Cauliflower Rice (recipe)

While waiting patiently for my new doctor to show, I sat in the hall outside her locked office reading old magazines filled with recipes for tarts, quiches, cakes, cookies, pasta and pies. Self torture. A recipe for cauliflower rice (or riced cauliflower) caught my eye. I thought of that cauliflower head sitting in my refrigerator rotting for lack of creative motivation and decided this would be a good time to try making this rice substitute.

Evidence of thievery

I also thought it was a good time to rip that page right out of the magazine. YES...Sorry. I'm still a recipe thief. It was an old magazine in a hallway! The magazine was torturing me. Maybe this was a subconscious need to express anger? Frustration? Yeah, I know I don't have any justification for this behavior, but I'm trying. I had been fasting for a blood draw and very hungry. Still no justification...

Unfortunately, the recipe begins at the riced cauliflower ingredient with little directions on how to get it riced. Initially I thought I could just crumble it with my hands, but that wasn't working so well. Cooking never comes easy to me unlike so many. So I did what any modern cook does these days - got online. Two ways to rice one's cauliflower is to grate it or food process it on the grating button. I tend to always opt for the nearest option or the one with less clean-up so I hand grated it. It was a mess with bits of cauliflower bouncing all over the kitchen. I'm still cleaning it up. I think throwing it in a food processor would be the least messy way to go.

Anyway, once it's all grated into fine bits, using paper towels blot off any excess moisture. I guess this is very important because you don't want your cauliflower rice to get soggy which it tends to do.

Here is the basic recipe although I tweaked it for convenience so it barely resembles the magazine's version: Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a pot on medium to medium high. Chop up some scallions (yeah, I don't have scallions so I used green onions). Chop up some bits of red pepper (for color). Throw the scallion-onions and pepper bits in the oil and saute for a short time. Put about one teaspoon of salt and some pepper in the bowl of cauliflower, mix, then throw into the pot with the scallion-onions. Cook for about five minutes which is plenty of time to avoid sogginess. Serve.

It was really, really good! I enjoyed the texture. I think one could add all kinds of foods to the recipe for a variety of stir-fry flavors: Thai, Chinese, Mexican, Texas BBQ...

Yum! Breakfast.

In the above photo the Cauliflower Rice accompanies my ground turkey patty. You can see the bigger bits of cauliflower from my attempt to crumble it with my hands, but it all tasted marvelous.

Gravy! OMG! (recipe)

Boy, I miss gravy. Mashed potatoes smothered in gravy. That was my comfort food for years. I lived off it through college. At every school I ever attended, the cafeterias sold little containers of mashed potatoes and gravy for twenty-five cents. A cheap and alternative option to a real lunch!

Fast forward 100 years and neither gravy nor mashed potatoes are on the Paleo Diet with a Hashimoto's Twist. Potatoes are not only nightshades and capable of creating health havoc, but they are also high in starch/sugar and lectins*, another misery-causing substance. To reduce the amount of lectins found in lectin-high foods with skins, it is advised to peel them as the skins have a greater lectin concentration. This is especially important for tomatoes and one reason Roma tomatoes were developed - less skin and more pulp.

Old-fashioned gravy like grandma used to make is all about the gluten: wheat flour. That's what gives it that creamy, soothing, comforting, sticky texture. Gluten is definitely not on my diet so gravy has been a forbidden for years. Besides, what would I put gravy on if I can't eat potatoes?

When my digestive tract failed a few months ago, there were few foods I could eat so I had to tweak the Hashimoto's diet. This caused me great stress as I had no idea how adding the few food choices I could tolerate would affect my health. Happy to say, so far I'm fine. I think. I hope. When I started a blended diet (yuck), I found sweet potatoes blend very nicely and creamy soups worked wonderfully. Sweet potatoes are higher in fiber and have a lower glycemic value than potatoes, however, they do have lectins and have low levels of goitrogens**. I have avoided them in the past.

People on grain-free diets are using cauliflower as a side dish alternative. It is especially popular as a rice substitute as the tiny bits are much like rice grains in terms of texture. Cauliflower is, however, a goitrogen. There is some debate over thyroid function being affected by goitrogens. From what I have read, cooking foods eliminates the goitrogens. It's only raw goitrogens that are problematic. If you have eaten a lot of raw goitrogens and experience feeling unusually cold, that's your thyroid being suppressed. Lately I've been drinking fresh cabbage juice which is supposed to heal my digestive tract and it never fails three hours later I'm hit with unexplained fatigue and the need to nap. It's hardly unexplained anymore.

Anyway, who would have thought cream of cauliflower soup would be the perfect GRAVY!!! It even looks like chicken or turkey gravy! Here is my recipe:

Ingredients:

1 head of cauliflower, trimmed, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
2-3 stalks of chopped celery
1 large, chopped yellow onion
1 teaspoon chopped (one clove) garlic
2 cups homemade chicken broth with lots of fat
1 cup/can coconut milk
1/2 to 1 teaspoon curry (optional)
salt and pepper

In a large pot, add olive oil and butter. Saute onion and garlic on medium heat until transparent. Add celery and cauliflower cooking slightly and stirring constantly. Add salt and pepper. Add chicken broth. Bring to boil, reduce heat slightly, simmer covered until cauliflower is soft, about 20 minutes. Let cool slightly. Blend in a blender until creamy. Return to pan adding curry and coconut milk. Bring to slow simmer and heat for another ten minutes. It will be really thick so stir it constantly. Add water or more coconut milk if thinner is preferred.

Pour over mashed sweet potatoes or potatoes, if you are so inclined. Also good over chicken or turkey or Thanksgiving dinner. I think I could pour this over everything! AND it makes a very good soup for those cold winter months!

YUM!


*Lectins are foods that are capable of penetrating the wall of the stomach causing leaking gut and inflammation. Most hazardous lectin-high foods include: beans of any kind, wheat, peanuts, tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, peppers, and cashews (which are actually beans...or drupes...so confusing!)

**Goitrogens are foods that disrupt the production of thyroid hormones by interfering with iodine uptake in the thyroid gland. Bad goitrogens: bok choy, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, mustard and mustard greens, radishes, rutabagas, turnips. Foods with small amounts of goitrogens: bamboo shoots, peaches, peanuts, pears, pine nuts, spinach, strawberries, sweet potatoes.