Creative Cooking: Roasted Cauliflower and Garlicky Green Beans

Turkey Tracks: April 26, 2022

Creative Cooking: Roasted Cauliflower and Garlicky Green Beans

Note: oops. I wrote this post back on April 12 and forgot to post it the next day. That would be about the time I started having issues with a crowned jaw tooth that needs either a root canal or to be pulled. I’ll try the root canal first, even though I’m so not a fan of root canals. But the tooth is the last tooth in line and provides a lot of chewing territory. Life is full of bad choices one has to make, but we make them and move on.

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The other day I went to grill some lamb chops at noon, only to realize the propane tank was empty and had to be replaced.

Here’s what I had for lunch anyway:

I pan fried the lamb chops in my cast iron skillet and roasted a cauliflower head. Lamb has good fat it renders quickly, so no extra fat is needed in the skillet.

For the cauliflower, I started to heat the oven at about 400 degrees, and while waiting for the oven, I just sliced the cauliflower head into “steaks” about an 1/2-inch thick, put them on a flat pan (covered with parchment paper), sprinkled with salt and herb mixtures, and drizzle then with a good olive oil. I also use my convection oven feature, but you don’t have to. Convection makes the oven hotter faster. Indian spices are also really good when roasting cauliflower—I wish I could use them.

After about 10 minutes in a really hot oven, check the cauliflower to see if the bottoms are browning and turn them over. You want the pan to be hot as the beautiful browning comes from the bottom, not, so much, the top. Don’t let the bottoms burn in a hot oven.

It does not take long to cook cauliflower at high oven heats—maybe 25 minutes or less.

I order my olive oil in gallon jugs from Organic Roots—and it is absolutely delicious. Mostly I just use it to dress salads, but I did use it for this cauliflower, and it was really good. Olive oil is pretty fragile, so I never sauté with it. And a jug like this one lasts me, living alone for the most part, about a year.

Also, know that most olive oil you find in the supermarkets has been ”cut” with inferior veggie oils. You can research that for yourself, and there is plenty of information about that problem with olive oil and, also, with honey. Commercial seed oils are so not healthy for you—and you can research that problem for yourself too.

https://www.organicrootsoliveoil.com/

I’ve really enjoyed buying frozen packages of these organic string beans (and corn too) all winter. I just put what I want for few days in a saucepan, cover the beans with water, bring to a boil, and drain immediately. Then I have ingredients to add to a meal or to salads.

Once drained, I dress the warm beans with finely chopped garlic, herbs (dill is lovely), salt, and the Organic Roots Koroneiki olive oil. One could add other ingredients as well: chopped onion, some sweet red/orange/yellow peppers, etc. Just use what you have on hand.

In this meal pictured above, I also had already cooked some of the frozen corn (also heat just to boiling and drain) so I just combined the beans and corn.

I replaced the propane tank when it finally stopped raining. The new one is really heavy to drag up the hill to the back deck—but I managed. It’s also heavy to lift to the spot on the grill where it hangs, especially as that spot is under a permanent shelf that gets in the way. But this time, all went really well, and I grilled some hamburgers Saturday to put on my lunch (which is now my main meal of the day) salad.

Boy did those hamburgers smell good. Like, sun and summer.