Roasted Cauliflower Salad and a Hearty Healthy Lasagna Soup
This Smitten Kitchen cauliflower salad with a tangy olive oil dressing and pistachios and dates is not just “acceptable” for a cauliflower dish but honestly I think it’s REALLY good. Tasty enough that I made it multiple times last fall/winter and Frank loved it too. I don’t even tweak the recipe (shocker!) but I think walnuts would work just as well if you’re not a pistachio fan or she mentions sunflower seeds too.
Cauliflower Salad (from Smitten Kitchen)
Ingredients:
1 large head of cauliflower (2 pounds)
Olive oil and Avocado Oil
salt/ground black pepper
1 bundle of scallions/ green onions
About 8 dried dates
1/2 cup shelled salted pistachios
Juice of 1 medium sized lemon
Assembly: (per Smitten Kitchen - with a couple small tweaks.)
Heat oven to 450°F and coat a large baking sheet with avocado oil, salt and pepper. Quarter your cauliflower, cut out the core, then tear the quarters into bite-sized chunks. Also dice the core into smaller pieces. Place all on the prepared baking sheet and toss pieces to coat well in the oil, salt and pepper.
Cut the scallions into 1-to-2-inch segments. Clear some space (1/4 ish) at the end of your cauliflower baking sheet and add the scallion segments to it. Toss them to coat in oil/salt/pepper mix.
Roast the pan for 10 minutes then remove tray from oven (leave oven on) and use tongs to remove just the charred scallion segments, placing them in a large bowl. Flip the cauliflower pieces over for even browning and return it to the oven for another 5 to 10 minutes, until cauliflower is deeply browned in many spots. She says not to fear the char for flavor (but I don’t like TOO dark because of the carcinogen risk so keep an eye on it depending on your oven strength!)
Meanwhile, roughly chop the pistachios. Pit your dates, if needed, and roughly chop.
Make a vinaigrette with 3 tablespoons olive oil, the juice of one lemon, plus enough salt and pepper to season it very well. Whisk together. You want it to be strong but if it’s too lemony here, blend in 1 TBSP more of olive oil.
When cauliflower is done, add to bowl with charred scallions, along with dates, pistachios, and reserved scallion greens. Toss with dressing to taste, seasoning further if needed. Salad is good right away but it also keeps well at room temperature for a few hours. I’ve also liked it lightly warmed in the microwave as leftovers.
Lasagna Soup (Kale Junkie’s recipe modified)
Ingredients:
*Note: For the cheese mixture, whatever you have can work, I used part cottage cheese, part mascarpone in place of the ricotta.
3/4 cup whole milk ricotta
1/2 grated parmesan
1/4 cup grated mozzarella
1 tsp garlic salt/italian herbs (optional addition!)
1 pound beef (or turkey or chicken)
1/2 pound ground italian sausage
1/4 cup mozzarella
avocado oil/ ghee
1 small onion, diced
5/6 garlic cloves
1 cup fresh basil
3 TBSP italian seasoning
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 28- oz can crushed tomatoes
4 cups broth of choice (I used beef bone broth from @thrivemarket)
8 ounces of pasta (I used an ancient grain, lower glycemic one I had in the pantry but I'd otherwise use whole wheat or chickpea/brown rice noodles.)
Large container of pre-washed ready to go organic spinach.
Assembly:
Mix the cheese mixture in a separate bowl with a fork. Set that aside or save if serving later.
In a large enough pan to cook soup, brown the meats with some avocado oil or ghee. Drain meats if needed. Then add onions, garlic, seasonings and brown for a couple more minutes back in original pan. Then stir in the paste, broth and pasta. Stil well and bring to a gentle boil. Cover and cook for 20 minutes on low simmer (to cook the pasta.)
When you have 2 minutes left on the cook time, throw in your spinach and basil. I chopped it roughly in handfuls as I threw them in but you could put full spinach leaves in just as easily.
Once you serve up the bowls, add a dollop of the cheese mixture (I heated my cheese mix for 20 seconds before serving.)
ENJOY! Please tell me if you try it or are saving it to try!