. 

2. On salad as a dressing

3. Heated on its own as a mashed potato replacement. 

4. Topping to a steak - replacement for something like mushroom sauce 

5. A layer in a lasagne 
6. As a dip with Kale chips (Gwyneth Paltrow-esque)

7. With crackers and cheese... 

Of course we taste tested the crackers and cheese with CCP combo (right) and although it doesn't have much going for it in the looks department it was delicious.  Rated a "very good" from WB.  I reckon with a bit of chopped parsley stirred through that would be a winner.

The Kale chips and CCP dip would definitely be a good combo.  With the raw garlic, cauli and Kale you would basically be getting healthier just by eating it.  Funnily enough a search of Gwyneth Paltrow (to see how her name was spelt) brings up a recipe for Gwynnie's Kale chips. 

So that's it. The best thing about this is that it would be super cheap to make in bulk - if you can get a cauliflower for under $2 the rest of the ingreds will probably be around the kitchen so that's a $2.00 sauce if you used it as a pasta sauce (noting creaminess comment above) with 0% preservatives - Jamie Oliver would be proud.

Nut free pesto

One of the foods I was most annoyed about missing out on after becoming allergic to nuts was pesto.  Not so annoyed about feeling compelled to consider raw almonds as a healthy alternative snack when hungry.  The skin prick tests unfortunately showed positive for pine-nuts so, even though I think they are considered a seed, they are off the list which is where the issues with pesto arise!

I had a big bunch of silverbeet to use up today and saw online that some people had used it to make pesto so I've had a crack at making my own pesto without pine-nuts and... it was delicious!  I was a bit sceptical at first but was is actually really good, didn't taste like silverbeet at all. Definitely better than steaming it. And a much better option than plain boiled silverbeet.

I don't have a food processor so made it with the stick mixer which seemed to work pretty well.  I also partially steamed the first lot of silverbeet but didn't bother with the second lot and it didn't seem to make any difference. I also didn't really drain/dry the steamed silverbeet and didn't get any excess liquid (a common concern of the online recipe writers).

Recipe:

• A bunch of silverbeet (I used about 6-7 stems)
• Bunch of parsley (maybe a cup or so)
• 2 cloves garlic
• 120 g feta
• 50 g Parmesan
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup olive oil

Put the silverbeet and parsley in a bowl (or food processor) with the feta and some Parmesan.  Whizz it up until all the silverbeet has been fully mulched up, it will go this really amazing green colour.  Drizzle in the olive oil during the food processing (or if stick mixing, just stir it through at the end).  

Pesto and peas

I mixed in some more Parmesan at the end with some of the olive oil and gave it a final mix with the stick mixer.  

I actually found that I liked it better with less oil.  A lot of the recipes call for about a cup of oil (250ml), I didn't use anywhere near that much.  It was actually really tasty with no oil as well so that's a healthy option to consider if you're really keen. 

And no nuts? Well I thought it was fine, but good to road test with a peanut-butter-nutter:
Me: so how did you like the pesto?
WB: yeah it was good.
Me: did you miss the nuts?
WB: no.
Me: so it was fine with no nuts?
WB: yeah didn't think about it.

Good chat.  But it appears its fine without the pine-nuts.

I like coriander pesto so might make the same recipe with coriander next time (WB thinks coriander tastes metallic so will be an interesting road test with that one).  Also the pesto could be good with some lemon juice squeezed through.   Apparently you can also turn it into a dip by adding sour cream.  Could be an idea for the weekend - I even remembered to buy sour cream at the supermarket so good to go. 

Its also great as a pasta sauce - fettuccine, pesto, peas mushrooms and chorizo made for a pretty easy mid week dinner.  Slightly better photo than the kale and quinoa salad below. 

  

Pasta with pesto, mushrooms and chorizo

Kale and quinoa salad

I got a market vege bag from Erin at work today - filled with loads of things I never usually cook so a good opportunity to experiment... and a good opportunity to look at recipes online and update my Pinterest recipe board. Tonight I decided to start off with the kale (fennel or radish seemed a bit too much for a Monday), I've never cooked it before, or eaten it for that matter, so did a bit of googling on the way home. I found this recipe from Runner's World. Quinoa and kale salad with avocado and egg. Very healthy option for a rainy Monday night.. must have been the post spin endorphins kicking in!

I changed the recipe slightly and mixed fresh chopped flat leaf parsley in with the quinoa and sprinkled some spring onions over the quinoa and added cottage cheese, yum.   

Recipe: 

• A few stems of kale, leaves roughly town off the stems, mixed with sea salt and, olive oil and pepper on a baking tray, per heat oven to 175 deg 
• Enough quinoa (I did just under a cup - and have leftovers for lunch), cooked to packed directions, then with finely chopped parsley mixed through it with olive oil and sea salt/pepper
• One egg per person, I filled a frying pan with a few cm of water and did a half poach, half fry egg cook. 
• Half an avocado, roughly chopped
• One stem of spring onion, diced
• Couple teaspoons cottage cheese (optional) 

Cook the kale for 15 mins in the oven, turning once.  At the same time, cook the quinoa.  While the quinoa is cooking prepare the spring onion, parsley and avocado.  Heat water in frying pan and cook the egg(s).  Once the quinoa has cooked stir through the chopped parsley. 

Assemble on plate: kale, quinoa, spring onion then place the egg on top and cottage cheese and avo on the side. Season with salt and pepper. Delish! 

Next up, fennel...  (and excuse the average photography, too hungry!)