Lemony Slow Cooked Whole Cauliflower

Last Thanksgiving, we ended up having even more people than usual for dinner.  Somewhere around twenty.  Now, we normally have about 13, and everyone pitches in and helps.  We have the potato person, the beet person, the turnip person and so on.  I totally stopped stressing about this meal years ago (sort of).

For some reason though, the extra seven people really put me in a tizzy.  I kept adding menu items, doubling recipes and making more grocery lists.  On the edge of a nervous breakdown, I finally turned to my sister-in-law Kathy, the real cook in the family, and wailed,  “I don’t know how to cook for that many people!”

She gave me a really long, really pitying look, and said, “That’s easy.  Just cook like you normally do!”

And so I made two of these whole slow-cooked cauliflower heads: a lemony, cauliflower head  and an Italian  cauliflower head.  (For the record, my husband prefers the Italian one.  Shocker.)

Here is the recipe for the lemony cauliflower, and I will post the recipe for the Italian roasted cauliflower at a later date.

That way, if you have twenty people coming for dinner, I’ve got you covered.

Ingredients:

• 1 head of cauliflower, greens cut off (you might want to try orange cauliflower or even purple so the sauce will really stand out)
• 2 large onions, peeled and sliced
• 2 Tablespoons garlic powder
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 Tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 2 teaspoons lemon zest
• 1 Teaspoon parsley (optional. This will make the rub a darker green color)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 cup vegetable broth
• 1/4 – 1/2 cup lemon juice ( 1/2 cup does make it very lemony)
• 1/2 cup white wine (optional)

Directions:

1. Place the onions in the bottom of the crockpot.
2. Whisk together the broth, lemon juice and wine (if using) and pour over the onions.
3. In a blender or jar, combine the garlic powder through the olive oil and blend.
4. Brush or rub the spice mix over the head of cauliflower, completely coating it, then place it on top of the onions, core side down.
   

   Parsley sprinkled on after rub has been applied

   

   Parsley pureed with the rest of the rub ingredients

5. Cover the pot and cook on low for 5 hours.
6. When the timer goes off, carefully remove the cauliflower (you may need a super large spatula or spoon or combination of the two.  The goal is to keep the head whole at this point) and wrap it in foil to keep it warm.
7. Remove the onion/broth mixture and allow to cool a bit before putting it into a blender (I use my Vitamix) and puree it till smooth.  **At this point, if your cauliflower is white and the sauce is fairly white, you may want to add a small bit of parsley to the blender to get a green sauce.  Or not.  Personal preference on color scheme. Add salt and pepper to taste, as the sauce will be fairly bland without it.
8. I serve the cauliflower on a bed of lentils and drizzle the sauce over it, then top it with blistered tomatoes and toasted almond slivers.

If you want to really do the complete presentation as in the picture, I’ve included the directions for the lentils, tomatoes and almonds below.

Lentils:

• 1 cup black lentils, rinsed.
• 3 cups of vegetable broth
• 4 teaspoons minced garlic

Put the lentils, broth and garlic in a pot, bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 25-30 minutes till lentils are tender but not mushy.

Tomatoes

• 1 pint of grape tomatoes
• olive oil
• salt

Cut the tomatoes in half.  Heat some oil in a pan over medium/medium high heat.  Add the tomatoes and sprinkle with salt.  Saute for about 5 -10 minutes till the tomatoes are blistered.

Almonds

• 1 cup sliced almonds (you can buy them already sliced at almost any grocery store.  Some will have the skin on, some skin off.  Either one is fine.

Put almonds into dry pan over medium/medium high heat and cook, stirring or shaking the pan frequently,  until lightly browned and fragrant.  Remove from heat immediately!  They will go from delightfully brown, to not so delightfully black in a nanosecond if you are not careful.

**These can be made ahead of time and stored in an airtight container at room temperature.

To assemble;

Drain the lentils and put them on a large plate.  Place the cauliflower head on top and drizzle the sauce over it.  Spoon the tomatoes over and sprinkle with the toasted almonds.

Use a large serving spoon to serve.  No knife is necessary!

Enjoy!