September 27: Eating my veggies

I don’t know what possessed me to buy a head of cauliflower. I’m definitely not a fan of the vegetable. It may have been the price (99 cents for the head), the freshness of the produce, or maybe even peer pressure from my mother (‘mother pressure’). In any case, I opened the fridge to find a big head of cauliflower staring at me.

When I decided to take a year off work, I did not doubt that some of the creativity would happen in the kitchen. So the new goal: to make cauliflower palatable to me. The resulting chowder was so good that I ate it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner today. I polished off the whole pot of soup and plan to make another batch soon. The dish: roasted cauliflower corn chowder.

Just to make sure that I wasn’t consuming only healthy foods, I threw in a batch of brownies into the oven. The juxtaposition of crunchy walnuts, tart cranberries, and creamy white chocolate chunks enrobed in rich chocolatey yumminess created a great mouth sensation.

Here is the recipe for the roasted cauliflower corn chowder:

1 medium onion, finely diced

1 carrot, finely diced

1 stalk celery, finely diced

1 potato, finely diced

1 bay leaf

2 cups vegetable broth

2 cups water

1/2 head cauliflower

1 can cream style corn

1-2 tbsp oil

Salt, to taste

Pepper, to taste

Prepare the cauliflower by cutting it into florets, lightly coating them with oil. Roast in the oven at 350 deg F for about 40 minutes until slightly browned and tender, then chop into small pieces, similar in size to the onions, etc.

In a pot, heat oil. Saute onion until caramelized. Add carrot and celery. Add broth, water, bay leaf, and potato. Cook over medium heat for about 1/2 hour (longer if you have time--this will help with the melange of flavours). Add the roasted cauliflower and corn. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Sorry, no photos--it didn't look as photogenic as I had hoped.

Today marks the first day of work of this year off. Chris, the longtime manager of the clinic, is about to retire and I really wanted to get a chance to see her before she heads off. She will be missed.