Roasting veggies is one of my favorite ways to add a nourishing side dish to any dinner. Roasting veggies brings out the sweetness and turns them into addictive yummy bites of deliciousness that even the pickiest of eaters enjoy! We love this classic combo of cruciferous veggies—broccoli and cauliflower roasted together are packed full of great, hearty flavor and work as a side dish to almost any main. We season our broccoli and cauliflower with sesame oil and garlic to add a punch of delicious flavor. Let's get roasted!
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Traditional grits are made with cornmeal (AKA: polenta), and produce a thick, creamy hot cereal that is perfect for eating with butter and brown sugar for an oatmeal substitute. Or, you can load it up with butter, cheese, and other add-ins to make it the perfect base for a savory meal. But what if you are allergic or intolerant to corn? No worries! Our recipe for Cauliflower Grits is so close to the real thing, you’ll never miss corn again. It’s creamy, thick, and the perfect vessel for shrimp. Read the post »]]>
How do you make loaded roasted cauliflower?
The process for making this loaded cauliflower is similar to making any other roasted cauliflower recipe, with one major difference—the toppings! Here’s how you get these glorious florets:- Fry up some bacon and reserve the grease.
- Drizzle the bacon grease, along with garlic powder and black pepper, onto cauliflower florets. Toss to coat.
- Roast in a 425°F oven for about 20 minutes, or until the cauliflower is tender and golden brown.
- Top with sharp cheddar cheese and bake for another minute or two to melt the cheese.
- Drizzle ranch dressing on top, and then sprinkle on the cooked bacon and sliced green onions. Enjoy!
This post was updated and republished for your enjoyment.
This vegetarian curry is an EXPLOSION of awesome flavor. And the best part? It comes together in less than 20 minutes. Serve it up with some hot-off-the-presses naan, and you’ve got yourself an amazing healthy dinner that the whole family with love.
If you've never made curry before, it's nothing to be afraid of. The best way to get the curry flavor you're used to from your favorite South Asian restaurant is to use curry paste. Yes, they sell curry powder at most grocery stores, but the flavor of typical curry spices tends to fade very quickly after grinding—so powder form isn't the best way to get robust flavor.
Curry paste is the wet version of curry powder, and you can probably find it at your regular supermarket in the international foods aisle. Because it is wet, it keeps the flavor of the spices nice and robust, and having a bottle of curry paste in the fridge makes it a BREEZE to make a weeknight curry like this one.
For this recipe, you're looking to pick up red curry paste—Mae Ploy brand is one that a lot of folks like, but I can't find it at my supermarket, so I usually just use Thai Kitchen. If you're a little more advanced, you can also make your own curry paste at home—here's a great how-to from The Wanderlust Kitchen. Read the post »]]>
Cauliflower rice has been a thing now for quite some time, and when I first made it, I have to be honest, I thought it was so not appetizing. What crazy person said this was anything like rice? It was mushy and soggy and tasted like CAULLIFLOWERRRRRR! And I typically love the taste of cauliflower, but I don't want my rice to taste like it!
I was determined to keep working at mastering cauliflower rice though, and I'm happy to say that I can now cook a pan of cauliflower rice like a boss! Here are a few tips to making good cauliflower rice each time:
- Use frozen riced cauliflower if you can. Most major supermarkets now carry frozen riced cauliflower in their frozen veggies section. Not only is it easier than chopping up a head of cauliflower in your food processor and more affordable than fresh, but I also find that it results in a much fluffier, rice-like end result. I've been able to make good cauliflower rice from fresh, but it takes a little more effort—from frozen, I get perfect results every time.
- Steam, don't boil or sauté. Whenever you go to cook your cauliflower rice, add just a touch (a couple of tablespoons per bag of frozen riced cauliflower) of water and steam your rice—don't boil it (too mushy!) or sauté it (not fluffy!). By the time the cauliflower is cooked through, all the water should have evaporated and/or been absorbed. You want your end cauliflower to be tender, but not over-cooked.
- Flavor your rice. Sulfur-heavy cauliflower can be a bit overpowering when left to its own devices, so make sure you season your cauliflower rice liberally. Strong flavors like garlic do a great job of helping to mask some of the cauliflower-iness.
The Meijer produce section is one of my happy places. Not only do they have an exhaustive selection of all kinds of varieties of fruits and veggies (it's seriously impressive), but the awesome folks at Meijer also pride themselves on buying from Midwestern producers first. Which means that I can hop into my local Meijer store and pick up farmstand quality produce from my local farmers. In fact, Meijer partners with over 250 local growers in the Midwest to stock their produce section! When you pick up produce at Meijer, there is a good chance it was grown nearby.
In fact, the corn used in this recipe was grown by Mouzin Brothers Farms—a third generation Indiana farm just a hop, skip, and a jump down the road from me! You can taste the difference when you buy locally-grown produce. And I love that I can support small Indiana farmers just by picking up my normal groceries at my regular supermarket. It's a win-win! Read the post »]]>The recipe was originally published in November 2010. It was retested with reader feedback, rephotographed, rewritten, and republished for your enjoyment in September 2017.
Let's talk about cauliflower soup. I know. I know. When someone says "cauliflower soup," it probably sounds like something an evil lunch lady would serve to poor elementary school kids as a torture device. I would have thought this, too. But my world was changed in 2008 when I was fortunate enough to be a bridesmaid for my sister-in-law (my husband's brother's wife, got that?).
After a fantastic, but exhausting, day of the ceremony, schmoozing, and photography, we landed at the reception to a nice warm bowl of beige at the head table. I had heard mention of this cauliflower soup throughout the weekend, but thought for sure it must be sheer folly. For no bride would serve cauliflower soup at her wedding! Especially not one as elegant as Kim. BUT SHE DID. And I'm glad she did. (I, on the other hand, was supremely classy and served barbecue on trash can lids at my wedding—true story.)
The soup was creamy and cozy and smooth AND elegant. So comforting on a throat that was sore from talking and mingling so much. I immediately grabbed the Bride and told her how amazing it was. The soup was a thing of glory. So special, that after a few too many tequila shots, on the ride back to our beds on the aptly named "party bus," my thoughts immediately went to how good a food the soup would be for a hangover. Read the post »]]>
It doesn't make you ungrateful. It doesn't make you unsympathetic. It doesn't make you any less compassionate. The problems of the world, no matter how horrific, do not negate your very real feelings about your very real problems, no matter how insignificant they are in the grand scheme of things. Emotions are always valid. Period. The truth is, sometimes the little things in life can add up to feel like really big things. And it's okay to wallow in the weight of that for a bit. Adulting is hard.
I've been doing a bit of my own wallowing lately. We've had a series of minor, but annoying, home repairs. And my schedule is jam-packed with tight deadlines. And there is a teething toddler in the mix. And did I mention the poison ivy? None of it is big. All of it is fixable. But it has still gotten me in a little bit of an end-of-summer funk. It might sound really strange, but when I find myself feeling not-the-good-kind of funky, I start to pull myself out of the darkness by cleaning up my diet.
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