We just arrived home from a lovely, relaxing weekend away – the first for our little family (ie, B, Maggie and me). The place where we stayed had very intermittent internet coverage, and it was actually really nice to be disconnected for the majority of the weekend. We spent the weekend reading, watching movies (including one of my all time favorites that I watched this morning whilst B slept in), playing cards, and also fit in a few small walks. We cooked up a few delicious meals as well, I remade a yummy curry that I’d cooked a few weeks earlier plus our favorite pizza, and recipe-tested a few other dishes which will be making their way here in the coming weeks.
I have quite a few recipes banked up at the moment – I always underestimate the amount of time it takes to photograph and write up a post (other bloggers – is this just me!?) so lately I’ve been doing a lot of photographing, but not so much writing. I think I get a little over excited about a recipe, make it and then move on to the next without sharing it here. I have been (slowly) writing them all up though, so I should be posting a little more regularly in the future.
Something I have been playing around with lately is grain-free porridge. Whilst I do love a bowl of steaming, comforting oats, I’m always looking at new places to sneak in vegetables and I also love experimenting with new flavours and recipe idea, hence my resolve to find a tasty grain-free alternative to porridge, preferably one with a good dose of vegetables to boot.
This recipe uses riced cauliflower as the base – I find the cauliflower taste here to be extremely subtle, especially when you use coconut cream to cook with and add a little sweetener of some sort – I just used banana, but adding in some coconut sugar or raw honey would help sweeten and change the overall flavor of the dish, and therefore I have included the extra sweetener in the recipe here. If you’re still not sold on cauli-oats, you could easily substitute half the cauliflower for oats to still get that oat-y porridge flavor with the added goodness of the cauliflower. Or, try adding in some different flavours – cacao is great here (when is it not!?) or add some mashed, roasted pumpkin to create grain-free pumpkin pie porridge.
A final note – Apologies for the quality of the pictures here – the dark winter lighting has left me with some very interesting tones in my photographs, these ones had a very distinct blue tone to them once uploaded to my computer. Any tips related to however to manually set white balance would be greatly appreciated :)
Creamy grain-free porridge (aka Cauli-oats)
2/3 cup packed riced cauliflower
2/3 cup coconut milk or cream
2 Tbsp dedicated coconut
1/2 ripe banana, mashed
1 tsp raw honey
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla
Rice the cauliflower by placing the roughly chopped florets into a food processor and processing until resembling rice.
Add to a saucepan with the remaining ingredients over low to medium heat and stir to combine. The mixture may be a little thick at this point, but it will thin out a little once its starts to cook and the cauliflower starts to soften.
Bring to a simmer and then reduce heat and cover, stirring every few minutes until cauliflower is cooked through, around 15 minutes
Serve topped with berries, coconut cream or yoghurt, chopped nuts or seeds.
Serves 1
Wow this is definitely the most inventive use for cauliflower I’ve ever seen! I really want to try this :) The toppings look great as well :)
Thanks Lillian – let me know what you think if you do try it :) x
I have never even thought of making cauli-oats. What a great idea! I love About Time too. Oh, and you’re definitely not alone with feeling like the posts take a lot of time to put together. I find myself needing to do each component in phases over time so it’s not too much at once.
Oh good – glad Im not the only one! :) (On the post-putting-together and About Time front ;)
This is such an amazing idea! That has to be one of the best veggie incorporating breakfasts I have ever seen! Sounds like you had a lovely weekend – it is so nice to disconnect sometimes!
Thanks Lauren :) And I definitely agree – we all need to take time out occasionally to disconnect and relax. x
Oh girl – this is such a lovely idea that I need to put on practice! Cauliflower and porridge are two of my favorite foods ever!
Your pictures look lovely to me though! Aaaand I don’t have to clue on how not to get them blue. It happens to me all.the-time. Post-processing is the only way for me when it comes to white balance :(
Aw, you are too sweet Consuelo! Yes, the photo editing stage definitely took a while with this particular shots! Let me know if you try the porridge x
So interesting! I love sneaking veggies into breakfast, so I’ll have to try this out. Amazing idea!
Thanks Erica! Let me know what you think if you give it a go :)
Best. use. of. cauliflower. ever!! I love how versatile it is, and yup, the subtle flavor makes it perfect for just about anything. I’m totally up for cauliflower porridge. Have you made cauliflower brownies before? I hear they’re good!
Aw, thanks love :) Yup, cauliflower is definitely up there is the running for most versatile vegetable! No, I havent tried cauliflower brownies before (or even heard of them!) will definitely be trying that one out – thanks for the tip x
This looks so amazing (and interesting)! I’ve never heard of cauli-oats… But as someone with a deep love for cauliflower, I sure am excited to try it! I wonder if I could somehow make this work in the microwave (I’m in college with no kitchen)…
Thanks for dropping by Erin! I dont have too much experience with microwave cooking unfortunately but if you can make oats, I’m guessing you’ll be fine with cauli-oats! Let me know how you go :)