Great Eats with Cauliflower

Oh! Cauliflower

I have re-discovered cauliflower through the low carb diet.  Many of the recipe substitutions for rice or pasta mention using vegetables like spinach, broccoli and cauliflower.  I really never was too keen on cauliflower so I tended to use a lot of broccoli and spinach.  One Saturday, while at the farmers market, I saw a purple cauliflower.  I was curious, I asked the farmer if it tasted different than white cauliflower, she said she thought it did and preferred it to the white.   So I bought one.  She told me to broil it, not steam it and put lemon pepper and olive oil on it.  I've done this with asparagus and it's my preferred way of eating asparagus so I decided that would be what I would do.

DELICIOUS!  The purple did taste better than the white, I had to do a taste test and I broiled both.  Purple cauliflower seems a bit rare here, but I started to use white more often because it wasn't as bland tasting as I had remembered.  Since I'm focusing a bit on soups to make, I found a nice recipe for a cauliflower soup.  Here are the ingredients and carb counts.

Cauliflower Soup

olive oil  - 0 carbs
1/4 cup chopped onion - 4 carbs
1 small carrot, grated - 6 carbs
1/2 cup chopped celery - 1.5 carbs
1/2 head of cauliflower - 15.2 carbs
4 cups chicken broth (I use bouillon cubes - less carbs than broth in a can) - 4 carbs
1/4 tsp pepper - 0 carbs
1/2 tsp tarragon - 0 carbs
1 small bay leaf - 0 carbs
5 tbsp butter - 0 carbs
3 tbsp cornstarch (recipe called for flour but cornstarch has fewer carbs) - 21 carbs
1 cup milk (I should have used Almond Milk, but I was out...) - 13 carbs
3/4 cup half and half (I know...sinful but few carbs and makes the soup delicious!!!) - 24 carbs

The soup serves 4 - 88.7 carbs for the batch - 22.17 carbs a serving.

If I were to substitute Almond milk for the milk and cut down on the cornstarch by 1 Tbsp.  I could trim more carbs without really effecting the taste.  You could also use a bit less half and half, maybe 1/2 cup instead and use a bit more almond milk.   That substituting would save 32 carbs....bringing it to 56 carbs for the batch and 14 carbs per serving. 

 I like to try to stay under 50 carbs a day so my version with 88.7 carbs is a bit high and could account for almost half my carbs for the day.   However, as I get closer to my goal weight - now only 1 lb away, I am closer to maintaining and I'm not too worried if I go over 50 a few days a week.  It's important to exercise and I credit exercise more than I credit the diet with helping me lose the last 10 lbs towards my goal weight.

The soup was delicious.  My kids were not too keen on trying it so it was lunch for 3 days for me.  I will make another batch next week and do the substitutions I mentioned and get back to you with a taste test.

Have a great rest of your week and happy carb counting!