gastricsleeve4me: Cooking with Cauliflower

The cooking frenzy continues! I was going through my fridge to assess what might need to get used up (last week it was getting rid of expiring Fage and making it into frozen protein drops). This week it was a head of cauliflower I hadn't used yet. I'd seen many posts extolling the virtues of mashing up cauliflower and using it as a sort of potato-like base for cooking. So, I decided to experiment.

I made Eggface's Shelly's Cheesy Cauliflower Casserole. My photos and nutritional info are below. I made two tweaks to her recipe; one, I made it in a mini loaf pan and, two, because of that - I added a little bit of egg to each one to get it to hold together. Most importantly, I learned how I'll do it differently next time:

It was way too much cheese sauce (probably because I used the mini loaf pan), and the use of the flour, milk, and so much cheese seemed unnecessary. Next time I'll skip the cheese "sauce" and just top with cheese
The casserole as-made was pretty unformed. I'd added a bit of egg to each, then ran out. The ones that had the egg held together and I liked having it portioned out this way, rather than in a big casserole dish...particularly since I'm watching my nutritional info so closely these days
Apparently using like 5-year old flour makes stuff taste kinda lame. A reflection of how often I cook, I suppose :) Time to buy some new flour for sure

Cheesy Cauliflower Take 2 (aka how I'll make it next time)
1 med head of Cauliflower

2-3 eggs
1 1/2 cups of shredded cheddar
1 TBSP butter
1/4 cup Bread Crumbs (optional)

Steam cauliflower, mash like crazy, and fill each mini loaf pan about half way. Best 2-3 eggs and drizzle into each mini loaf pan. Top with shredded cheese. Top with optional crumbs mixed with 1 tablespoon of butter. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

I'm also thinking a version where I add small cubes of ham and use laughing cow swiss (or swiss cheese) instead might be quite tasty. The use of cauliflower seems quite versitile. I saw a fun recipe using ranch dressing seasoning on VerticalSleeveTalk.com. Check it out. Or, these ones for Shelly's Cauliflower Fritters and Cauliflower Pie from Eggface. Enjoy! gastricsleeve4me