Cauliflower, really?

This dish is definitely a sleeper. It doesn’t’ look like much but tastes great and nobody can guess that it’s cauliflower. They think it is rice. It looks like rice and is soft like rice, so that is not a bad guess.  And cauliflower rice is all the rage with the Paleo dieters these days, so you’ll be spot on should you serve it to someone on that diet. Also, cauliflower can be used as a pizza crust – who knew?   You can click here for a cauliflower pizza crust recipe, which by the way, I’m going to try next.

I brought this dish to a lacrosse party last night and it was a perfect complement to the plethora of side dishes. We had the standard green salads and pasta salads and potato salads, which were all delicious, and it would have been disappointing not to have them. But nobody had a cauliflower salad. It was fun to have something different and it was fun to play the game of “guess the main ingredient”. So, bust a move and make this for your next party.  It will be both delicious and a conversation piece for sure!

I got this recipe from Green Kitchen Stories and made some very small tweaks. Green Kitchen Stories is a great site and the little girl, Elsa, who helps her mom and dad with the website is just so darn cute! Enjoy the side dish and enjoy Green Kitchen Stories website (beautiful photos too!).

Ingredients

 1 head of raw cauliflower
2 handfuls of parsley and basil (I used cilantro)
1/2 cup toasted pumpkin seeds (I used sunflower seeds)
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Drizzle of olive oil
Salt and pepper
2 cups frozen (thawed) or fresh peas
1 cup feta cheese, crumbled
1/2 red pepper, chopped

Method

Bring saucepan with water to a boil. Meanwhile coarsely chop cauliflower and place florets and stem in a feed processor or blender and process until it is a rice-like texture (don’t process too long or it will be too mushy). You may need to process in 2 batches. Pour blended cauliflower in boiling water and boil 2 minutes. While cauliflower is cooking, chop herbs. Drain the cauliflower ‘couscous’ in a sieve and place in a large serving bowl, toss with olive oil and cool. Once cool to room temperature, add herbs, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and mix well. Then add peas, pumpkin seeds, feta cheese and toss to mix. Garnish with red pepper or whatever you have on hand that has some color. Serve warm or chilled.