Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Roasted Cauliflower with parmesan and almonds



Here's a simple little recipe for my Vegetarian friends and readers but it also makes an incredible side dish for everyone to enjoy.  I wish my pictures did justice to the wonderful tastes, but hopefully you can imagine.


(Not shown- Red onion and Green onions)
Ingredients
1 head cauliflower
1 lemon, zested and juiced
2-3 green onions, chopped
1/2 cup of parmesan, grated
1/2 red onion, sliced
1/2 cup sliced toasted almonds
2-3 Tbsp Olive oil
Salt and Pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Break the cauliflower into small uniform flowerets and slice the onion.  Toss uniformly with olive oil, probably should take 2-3Tbsp.  Don't over do it, it will make a mess of your oven.  Make a even layer of cauliflower and onions on a medium baking sheet.  Add the salt and pepper.

Bake for 20 minutes, giving it a stir after about 10 minutes.  Make sure that you start to get some browned bits (hmmmmm, carmelization makes it taste great!) on the edges of your cauliflower and onions.  You can see from the photo below that I was over anxious to get this on the table, and really, my sheet pan could have used another 5 minutes to get some browning.

While the veggies are roasting, slice the green onions and zest the lemon and set aside.  Juice the lemon, and have ready to add to the veggies once they come out of the oven.  I added the cauliflower to a bol and basically dumped all the other ingredients on top.  I gave it a toss and then added more salt and pepper.  Serve hot, but this is good at room temperature too.

Main Dish and Side Dish Inspirations
This could be a main dish for a vegetarian meal, adding enough protein with the parmesan cheese.  It makes a hearty side dish for any grilled meat, you really don't need a starch, it's that satisfying.

Round Two cooking… make more and use it for:

If you added the almonds as you served it you could use any leftovers for soup by blending with some stock and re-heating.

What else would this technique work on???
Broccoli, but any winter veggies would be great!

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