Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Oven Roasted Cauliflower

About two weeks ago we ordered pizza from a local place and I got the breaded cauliflower as a side. $3.75 bought me a little take-out bag of, maybe, a 1/2 of a cup of fried and breaded, cheesy cauliflower florets and a ranch dipping sauce. It was good, but I knew really unhealthy, and the price left a little more to be desired. Still, ever since then, I've been in the mood for cauliflower, so during the last grocery trip I bought a big head, figuring I'd stumble upon some recipe or idea to use it.

Today, Biz posted a cauliflower soup that looked delicious and reminded me of the cauliflower soup of 101 Cookbooks I've made a few times. It awakened my craving, but I wasn't in the mood for soup, but remembered that Heidi had posted another cauliflower recipe that had caught my eye - roasted cauliflower! I'd add a little cheese to make it reminiscent of the cheesy, fried cauliflower, but it'd be healthier!

Ingredients:

1 medium to large head of cauliflower
3 Tbsp olive oil, divided
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup panko bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 large clove of garlic, minced

Pre-heat oven to 400°. Wash and cut the head of cauliflower into little florets. In a medium bowl, toss florets with about half of the olive oil and the salt. Spread on a sided baking sheet and bake for about 15 minutes, turning once to prevent sticking.

In the same bowl, combine the remaining olive oil with the bread crumbs, garlic, and cheese. Sprinkle over the cauliflower after the first 15 minutes of baking time, then bake an additional 10-15 minutes.

This smells absolutely delicious as it's cooking and tastes even better once it's done! I served it with thin sliced chicken breasts that I cooked in a skillet with a little of Drew's Italian dressing, and couscous cooked with sliced carrots. All three were so complimentary of each other - definitely a dinner I'll revisit in the future! The cauliflower hit the spot with a hearty, roasted flavor and just the perfect amount of crunchy, cheesy goodness. Mmm!


Michelle at Lucky Taste Buds is giving away Barney Butter, but it ends tomorrow, so hurry!

8 comments:

Nowheymama said...

That sounds great! I wonder how it would be with nutritional yeast for the cheesy part?

Anonymous said...

I might have to try it that way. I just started liking cauliflower in the last few months. I'm going to try my sisters soup recipe too!

Anonymous said...

Yum, yum, yum - love the coloring on your cauliflower! I am definitely going to give this a try!!

Christina said...

I still have to get nutritional yeast to try! Heidi didn't use cheese in her original recipe, so you could probably leave it out. She had red chilis, but neither of us like spicey, so cheesy was a great alternative. And, honestly, the roasted flavor was hearty enough it would probably be good on it's own.

Anonymous said...

I love cauliflower roasted in the oven, but I usually just have mine plain. I like the idea of the cheese and the panko!

Anonymous said...

Ok, I'm seriously going to make this one. I printed it out and everything. YUM.

Christina said...

Haha, Cyndi I was wondering which recipe would be your first! The suspense is overrr.

Anish said...

Mouth licking recepies. I wish I was able to cook as good as you.