Monday, March 29, 2010

Day 88: Cauliflower Poppers

Cauliflower is one of the most overlooked veggies I can think of. It happens to be one of my favorites. Last year I tried growing my own with some success. I think it will be a major player in my fall garden this year. It was on sale, so I bought a bunch to try out some new recipes. Normally when I eat cauliflower, it is slathered in butter and sprinkled in salt, and generally not very healthy. One of my goals this year is to learn to appreciate veggies that aren't dressed up with goopy sauce. Now that's not to say that I won't cover them with cheese or some other deliciousness, but once in a while, I'll have them without. This recipe dresses it up in spices. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I gave it a try. I found this recipe at On My Menu.

Cauliflower Poppers
12" or 14" dutch oven
1 head cauliflower
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. coarse salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
Cut the cauliflower into bite sized pieces. Place all the ingredient into your oiled DO. Bake a 400 degrees until tender, but not mushy, stirring halfway through. Mine took about 15 minutes. I used a 14" oven with 24 coals on top and 12 on the bottom. Serves 6-8.
The Finished Product

The Review
These were good! I loved them. My kids--not so much. None of them ate more than the required 1 bite. They were light, but spicy. Not at all what I was expecting. They would be a great side with any Tex-Mex or Mexican meal. They would go well with a grilled steak or something along those lines as well. These will make many encore performances at my house, even if the kids didn't like them. I may try mixing in some other veggies too! These get an A-.

3 comments:

  1. Hi Toni! This recipe comes from Dick Stucki's second book " Dutch Oven Entertaining. If you click on his book on my blog, I think you can get to aether book.
    Cheese-frosted Cauliflower.
    1 med. head Cauliflower (whole)
    1/2 cup mayonnaise
    2 teaspoons prepared mustard
    3/4 cup shredder shredder cheese

    Remove leaves, trim base from cauliflower, leave head whole. Place on rack to steam over boiling water in dutch oven. Steam until tender. Place whole cauliflower on cake pan. Sprinkle with salt. Drain dutch oven and heat for baking. Combine mayonnaise and mustard, spread over cauliflower. Top with shredded cheese. Bake until cheese is melted and bubbly. Serve hot.

    ReplyDelete
  2. These sound really different. Never thought about doing cauliflower this way. I normanlly don't eat it cooked, but I'm going to have to give this a try.

    Al

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ron-
    That sounds really good! I'll try it with fresh cauliflower from my garden this summer!

    ReplyDelete

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