dusty cauliflower.

My mom's been making this recipe for many years, and it's always been one of my favorites. I'm not honestly sure where she got it. It may be from a cookbook but I wouldn't honestly know which one. Anyways, I had a taste for it recently, so I decided to make a batch of it myself. 


the recipe
4 cups cauliflower, cut into flowerets
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons oat bran
3 tablespoons dry bread crumbs
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon grated Parmesan cheese
1/8 teaspoon pepper
Dash of garlic powder


1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Lightly oil a baking pan or spray with a nonstick cooking spray.
3. Place cauliflower in a large bowl. Drizzle with oil and toss until cauliflower is evenly coated.
4. Combine remaining ingredients and sprinkle over cauliflower. Toss until coated.
5. Spread cauliflower in prepared pan. Sprinkle with any remaining crumbs.
6. Bake 18-20 minutes, until lightly browned.


substitutions
It's not really a substitution, I guess, but my mom and I use wheat germ for the oat bran. We've always used it, and it works well.


great with
I personally think this is a delicious side to accompany a veggie burger. That's exactly what I had this with.


the review
As I said in the beginning, this is absolutely one of my favorite recipes. I really like cauliflower, but there's no denying that it can taste a little plain at times. This is not a plain recipe. It's delicious. This is also one of the easiest things to make. Just toss everything in a bowl, stick it in the oven, and then you can concentrate on the rest of dinner. Easy and delicious.

broccoli and cauliflower gratin.

This is a recipe that I was really excited to try. It's from a wonderful cookbook that one of my close friends gave me for Christmas. The book is The Best-Ever Vegetarian Cookbook and it's basically become my bible. I highly recommend it. You'll see a lot of recipes from this book--I'll always let you know when that's the case.

the recipe

Serves 4

1 small cauliflower

1 small head broccoli

1/2 cup natural yogurt

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

1 tsp wholegrain mustard

2 tbsp wholemeal breadcrumbs

salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Break the cauliflower and broccoli into florets and cook in lightly salted boiling water for about 8-10 minutes, until just tender. Drain well and transfer to flameproof dish.

2. Mix together the yogurt, grated cheese and mustard, then season the mixture with salt and pepper and spoon over the cauliflower and broccoli.

3. Preheat the grill to moderately hot. Sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the top of the vegetables and grill until golden brown. Serve hot.

substitutions

As you'll find out, I don't always have the ingredients that I need, so I make my fair share of substitutions. I still try to stick pretty close to the recipe.

Honey vanilla Greek yogurt instead of natural yogurt

Honey mustard instead of wholegrain mustard

great with

I made this with a delicious Amy's California Veggie Burger, which was topped with a slice of provolone cheese, some spring mix and a little bit of honey mustard.

the review

This has a really good flavor. Having yogurt in the recipe is a really good idea and makes the broccoli and cauliflower really creamy. As you can tell from my substitutions, I added my fair share of honey flavor to the recipe, but I actually really liked it. My problems with this recipe were: I boiled the vegetables for a little too long and then I didn't let the dish bake long enough. So I'll definitely be trying this recipe again, but I'll be making sure I'm more mindful of how long I'm letting things boil and bake. Since those problems were clearly my own fault, I definitely recommend this recipe. It's a good twist on au gratin vegetables. This also saved and reheated really well.