Cacio e pepe cauliflower and chickpeas
So, I have to confess something: I’m not sold on the pretend-cauliflower-is-the-same-as-carbs trend. I’ve had the Trader Joe’s cauliflower gnocchi and it’s good, but it’s not gnocchi. I’ve resisted cauliflower pizza crust because…I just…can’t. I like cauliflower rice, but only with other strong flavors.
However, I do like cauliflower, especially when it’s covered in cheese, garlic, and breadcrumbs.
Cacio e pepe purists may hate this recipe, but hear me out. The best part of cacio e pepe is the creamy sauce that’s achieved by mixing the starchy pasta water with cheese. But when you roast cauliflower, the stalks and larger pieces actually do get a little creamy.
And my kiddo likes things with a crunch more than things that are soft and creamy, so throwing in a little panko is a nice textural counterpoint to the softer cheese and veggies.
Add a drained can of chickpeas and you have an actually filling vegetarian meal or a hearty side.
Cacio e pepe cauliflower and chickpeas
1 large head of cauliflower
1 can chick peas; drained, rinsed, and dried
3 Tbsp olive oil
½ tsp sea salt
5-6 grinds of freshly ground pepper
¾ cup grated Parmesan or Pecorino cheese (3 oz)
2 large cloves garlic
¼ cup panko
½ tsp sea salt
¼ tsp freshly ground pepper
2 Tbsp mayonnaise
Preheat oven to 425.
Drain and dry one can of chickpeas. Set aside.
Remove the leaves from your cauliflower, but leave the central core intact. Chop into 1-inch slices. You’ll probably get between 2 and 4 intact steaks and the rest will fall into florets, which is fine.
Place the cauliflower steaks and chickpeas onto your sheet pan and then fill in with cauliflower florets.
Brush the steaks, florets, and beans with the olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Roast for 15-20 minutes, until the steaks are just fork tender. (You don’t want mushy cauliflower, but this is the majority of the cooking the steaks will do, so use your best judgment about how cooked you like your veggies.)
While the veggies and beans are roasting, pulse the cheese in a food processor until it’s in coarse crumbles (if not using pre-grated). Add the garlic, panko, salt, and pepper and pulse until the garlic is minced and everything is mixed together. Set aside.
Carefully remove the pan from the oven.
Spread a thin layer of mayo over the steaks and any of the larger florets of cauliflower. Top liberally with the cheese, panko, salt, and pepper mixture. Press lightly into the steaks to get the cheese to stick.
Return to the oven and roast for another 10-12 minutes until the cheese is brown and crunchy. Keep an eye out that the cheese doesn’t burn.
Yield: 4-6 side dishes, 2-3 main dishes
Stovetop lasagna
Cooking lasagna noodles upright in sauce and melting cheese on top is an easy route to layered pasta that is cozy, simple, and ready in a pinch.
Listen, chatty Kathy, take me to the recipe
It’s so cold. And so dreary. And so dark. All I want to do is hibernate under a giant blanket and eat cheesy pasta. You?
But, I also feel really low energy. Like, I don’t have the wherewithal for a complicated, multi-step, multi-method recipe. So, I reconcile these incompatible ideas with stovetop lasagna. Cook the noodles in a jarred sauce, top with cheese, and serve. Seriously, so so easy and so so good.
A few notes:
I added turkey to this dish to increase the protein, but feel free to leave it out to make it vegetarian.
There’s pesto in the ingredients photo because adding some dollops of pesto in this dish is fab. But I bought a mass-market brand pesto that was, in a word, inedible. So, I wanted to add it to the photo, but we actually eat the food I photograph and I could NOT stomach this sauce. Use one you’ve had before and liked, one you’ve made, or skip it.
WheWhen first adding the noodles, make sure they aren’t touching each other or they could stick together and become gummy and inseparable later on. They’ll start touching through the cooking process as they soften and flop over and you’ll stir to separate them. I’ve found that as long as you start off with the noodles not touching, they’re easy to separate later on.
It might seem like a lot of liquid, but the noodles soak up a lot of it and you still want the sauce to be saucy.
I add dollops of ricotta and then fresh mozzarella to top this dish. I never use part skim or pre-shredded mozzarella because I think they take too long to melt and then the noodles get overcooked.
You could absolutely put the pan under a broiler for 1-2 minutes to brown the top of the cheese instead of letting it melt on the stovetop. I do mine on the stove for simplicity, but choose your own adventure.
Stovetop lasagna
Time: about 45 minutes, mostly active
Yield: 6 large bowls
1 Tbsp olive oil or butter
1 small onion, minced
2-3 large garlic cloves, minced
1 lb ground turkey
3 cups tomato sauce (about a 32 oz jar of sauce)
2 cup stock (turkey, chicken, or vegetable), divided
13 regular or no-boil lasagna noodles (half of a box, uncooked, broken in half)
Ricotta cheese, optional
Fresh mozzarella
In a large cast iron pan (with a lid) or Dutch oven, saute the onions on medium heat until translucent and starting to brown, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for one more minute, until fragrant.
Add the turkey and cook, breaking up any large chunks, until no pink remains, about 10 minutes.
Add the tomato sauce and broth and stir to combine. Turn the heat to high.
Break the uncooked noodles roughly into halves (don’t mind the noodle shrapnel; just toss it all in the pot) and tuck them into the sauce vertically, making sure they don’t touch each other.* (You want them to be perpendicular to how you would normally layer the noodles in a lasagna; kind of a sideways layering.)
Turn the heat down just slightly, cover the pot, and cook for five minutes.
Uncover the pot and stir the noodles around (it’s okay if they touch now). Turn the heat down to medium or medium low, cover, and cook for another 5 minutes.
Uncover and stir again. Make sure to separate any noodles that are very stuck together. Leave the pot uncovered and cook for 3-5 more minutes. Stir the noodles and sauce frequently to ensure that nothing is sticking or cooking too fast. Add more stock if needed, 1/4 cup at a time.
When the noodles are just al dente, add the mozzarella, cover, and cook until the cheese melts, about 5 minutes.
Purple kale and cabbage salad
Yada yada yada…take me to the recipe
Do your kids eat salad?
Leafy greens are hit or miss around here, as are all foods these days. M is doing a lot of refusing to eat at meals— and not just healthy stuff, but ALL stuff— and the struggle is real.
I follow @kids.eat.in.color on Instagram and her feed is a sanity saving reminder that kids’ appetites change dramatically from day to day and week to week for a variety of reasons, so I’m trying not to sweat this testing phase. I think it has a lot to do with control and independence because when he gets really hungry, he eats. Last night he took down about 8 homemade dumplings, peanut noodles, broccoli, and scallion pancakes.
I actually talked to a dietitian friend about it and her mealtime strategy is to serve everyone the same main dish, but to also put bread and hummus on the table so that her kiddos have an alternative if they aren’t into the main. If they ask for something else, her response is a gentle but firm, “Sorry, that’s not on the menu tonight.”
I LOVE this strategy and am going to implement it on our table. An apple with almond butter is M’s go-to if he doesn’t like what I’ve made. So instead of letting that be the end point of a power struggle, I’m just going to start putting it out on the table as a way to de-fang this dinner time dance we’re doing.
I just want to make sure that I don’t take the joy out of eating for M, you know?
I recently read the book The Eating Instinct and it was fascinating. The author talks about how we start off using food for comfort and connection when feeding infants, but pivot to a whole different way of looking at food for older kids and throughout our lives. Sure, food is medicine and can be vital to our health, but it’s also love and community and comfort and it should be all of those things.
Another of my takeaways from the book is that our culture’s messaging around food really undermines our ability to trust ourselves to know what and how much to eat. I really don’t want to do that to M. I want to trust him that if he’s had two bites of dinner, he really is done.
I realize what a privilege it is that I get to worry about my kid not eating a kale salad. I mean, it may not get bougier than that, right? So, I also want to let that bit of perspective slow my roll when I start to get worried or frustrated that he isn’t eating.
Anyhoo, when things are working normally, I have a few tricks to getting M to eat salad:
1) Let him help with mixing the salad and tossing in the dressing.
2) Cut everything really small.
3) AAC, or Always Add Croutons: Bread is pretty safe for most kids and the added crunch can be a fun textural element.
4) Deconstruct: If your kids like to isolate textures, you can also deconstruct the salad so they eat each element on its own.
This salad is lovely and complex, but shockingly simple. I made it with just carrots the day I took photos, but it’s better with the roasted radishes and carrots. The carrots are sweet, which is great for kids, but the radishes add a slightly bitter edge that balances that sweetness. Roasting the radishes also takes away about 99 percent of the bite, though, so they’re very mellow.
Don’t skip rubbing the bread with garlic once it’s toasted and before you cut it into croutons. So so good.
And don’t be shy with salt. Salads are so much better with salt.
Purple kale and cabbage salad
1 small bunch purple carrots, peeled and sliced into large chunks
3-4 thick slices of pumpernickel bread
2-3 Tbsp olive oil
Large pinch of salt
1 bunch purple kale
½ small purple cabbage
½- ¾ cup balsamic vinaigrette (recipe below)
1 large clove garlic, cut in half
Aged gouda (optional)
Preheat the oven to 425.
Make the dressing (see recipe below).
Prep the carrots. Toss with 1 1/2- 2 Tbsp olive oil and a pinch of salt.
On the same sheet pan, place thick slices of bread and brush with the remaining olive oil and top with a pinch of salt.
Roast the carrots and bread for 10 minutes. Remove the bread slices and return the veg to the oven. Cook, checking for doneness every 5 minutes.
While the vegetables and bread are roasting, chop the kale and cabbage into very small pieces and toss well with the dressing. Set aside.
When the bread is still hot, but you’re able to handle it, rub the raw garlic over the crusty bread. Cut into small cubes and set aside.
(If you plan to make this salad ahead and serve after a few hours, stop assembling at this step. Store your cheese, croutons, and roasted vegetables separately and assemble the components just before serving.)
Add the carrots and croutons to the salad and toss. Top with slices or shreds of cheese and serve immediately.
Balsamic vinaigrette
1 small or ½ large shallot
1 small garlic clove
½ cup olive oil
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
½ tsp kosher salt
½ tsp Dijon mustard
Pepper to taste
Add all ingredients to a small blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Check the seasoning. Dressing will keep in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 2 weeks.
Yield: about 1¼ cups or 9 oz
