Poached and Roasted Cauliflower

Raise your hand if you love cauli!!!!! It is SO versatile! I've found lately that I have been more making things like Cauli rice and couscous, cauli patties etc... and tbh - I am SO sick of finding tiny cauliflower granules allllll over the kitchen haha. So I decided the other day I would try something different.  

Admittedly I got the idea from a lady at Wholefood Merchants in Ferntree Gully - and I tried it and thought... yeah not too shabby! BUT could be better! So I did a little tweaking ( I accidentally wrote twerking the first time haha ) and the end result is absolutely deliciously amazing.  

Because we are eating the whole cauli - Leaves and all! And yes, that includes the stalk! PLEASE buy organic!!!!!!!! The last thing you need is to be influxing your poor liver with chemicals and pesticides! So Please, buy organic. I'll say it one more time... Please! 

Now if you're a vegan and you miss cheese, I think you especially will love this recipe (please omit the ghee for a fat of choice like flaxseed oil) it kind of reminds me of cauliflower and cheese sauce from when I was younger - however since dairy is the devil, there's been a need to search for cheesy goodness elsewhere...without the food additives like the bio cheese or Daiya has!

So without further adue - here's introducing Nutritional Yeast! 

For those of you that haven't yet entered the realm of Nutritional Yeast, I highly recommend you do. ESPECIALLY if you have just come off dairy and are missing the cheesy goodness. It kind of reminds me of Parmesan... but without the ten day old dirty sock smell!  Nutritional Yeast is so good for you and contains some really essential vitamins and minerals. It is a really great protein, so fantastic for vegans and vegetarians alike, and especially good for those following a Ketogenic Paleo diet. And also has Magnesium, Copper and Manganese, Fibre, Thiamine, Riboflavin, Niacin, B6, Folate, B12, Zinc and Panthothenic Acid. <-- see, I used a big word so it must be good for you!

When it comes to your poaching liquid, make sure that the vegetable stock you use, actually contains vegetables. I have noticed some on the shelves lately that say things like "Extract"... um no mr marketing man! I want real vegetables in my stock please. If you can and you aren't too time poor (or perhaps you are super organised and have some pre made) make your own stock. It's an awesome way to utilize your left over fruits and veg and herbs and at least you know what's in it! 

So I realllllly think you will enjoy this recipe. It is beautiful as a main, although sometimes we have it as a side dish to a roast. It's super satisfying either way. 

---

Recipe

Serves - 4 -

Time 1 hr 20 mins

What you need:

 1 Litre Vegetable Stock (pref. Organic) 

1 Large Cauliflower, leaves and stalk on 

3 Cloves Garlic 

3 Tablespoons Nutritional Yeast 

1 Tablespoon Ghee or Olive oil for Vegan/Plant Based

Salt and Pepper to taste 

What to do: 

Find a saucepan that your whole cauliflower fits in and put the cauli in. Cover with your Stock. If 1 litre of stock isn't enough to cover your cauli, then top up with some water. Bring to a boil, then once boiling, turn to a low heat and simmer for 30 minutes.  

Once finished poaching using tongs, carefully lift the cauliflower out of the liquid and place onto a baking sheet that has a layer of tin foil. Don't throw away the poaching liquid - you can put this in a container into the fridge and use it again another day.  

On your poached cauli, add your Ghee ( Or Olive Oil ) , Nutritional Yeast and your Garlic. Don't worry about rubbing it in, the residual heat and the oven will melt the ghee and it will soak into the nooks and crannies. Season lightly and then bring the foil up the sides of the cauli and wrap at the top (so none of the liquid drains) 

Place in the oven for 20 minutes on 180 degrees. Take out of the oven and remove from foil, pour the juices over the top of the cauli and place back in the oven, uncovered for another 20 minutes to brown.  Pull out from the oven after twenty minutes and serve. 

This really is a delicious way of serving Cauli - let me know what you think in the comments below! 

Home Made Raw Vit C Powder

If you have not gotten into the land of dehydrators.. seriously time to think about giving it a go! When something says its 'raw' it means it hasn't been heated above 40 degrees. Once foods are heated they begin to lose their nutrients, So dehydrators are magic ESPECIALLY if you wan't to make your own powdered supplements! ehydrators you can find for a pretty good price. I got mine off Catch of the Day for $49. I originally bought it for my mum and dad...and they liked it so much that she bought a bigger one...and then gave this back to me. 

am yet to make my own 'mean green' mix but am thinking I'll do it once the remaining oranges are out of the dehydrator tomorrow. You know you go to the super market or the health shop and buy spirulina powder or green smoothie powder??? Well you can make it at home and for a quarter of the price! It's the same with this Vitamin C.

The gut only has capability of absorbing so much at a time. So when ever you see a product that is claiming to have the vitamin c content of 1 million oranges in ONE tablet - it's a marketing gimmick. Your body can only absorb so much at a time and then you wee the rest out. So when possible, always try and make it yourself because you will get a bigger benefit from it as you won't be taxing your digestive tract as well. Seriously... imagine your gut being hit with 20 oranges! Poor bloody thing!

We will use this beautiful dehydrated orange in SO many things! In Smoothies in the morning, in brownies (Jaffa sweet potato brownies....ummmm I think that's happening this weekend FO' SHO') salad dressings... you name it! Even to just flavour some water for mini man. OMG you know what this is awesome in? Sparkling mineral water! Like fizzy orange goodness with no sugar or arse added. The possibilities are endless!

So yes. I decided to make my own. We always seem to get sick going from summer to autumn... or from winter to spring. Always when the weather changes. So this is perfect for this time of year given there is about 8 days left of winter. (I'm actually ugly crying right now and not on the inside)

This is super simple. I'm not even going to write a recipe below because thats stupid. It's oranges and a dehydrator. So instead of doing a recipe, I am just going to tell you what to do here.

​First of all, make sure they're organic oranges! This Vit C powder is the orange skin AND the orange flesh. So since you will be consuming the skin it is seriously important that you only choose organic oranges. Now when you are peeling oranges to make this, its a bit fickle. You need to get the skin, but not the white bit underneath. The white of the orange is extremely bitter and while your powder will still be good for you... it will taste like arse. So be careful, take your time and just peel the orange off and leave the white behind. Once you've peeled all the skin off, cut the white bits off the orange and discard them. You'll be left with beautifully juicy orange flesh. Cut them thin. The thinner you cut them the quicker they will dehydrate. Layer them out in the dehydrator with the flesh toward the bottom of the dehydrator and the peel toward the top of the dehydrator. You can do as many oranges as you have room for in the dehydrator you have. I managed 5 oranges in mine. 

Don't set the temperature above 40 otherwise it starts to destroy the nutrients. ​

You just leave it until it is dry enough to process into a powder. The skin will dry first and the flesh will take a little bit longer. You can always turn the skin to powder first and then do the orange once thats completely dry. ​

In terms of turning it into a powder... there are a couple of ways. If you have a mortar and pestle... that's the best way. I sadly have misplaced mine. And by misplaced I mean dropped and smashed on the floor. So I did mine in my Nutri Ninja. It didn't give me as smooth of a powder as usual... but its still good and tiny. This picture makes the granules look bigger than they are because I zoomed in. ​

So seriously give it a go!​

COPY CODE SNIPPET

To do the mean green mix, you dehydrate kale, spinach etc... all beautiful green things and then do the same thing to turn it into a powder. I will attempt that next so I'll keep you posted once I've done it! 

Happy dehydrating and if you do give it a go - let me know what you think and tell me how yours went! 

Peace love and vitamin C to you all xx

As you can see here, this one has a bit of white on it. I discarded it. I tried it before I got rid of it and I'm glad I did... in a weird way. It was SO bitter! My god. Would have completely ruined my mix!