Brandon was sick (Don’t feel sorry for him. He refused to wear a face mask while sanding down a circa 1950′s piece of furniture.) AND it was a chilly, rainy, gloomy day–so this was the perfect supper. Chicken bog is a classic southern recipe. It’s really just chicken and rice, sometimes sausage, stewed together. Nothing fancy, but definitely homey and comforting.

Ingredients

• ~2 lbs chicken, preferably dark meat and on the bone, I used chicken quarters
• carrot, celery, onion, whatever you have, roughly chopped
• thyme
• water or chicken stock
• 1 head cauliflower
• s & p
• hot sauce

Method

Remove the skin from the chicken pieces and reserve for fried chicken skins. Place the chicken, chopped vegetables, thyme, s& p, and enough water to cover, in a large saucepan. Simmer until the chicken is cooked through, about 30 minutes.

Remove the chicken and let it cool. Once it’s cool enough to handle, pull the meat apart and either discard the bones or roast them and make chicken stock.

While the chicken is cooling…

Roughly cut the cauliflower into florets. Strain the chicken simmering liquid to remove the veggies and thyme, and pour the liquid back into the saucepan. Pop in the cauliflower pieces. Boil until the cauliflower is tender and cooked through, about 10 minutes. Strain the cauliflower florets and place them back into the saucepan. Using a potato masher (or some similar tool), mash the cauliflower until it’s reached the desired rice-like graininess. Add some chicken liquid if you’d like it to be a little more stew-like. Add the pulled chicken meat and mix together. Serve with a couple dashes of your favorite hot sauce.

“Mistake Gone Right” should be the title of this recipe. It happens all the time, let’s be honest. We set out to make some glorious meal for our loved ones (or ourselves), and somewhere down the line, it all goes down the pooper. So what can you do to salvage? Just add stock and blend. Soup disguises all mistakes!

Disclaimer: You definitely have to start out with something that, at least, tastes o k a y. I mean, I can’t imagine something like celery, chocolate and adobo peppers tasting good. Period. Soup or not. But…hey,what do I know?

Ingredients

• 2 heads cauliflower, stems & core removed, chopped small
• F.O.C. (fat of choice)
• 3 leeks, sliced & washed (see pics)
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 2 shallots, minced
• chili flakes, to taste
• 1 quart stock
• 1 pint  original flavored coconut milk creamer*
• 1 handful fresh basil leaves
• 1/2 c olive oil
• s&p

Method

How to clean your leeks:

In a large soup pot, saute the onions, leeks, shallots in your F.O.C., over medium-low heat until they’ve turned a nice golden, brown color. Add the cauliflower and stock. Bring to a simmer and let the cauliflower soften. Use an immersion/hand blender, or a regular blender, to puree the soup. Add the coconut creamer and the soup is done.

For the Basil Oil

If you use a blender to puree the soup, make sure you make the basil oil first…just saves a step– you don’t have to clean out the blender twice. I would rather have basil flavored soup puree than cauliflower flavored basil oil.

Place the basil, olive oil and some s&p in the blender and puree on high. This makes a lot of basil oil. It adds a lot of brightness and goes great on almost any soup (maybe not chili),  eggs, and is a great base for salad dressing.

*This stuff is awesome. No real detectable coconut flavor, just tastes like 1/2 & 1/2.

This is a serious multi-tasking kind of recipe. I don’t typically make/write recipes that require dirtying lots of dishes or require multiple steps or too many ingredients, because I know most people (including myself, most days) just want to eat something a.) that tastes good b.) is good for us and c.) doesn’t require washing more than 3 dishes. I absolutely, positively abhor washing dishes. Let me get back on task here, what I’m trying to say is…I’m not trying to scare anyone off, but this should be made on a “I can’t wait to cook an awesome meal” kind of day. We didn’t need a roux for this recipe. I thought I would have to experiment with some arrowroot powder but the okra does a nice job of thickening the gumbo. Oh and let me mention, this makes a TON…get ready for leftovers!

Ingredients

• 1 head cauliflower
• 4 T butter, cubed
• s&p
• 3 leeks*
• 3 celery stalks
• 1 green pepper
• 1 lb. Andouille sausage, chopped
• 1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken thighs, chopped
• 6 c shrimp stock** (any stock will work)
• 1/2 lb. okra
• 1 14.5 oz. can diced fire roasted tomatoes
• 2 T Old Bay
• 2 t Quatre épices***
• 3 green onions

Method

Get your oven to 450°F. The food processor is going to be your BFF for this recipe. Get it out! Cut out the core and leaves of the cauliflower. Roughly chop and, in batches, process the cauliflower until it resembles rice. Place on a baking sheet. Toss it around with the butter and some s&p. Roast the cauliflower rice until it’s a nice pale yellow-ish color and doesn’t taste cauliflower-y, making sure to toss it one or two times while it’s roasting. About 25 minutes.

While the cauliflower is going, add the andouille sausage to a soup/stock pot, at least 5 quarts. Saute until it’s browned, remove from the pan and place on a “holding” plate. Add the chicken and saute until it’s done…if you’re a little shy of done, no worries, it’ll continue to cook in the soup. Remove the chicken and add to the plate with the sausage.

Add the green pepper, celery stalks and leeks to the food processor and blend until everybody is in small, itty-bitty pieces. Add to the stock pot and saute until everybody has softened. Pulse up the canned tomatoes in the food processor too–I don’t like when they’re too big in the soup, I like them evenly sized and textured within the soup. Add the rest of the ingredients, including the sausage and chicken, and simmer until the okra has softened, about 20 minutes. Don’t be afraid to taste the okra for the correct done-ness–soft, but still has a crunch to it.

To serve, place a scoop of cauliflower rice in the center of a bowl, ladle around the gumbo and sprinkle with green onions. You will have more gumbo than cauliflower. So leftovers will be “soup.”

*Leeks are dirty little suckers. To clean them: Cut off the root and to the top where it starts to get really, really green. Slice lengthwise and toss into a bowl of water. Use your hands to jiggle them around and that should remove virtually all the dirt.

**So here’s the deal with shrimp stock: I made the faux-viche one night and used shell-on shrimp. I saved the shells, added them to 3 quarts of water, simmered for 3 hours, strained and discarded the shells. Incredibly easily, and might I add, very resourceful.

*** Quatre épices is a french seasoning mix: white pepper, nutmeg, ginger, cloves. It’s not a necessary component, but it’s a nice addition. I found mine at World Market.

A throw together salad that goes “POW” in your mouth. I made Shepards Pie with a cauliflower “crust” and ended up only needing 1/2 a head of cauliflower. I needed to use up the other half in some fashion. I made a 24 hour quick pickle with the cauliflower and threw in some carrots too. The pickled veggies add a good zip, and allow me to control the sugar content– most brines contain a massive amount of sugar.

Ingredients

Pickled Cauliflower and Carrots

• 1/2 head cauliflower, chopped small
• 2 carrots, sliced thinly
• 1/2 c white wine vinegar
• 1/2 c red wine vinegar
• 1/2 c water
• 2 T salt
• 1 T sugar
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed

Antipasto

• 6 oz.  salami, pepperoni or other cured meat, chopped
• 1 can quartered artichokes, chopped
• 1/2 c roasted red peppers, chopped
• 1/3 c pistachios, chopped
• handful of basil and oregano, chopped
• 3 T pepperoncini, chopped
• olive oil, to taste
• black pepper, to taste
• other ingredients that you may like: red chili flakes, capers, red onions, kalamata olives, feta cheese

Method

In a medium bowl combine all ingredients for the pickles, place in fridge and let marinate for at least 24 hours. Toss the cauliflower/carrot mixture with a spoon a few times when you go in the fridge. Us a slotted spoon to remove the cauliflower and carrots from the brine. Be sure to remove the garlic if you don’t want it, it’s camouflaged really well by the cauliflower. We chopped the garlic up and put it in the salad, but it’s a bit spicy still, even pickled.

Place the cauliflower/carrots in a large bowl along with the rest of the chopped anitpasto ingredients. Serve immediately or keep in the fridge for a week or so.

Take away the cream, butter, sour cream and potatoes. There’s no longer a need for any of that stuff. Brown meat and saute some veggies until soft, caramelize cauliflower, mix it with egg and broil until bubbly, brown. Easy, only two pans to clean and it tastes good too, imagine that.

Ingredients

• 1 lb. ground beef, chicken, turkey, pork…almost any ground protein will work
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 4 oz. mushrooms, sliced
• 3 T each FRESH rosemary, sage and thyme (herbs are the flavor maker and must NOT be omitted)
• 1/4 c + 1/4 c chicken stock
• 1/2 head cauliflower, finely chopped
• 2 T oil
• 1 egg
• S&P, Chili flakes

Method

Preheat your oven to 400ºF.

In a deep-sided, oven safe saute pan add the ground beef and saute on medium heat until browned. Add the onions, garlic, carrots and mushrooms and cook until softened. Add 1/4 c chicken stock and use a spatula to pick up any brown bits on the bottom  of the pan. Turn the heat off and toss in the chopped herbs along with some salt and pepper.

For the cauliflower, melt the oil over medium-high heat in another saute pan. Let the cauliflower caramelize (you want to see brown, don’t stop until that point!) use a spatula to turn it in the pan every once in awhile. Add some salt and chili flakes. Turn the heat off once the cauliflower is done.

In a small bowl, use a fork to whisk together the egg and 1/4 c chicken stock. Add the mixture to the cauliflower and working quickly, use a spatula to make sure it’s well combined. Immediately add it to the top of the meat mixture and press into an even layer with your spatula.

Bake in the oven, on the middle rack, for 10 minutes, then turn the oven on broil and cook for another 10 minutes. Once the “pie” has come out of the oven, let it rest a few minutes before serving.

A buddy of ours at our CrossFit box asked us if we had a Paleo style Fried Rice recipe. We had never tried, so we immediately set to work. The rice is replaced with cauliflower we pulverized in the food processor. This recipe messes up a few more dishes than I like to clean, but it was completely worth it…and it made 4 giant servings, hello leftovers! Feel free to add peas, carrots, zukes, whatever you’ve got–clean out that fridge!

Ingredients

• 1 lb. ground pork
• 4 oz. mushrooms, sliced
• 1 shallot or 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 inch long piece of ginger
• 4 green onions, sliced
• 2T + 2T wheat free soy sauce
• 1T + 1T  chili garlic sauce
• 1 head of cauliflower
• 2 eggs

Method

In a saute pan add the pork and break it up into pieces with your spatula. Let me school you real quick in extracting flavor from ground meat–let it cook until it’s brown. That means, don’t stop cooking it until you physically see a brown crust on it, just like if you were searing a steak or chicken.

While the pork is browning, chop the cauliflower head into chunks and throw into your food processor. Pulverize until it’s turned into crumbles, this shouldn’t take but about 2 minutes. Remove the cauliflower and reserve in a bowl. Since the bowl of the processor is already dirty, you might as well let it do some more work for you and pulverize the ginger and shallots.

Once the pork is brown, brown, brown add the mushrooms, 1/2 the green onions, 2 T soy sauce, 1T garlic chili sauce, and the shallots and ginger. Let it come together and simmer for about 5 minutes. Remove the mixture from the pan and put into your serving dish.

Add the cauliflower to the saute pan. What you’re trying to do is cook the cauliflower crumbles. Keep your eye on it and stir it around every minute or so. It should be finished in about 8 minutes. Taste it to make sure it’s soft and doesn’t have an over cauliflower-y taste. Add 2 more T of soy sauce and 1 more T of chili garlic sauce. Place the cauliflower into the serving bowl.

In a small bowl, crack 2 eggs and whisk together with a fork. Add the eggs to the saute pan and constantly stir so the eggs scramble into small pieces. They should finish cooking in about 2 minutes. Add the eggs to the serving dish.

Add the other 1/2 of the green onions, toss everything around to coat and serve immediately.