Puréed Cauliflower with Goat Cheese

It’s no secret that I love goat cheese – of the 12 types of cheese I have listed in my Ingredient Index, goat cheese is the most used in my recipes!  So when I was asked if I wanted to participate in a virtual potluck to celebrate the release of Tasia’s Table, a cookbook by the award-winning cheesemaker at Belle Chevre, I immediately said yes!

Tasia’s Table isn’t just about goat cheese, though it is an ingredient in many of the recipes, but is a celebration of Tasia's two main culinary influences: Southern and Greek.  To celebrate the book’s release, each participating blogger chose a recipe from the book to share in a virtual potluck today.  I had a ridiculously hard time choosing a recipe to make – goat cheese gratin, goat cheese and caramelized onion tarts, wild mushroom and goat cheese pasta, or even goat cheese cheesecake! - and I wish I could have shared five or ten recipes, but I finally narrowed it down to this puréed cauliflower with goat cheese. 

And I'm so glad I chose it!  

I had recently tried mashed cauliflower for the first time and was surprised at how much I loved it.  Even more than mashed potatoes!  And I love mashed potatoes!  Adding goat cheese to the cauliflower was a brilliant idea – it adds a wonderful but not overpowering flavour while keeping the mixture smooth and creamy.  Throw in some garlic and rosemary and you’ve got a pretty tasty dish! 

I ate my first batch way too quickly and am thinking of making it again for Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend, it's really easy to make and I think it would be a great side dish to complement the meal!

Be sure to check out all the talented bloggers participating in the potluck to see what they made - many of them are also offering giveaways for a chance to win the cookbook for yourself! 

Cooking With Books   

Cheese And Champagne

Blank Palate

Deep South Magazine

Sale e Pepe

Eggton  

La Buena Vida

Susan Greeley

Bibberche

Cactus & Kudzu 

Story of A Kitchen

Sugar and Spice by Celeste

30AEats

Miss in the Kitchen

The Picky Eater

Puréed Cauliflower with Goat Cheese

Slightly adapted from Tasia’s Table Cookbook

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

1 head cauliflower, chopped into florets

1 teaspoon minced garlic

2 teaspoons butter, softened

1/2 to 1 teaspoon herb of choice – I used rosemary, but thyme or chives would work well too

1/2 to 1 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 to 1 teaspoon pepper

1/3 to 1/2 cup goat cheese

Directions:

Add cauliflower to a large flat-bottomed skillet or saucepan with enough water around the cauliflower so that it is halfway covered.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer, cover tightly and let steam until cauliflower is tender, about 10-12 minutes.

Once cauliflower is cooked, remove from heat.  Using a slotted spoon, transfer about half the cauliflower to the large bowl of a food processor, being careful not to add water with the cauliflower.  Add the garlic and process quickly in short bursts of five or ten seconds.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the rest of the cauliflower.  Process until cauliflower looks like mashed potatoes, then transfer to a bowl and mix in the butter, herbs, salt, pepper, and goat cheese.  Add the smaller amount listed of each ingredient to start, then taste and add more if desired (it's a lot easier to add ingredients then to take them away!).  Serve warm.

I like to add a bit (1-2tsp) of dijon mustard for some extra zing!

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Note: I was not asked to review the cookbook, but I really liked it and wanted to share a few of my thoughts!

Thanksgiving Week Day 6 - Roasted Vegetable Galette

For the main course in my Thanksgiving Week menu, I decided to share a recipe for a vegetarian dish. As I mentioned in my first post of this series, I don’t know the first thing about roasting a turkey and I don’t think most people need a new turkey recipe anyway. What I think people do need inspiration for is a main dish to satisfy the vegetarians at the table, who may not be too fond about the idea of tofurkey (at least the vegetarians I know aren’t)!

I’ve been wanting to make a galette for a while now, so I thought this would be the perfect vegetarian main dish to share for Thanksgiving Week. I first chose a recipe from Eating Well that had a much healthier crust than most other recipes, with whole wheat flour and only a bit of olive oil instead of butter or cream. Since I would be eating the whole test version myself, I thought this was a good decision. Unfortunately, the dough didn’t agree with me. Even after adding way more water and oil than the recipe called for, the dough was a big crumbly mess. I still wrapped it up and put it in the fridge, hoping that it would magically transform into a workable dough by the morning. Well, no such luck. I spent what felt like hours trying to roll out the dough the next day and when my arms could barely even lift the rolling pin anymore and my dough was in a million pieces, I gave up.

I then decided to go with a trusted baking source, even if it meant an unhealthy dough. Martha Stewart’s dough recipe called for a whole cup of butter, which scared me a little bit, but I convinced myself that if it meant I would have a manageable dough, it was worth the splurge. Besides, I’d already burned off about a thousand calories trying to roll out the other dough earlier!

I whipped up the new dough and it was so soft and easy to work with that I wanted to kiss it. Instead, I covered it with roasted vegetables and goat cheese and baked it into the most delicious dinner I’ve had in a while. You really can’t go wrong with a buttery, flaky pie dough, sweet roasted vegetables, and creamy baked goat cheese. This galette is definitely something the vegetarians at your Thanksgiving meal will appreciate, and the meat-eaters will be jealous of. Even if you don’t have any vegetarians to serve, this galette would still make a lovely addition to the table, either as a side dish or an appetizer if cut into smaller slices. Or, you could just make this on a random weeknight to eat all to yourself so that I don’t have to feel as guilty about doing it too!

If you want a healthier idea for a vegetarian main course, check out the Day 6 recipe over at Vanilla & Spice for butternut squash and apple quinoa. And if you still need more inspiration, then check out the links at the end of this post!

Roasted Vegetable Galette

Crust adapted from Martha Stewart, Filling adapted from Eating Well

Serves 6-10

For the dough:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water

Pulse flour and salt briefly in a food processor until combined. Add butter and pulse about 10 seconds, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs with some larger pieces remaining. Add 1/4 cup of ice water and pulse until mixture begins to hold together. If it’s too dry, add up to 1/4 cup more ice water until dough holds (but is not wet or sticky).

Remove dough from food processor and shape into a disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour or overnight.

For the filling:

1.5 cups chopped peeled carrots

1.5 cups chopped peeled parsnips

2 cups chopped peeled butternut squash

3 large shallots, peeled and chopped

1 head garlic

~2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided

2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary, or 1/2 teaspoon dried

1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Freshly ground pepper, to taste

¼ to ½ cup crumbled goat cheese

Preheat oven to 400°F. Coat a large baking sheet with cooking spray.

Chop carrots, parsnips, and squash into ½” uniform pieces. Combine vegetables (carrots, parsnips, squash, shallots) with 1.5 tablespoons olive oil, rosemary, salt, and pepper in a large bowl and toss to coat. Spread the vegetables on the baking sheet.

Cut the tips off one end of the head of garlic and drizzle the exposed cloves with a teaspoon of oil. Wrap garlic in foil and place on the baking sheet with the vegetables.

Roast vegetables and garlic until tender (they don’t have to be completely soft because they will go in the oven again later), about 20-30 minutes. The garlic may need an additional 10-15 minutes in the oven on its own.

Transfer the vegetables to a large bowl. Unwrap the garlic and let cool slightly. Squeeze out the garlic cloves into a small bowl and mash with 1 teaspoon olive oil. Add the mashed garlic to the vegetables and toss to coat.

Reduce oven temperature to 375°F.

Once dough has chilled, roll it out on a floured surface or pastry mat into a 15” circle, about 1/4” thick. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and transfer the dough onto the sheet. Arrange the roasted vegetables on top of the dough, leaving a 2-inch border around the edges. Sprinkle goat cheese over the vegetables.

Fold the border of the dough up and over the filling to form a rim, pleating as you go. Bake until crust is golden brown, about 50-60 minutes. Serve warm.

For other vegetarian Thanksgiving main dish ideas, check out these links:

Vegetarian nut loaf from A Couple Cooks

Thanksgiving meatless loaf from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen

Layered sweet potato torte from Vegetarian Times

Pumpkin orzo with sage from Cheap Healthy Good

Spicy squash salad with lentils andgoat cheese from Smitten Kitchen

Butternut squash casserole from Ezra Pound Cake

Stuffedacorn squash with pine nuts, sour cherries and sage from The First Mess