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Mashed Squaliflower Mit Garlic ---plus holiday version with Romanesco
Joe made it up!
I strapped on my apron ... for a Thanksgiving potluck, and it worked! This stuff was delicious (that's the truth, they scraped the bowl clean) nutritious, vegetarian as it is but easily vegan if desired. ---Joe
And another idea for Christmas! --- see the Notes
910 g 2 lb. cauliflower (frozen is fine)
910 g2 lb. winter squash
1-heaping tbsp. garlic sauteed in your choice of oil
Cashew milk
A Pasta Boat, plastic microwave steamer relic from my late mother's watching TV infomercials and available for the rest of us on Amazon, works very well for this.
1. Cut the cauliflower and squash into manageable chunks and steam until cooked. In my microwave, this meant 1-lb cauliflower: 3:30 on high, stir, then 3:00 to finish. 1-lb squash took about 8 minutes, cut into slices about 1-1/2" thick. I peeled the squash after steaming, much easier than when it is raw and hard.
(later faster version ---- steam squash and cauliflower together in pressure cooker!)
2. Saute the garlic until medium brown. I used butter for this, but olive oil or your preferred medium would be fine.
3. Mash or blend the steamed cauliflower, squash, and garlic together, adding cashew milk to reach the consistency you want. I made it about like good mashed potatoes. Season to taste. I added only a little sea salt, and blended it almost completely, but left some small chunks of cauliflower, which tasted and felt kind of nutty on the tongue.
Dig in!
Holiday Squaliflower a la Romanesco:
In the New Seasons produce section, I noticed several beautiful heads of Romanesco. Of course, their fractal geometry has attracted me for years, but this time I had the literal thought that they looked like Christmas trees. I bought it, brought it home, and decided to roast it more or less intact, except that it needed to be sliced in order to cook through in reasonable time.
I cut the outer florets off the core in a triangular pattern, leaving the (use your imagination) shape of a conifer in the core, and because it was still too thick to cook through with the rest, I sliced it down the middle, making two tenable halves.
Roasted them for 30 minutes at 370F degrees, shaped the mashed squaliflower in kind of a mound, arrayed the florets around the "tree," and it was delicious.
It was fun, as usual. Steaming the cauliflower and squash together in my pressure cooker took much less time than steaming them separately. Once the cooker reached operating pressure, it was just under 3 minutes total!
Cheers, Joe
Comments
Eve's variation
I did the steaming on the stovetop, sauteed the garlic in a little vegetable broth, and used vanilla soymilk. It was light, fluffy and delicious!