Every month (well, almost every month), I participate in the Recipe Redux dietitian blogger cooking challenge. This month’s assignment: A recipe featuring orange food. I have two fabulous nutrition students from Boston University who are interning with me for the semester, so I asked them to create an orange recipe and write a guest post.
Sophie and Annette were like kids in a candy store when I dropped them off for a scouting mission at Wilson Farm in Lexington, MA. They grabbed a bunch of orange foods including Rugosa Squash (I blogged about this heirloom variety last week) and these gorgeous heads of orange cauliflower.
Read on for the guest post and the recipe! (And while you’re at it, be sure to check out Annette’s blog, Food Science Nerd!)
Hi Everyone. We’re Sophie and Annette, and we’re seniors at Boston University. Sophie is originally from England and Annette grew up in Durham, NC. Coming out to Liz’s house in Lexington for the past few weeks has been a nice break from our fast-paced, always-studying lives in Boston. And since both of us love to cook, we’ve enjoyed our time in the kitchen. We had a blast cooking this casserole for the Recipe Redux, and we can’t’ wait to read all of the other posts.
Some of our favorite finds at the farm (from top left) were the Cinderella pumpkins (shout-out to Annette’s Disney obsession), the golden beets, sugar pumpkins, and small “fancy” gourds, but we decided the best option for this challenge was the orange cauliflower.
Sophie had a flashback to a childhood favorite called Cauliflower Cheese. Her mum (that’s what they call “moms” in the UK) made this recipe all the time using a lot of butter and Cheddar cheese, so we decided to use it as the starting point for our recipe redux.
The original Cauliflower Cheese recipe was handed down to Sophie’s mum from her grandma. Now, we’re turning it into a lighter but equally flavorful version. To do that, we replaced the butter with olive oil to increase the amount of heart-healthy fats and replaced the whole-fat cheese with reduced fat. We also reduced the amounts of both ingredients to lower the overall calories and fat. We spiced up the recipe with green onion, cumin, and chili powder and added extra crunch with a sprinkle of Panko bread crumbs and grated Parmesan cheese.
This is what it looks like, all bubbly and crunchy straight out of the oven!
- Serves: 6
- Serving size: 1 cup
- Calories: 170
- Fat: 8g
- Saturated fat: 3g
- Carbohydrates: 15g
- Sodium: 230mg
- Fiber: 3g
- Protein: 11g
- 1 large head of orange cauliflower cut into 1-inch, bite-size florets (about 9 cups)
- 2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 4 green onions thinly sliced, white and light green parts
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1½ cups 1% low-fat milk
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- 4 ounces shredded reduced-fat Cheddar cheese (1 cup)
- Kosher salt and black pepper
- ¼ cup Panko bread crumbs
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Pour ½-inch of water into the bottom of a medium-size saucepan. Cover and bring to a boil. Place the cauliflower in a steamer basket and lower into the pot. Reduce the heat to a low boil, replace the lid, and steam the cauliflower until crisp tender, about 8 minutes. Transfer to a 7 x 11-inch baking dish and set aside.
- Carefully empty the water from the saucepan and wipe away excess moisture with a paper towel. Place the oil in the saucepan, and heat over medium heat. Add the green onions and cook, stirring frequently, until golden, about 5 minutes. Add the flour and whisk constantly until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes.
- Whisk the milk, cumin, and chili powder slowly into the flour mixture. Raise the heat and bring to a low boil, stirring constantly. Reduce the heat and continue to simmer and stir gently until the mixture thickens, about 3 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and stir in the Cheddar cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour the sauce evenly over the cauliflower. Stir together the bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese in a bowl and sprinkle evenly over the top. Place in the oven and bake until the cheese bubbles, about 15 minutes. Remove from oven. Reposition rack in upper third of oven and preheat broiler. Place casserole back in oven and broil until lightly browned, 1 to 2 minutes.
Don’t be fooled by how indulgent this dish tastes! One cup of raw cauliflower has only 25 calories, and orange cauliflower has the added benefit of higher amounts of carotenoids, the antioxidants that give this veggie its orange color. One 1-cup serving of this casserole provides 25 percent calcium, thanks to the low-fat milk and Cheddar cheese, a dash of phytochemicals from the cumin, and a whole serving of veggies.
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