6 Pound Cauliflower, Part 1: Couscous

Today's story starts with a six pound cauliflower bigger than my head that I happily haggled for at last Sunday's local farmers market. I was so happy to come away with this beauty and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. 

I absolutely love couscous, with its yummy chickpeas and dried fruits. I tend not to think of making it because there are other more nutritious whole grains that I love like brown rice and quinoa. Couscous is perfectly fine to eat on occasion, and you can actually buy whole wheat couscous, but I love it so much that I have a hard time controlling portions. That's why making couscous out of cauliflower is absolute genius. Bottom line: I can eat as much as I want (...within reason). I've posted before on my blog about cauliflower fried rice (which is incredible!!!) but I was excited to try this couscous recipe from the amazing blog "Love and Lemons".

http://www.loveandlemons.com/spiced-cauliflower-couscous/

The main ingredients in this dish are:

Cauliflower, Toasted Hazelnuts and Pine nuts, Roasted Chickpeas, Currants, and Spices

It is then tossed with an incredible Curried Coconut Milk sauce.

One nice thing about this recipe is that you can prep a lot of it the day before so that it doesn't feel like quite such a momentous task. So on Day 1 I started by toasting the nuts, which I had never done before. It turned out to be remarkably easy. Literally just toss the nuts into a hot pan and keep moving them around until they smell unbelievable and look all toasty. That's it! I will warn you that hazelnuts are quite expensive but entirely delicious....so don't skimp!

The next prep I did was to cut up and wash my cauliflower. This is good to do the day before because you want it completely dry before making the couscous. 

Then I roasted my chickpeas, which is optional, but recommended. I followed this recipe, adding some garam masala just for fun. If you are making this dish in one day I would roast the chickpeas because they will add a nice crunch. But if you are spreading it out over two days I wouldn't bother roasting them the day before, as they will lose their crunch. They still taste great, but it might not be worth the effort.

You can also make the sauce the day before. Please please get the full fat coconut milk. It's almost the only fat in the meal (and healthy fat is good for you) and makes a world of difference.

Alright, Day 2. Time to rice the cauliflower. This is super easy. Just stick a small amount in your Vitamix or food processor and pulse it until it looks like...well...couscous! That's it! Then you cook it in a skillet, add the nuts, chickpeas and other spices, and voila! Then just add in your sauce as the recipe specifies, and you are done.

And here we have the final dish! I'm kind of obsessed with presentation, so I had a lot of fun with this.

Result: Although the recipe calls this "spiced" couscous, I found it mild. This isn't a bad thing, as I was able to enjoy the subtleties in flavor and the coolness of the coconut sauce, but next time I may up the seasoning. I would double the dried cilantro and orange peel, add more curry and cinnamon to the sauce and maybe add some cumin and garlic as well. Either way, it is delicious with the toasted nuts and currants. While this is not a quick recipe, if you double it than it will be well worth the time, and it is seriously delicious.