Cheesy Cauliflower and Brown Rice Casserole

This is the most amazing recipe I discovered and adapted from the Sprouted Kitchen months and months ago. It may sound kinda weird but everyone I've made it for loves it, including the baby, the kid, grandma, and my mother-in-law. A winner definitely!

I adapted it from the Sprouted Kitchen recipe to make it simpler, faster and to use fewer ingredients. I also discovered that if your husband ate the brown rice you had saved in the fridge just for this meal you can totally use frozen black eyed peas instead! Say what? Totally random but Matt looked through our fridge and freezer and that's all he came up with and since I don't believe in going to the grocery store for one last minute forgotten ingredient we tried it and it was a total hit! And probably healthier since it added all the goodness of a legume, all that protein etc etc.

To make this dish, grab your cutting board and cauliflower. Rinse the cauliflower and use your fine grater microplane to shave off any dark spots. Did you know you could do that? Super easy. Another brilliant Matt idea. Cut the cauliflower in half, then cut the florets off. Now get your almost four year old and put him to work breaking those florets into small pieces. You can leave them as chunky as you want but I've realized I like most of my food in small bite sizes so I can scoop a spoonful of the finished product and be good to go, no cutting with a fork or whatnot. After the pieces are broken and put into a microwave safe bowl you microwave it for about 4 minutes. I know, I know, boo yucky microwave. You can totally steam them on the stove instead. But when I'm entertaining a four year and have the baby on my hip or trying to get into the dog food at my feet, I opt for speed when I can and when it doesn't seriously compromise the health or taste of the food.

Once you prep your cauliflower, add your leftover brown rice to the cauliflower and mix. You can make fresh rice too of course but this meal is perfect for using up older rice.

Now for your super rich and tasty sauce: add your diced onion to the melted butter in your pan and sauté until tender. If you don't have any red onion using a regular onion is totally fine. It's a great way to use the other half of an onion that often finds it's way into our fridge. Add the minced garlic and cook until you smell that amazing aroma. Is there really anything better than onions and garlic sautéing in butter? Yum! I find most recipes tell you to add the garlic when you add your onion but the onion takes so much longer than the garlic to cook. And no one likes burnt garlic! When the garlic is ready add your flour and salt and pepper and stir for a couple minutes. You want that flour to be cooked. Then slowly add your milk, a little at a time, stirring as you do so. I'm often in a hurry and add a lot of milk at a time. It's fine, the dish still tastes good, but if you can slow down and really stir and heat the milk with the flour mixture the sauce really comes together and thickens wonderfully, instead of a thinner sauce. You should add the milk, see the mixture thicken and bubble and then add a little more milk, stirring, stirring. Add the shredded cheese, stir until it's melted then pour the cauliflower/rice mixture into the sauce pot and toss it together, making sure to cover the rice mixture with the sauce. The cheddar cheese we've been in love with for the last year is the Oscar Wilde cheddar. It is so delicious! It works wonderfully as nibble cheese, on its own or with fig or berry jam, and also in cooking. Yum! You can add the parmesan at the end and stir to mix, leaving some delightful chunks of it.

Put in a greased 9 x 13 baking dish and cook for twenty minutes at 400 degrees. It should be bubbly and smell of cheesy goodness. Then hit the broil for 1-2 minutes (don't let it burn!) and you're good to go!

 Casserole with the black eyed peas experiment

Ingredients

1 head cauliflower

2 cups brown rice, cooked (or cooked beans)

½ red onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

Salt and pepper

1 ½ cups milk

6-8 oz cheddar cheese, grated

½ - 1 cup parmesan cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Chop up or break apart cauliflower into bite size pieces. Cook in a microwave safe bowl for 4 minutes. Add your brown rice to the cauliflower and mix to distribute ingredients. Saute your onion in butter until it softens. Add your garlic and sauté that for a minute or so. Add the flour, salt and pepper to taste, and stir while cooking for 2-3 minutes. Slowly add your milk, whisking well as you go. Let the sauce thicken then add your grated cheddar cheese, stir to combine and melt the cheese. Take sauce off burner and add parmesan, stir to combine. Pour sauce over cauliflower/brown rice mixture and stir to combine. Add mixture to greased 9 x 13 baking dish and cook for 20 minutes. Broil for 1-2 minutes at the end for a browned and bubbly top.