Smoked Cauliflower and Couscous

I finally got a little time today to do some cooking- at least cooking that was my choice and not needing to be cooked elsewhere/transported or in anyway needing to please other people but me.  

As I have previously at least showed in pictures, I got a new cookbook for Christmas from me, to me! I was able to read a bunch of it while riding down to Jon's a few days ago, and I have lots of cooking to do!  I am not sure why I chose this particular recipe, but it sounded good, and I had picked up some whole wheat couscous, so I was ready.

I THINK I am going to try and do at least one idea from that book per week until school is done.  I do like to have some new things to eat around the house during the week!!

Anyway, I made this tonight and it is something that I will make again. If you are at all interested in vegetarian cooking, this book by Mark Bittman is totally worth the investment!!

It is really a simple and quick procedure that only requires that you do a little chopping and stirring.

Begin with all of your ingredients all together and pretty much prepared and it will go very smoothly!  Chop the onion, and the cauliflower, keeping them separate. 

Toast the almonds in a dry frying pan

After stirring them around for a while, remove them from the pan, add the oil and the onion

Have the cauliflower ready....

Add the cauliflower to the softened onions and stir up well- oil should be coating the cauliflower.  Saute until the veg starts to crackle

cook the cauliflower until it has slightly softened

add the couscous and toast it for another 5 minutes

Add the smoked paprika  and then the vegetable broth- cook undisturbed for 15 min.

Chop up the almonds as small as you can

Mix it into the couscous and then let it sit

Spoon out, garnish with grated cheese and enjoy!

WHOLE WHEAT COUSCOUS WITH CAULIFLOWERAND ALMONDS

From How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman

½ cup of whole almonds

3 tablespoon olive oil

1 large shallot or small onion

1 small cauliflower – chopped- about3 cups

salt and pepper

1 cup whole wheat couscous (or regular)

2 tsp. smoked paprika

1 ½ cups vegetable broth

½ cup parsley

grated cheese

In a dry skillet, pour almonds in andtoast in hot pan. Stir constantly- about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside in a bowl to cool

In same pan, heat oil and add onion,cook about 2 minutes, stirring, until softened a bit and starting toturn color. Add cauliflower and salt and pepper. Stir well- Cookabout 5 – 10 minutes until veg. starts to pop and crackle.

Add couscous, stirring until coatedwith oil, then sautee about another 2- 3 minutes, couscous will startto toast.

Sprinkle with paprika, then addvegetable broth. Bring to boil then turn heat very low, cover andcook without stirring for 15 min. (5 min. for regular couscous). Chop almonds as fine as you can. Add them with the parsley (I didn'thave parsley) to dish, fluff with spoon, cover and let sit without heat for another 2 minutes. Can be eaten warm or cool!

About 400 calories per cup. That isthe count for it without cheese. TOTALLY worth every calorie

A definite joy in my week!

Oh Christmas tree, oh tediouschristmas tree

It seemed like a good idea at the time!  I received a COOL picture from a friend of mine, who totally knows my thought process apparently, of a Christmas tree that is made of broccoli and other vegetables.  It hit a chord in many ways..... a. it's Christmas for heavens sakes, deck the halls and hohoho.  2. It is vegetable, which of course is my gig now.  Next. I like the visual translation of the whole thing- it is artsy in a Trompe l'oil sort of a way. and e. I usually wimp out for Potlucks and just buy a veggie tray, so here it is people.  This is the best I can do!  AND btw, it was a very good idea and it turned out pretty cool!!

And yes I pinned it on Pinterest and will pin the puppy onto my board later, when I have a "free moment"  HAHAHAHAHAHA  as if.

So to start this process, I bought some veggies and then I went back and bought more the next day.  THIS was a wise decision on my part.

Shopping list:

Broccoli

Green Cauliflower

carrots

yellow and red pepper

cherry tomatos

foam cone

toothpicks

dip or hummus

**THANK you Susie Daniels for providing me with the cone!!  YOU are awesome!!

As I was cutting up the veggies last night, I decided it would be best to assemble them in the morning so they wouldn't get soggy or limp.  So GUESS WHAT I did at 4:30 am??!!!

I began at the bottom of the cone and put in sort of like rows of the 2 green veggies.  NOTE: if you do this, put the toothpicks IN the base first. Not in the broccoli.  AND trim down the stems a bit.  You will thank me for this advice!  You're welcome!!

Oh, look, I can focus a camera at 4:45!

So fill the tree with green and then go back and try not to curse as you fill in the holes that you missed before you actually woke up for the day......  Those are unpleasant words to use at Christmas time any way.

Prepare to decorate the tree!  Enter cherry tomatoes, peppers and carrot pieces:

Begin the garland with pepper strips...

Add the ornaments......

Add a star!!

And done- only about 2 hours of time and no Art teachers were harmed during this event...... Well, my fingers are sore from the toothpicks, but that is a small sacrifice.  

And so I hope this gives my lovely colleagues in the High School a lot of joy!  :)