Salmon with Cauliflower Puree

I was looking through the refrigerator, trying to figure out what to have with my salmon, and I saw that I had a bag of frozen cauliflower. Rather than just steaming up the cauliflower or grilling it, I decided to make a puree. It came out really good and was not hard at all; it almost tastes like mashed potatoes but not starchy. The recipe below was for a single serving of the puree (because that's all the cauliflower I had), so scale accordingly. I also included a recipe for seasoning the salmon that goes really well with the flavors of the cauliflower puree.




Cauliflower puree ingredients (1 serving)

• 1 - 1.5 cups of of cauliflower, chopped (frozen works fine since you're going to cook the hell out of it)
• 1 cup water (or enough to cover the veggies)
  
• 1/4 cup of carrots, cut into small slices
• 1/2 clove of garlic, minced
  
• 1 tablespoon sour cream
• ginger, salt, black pepper, onion, powder, marjoram
• liquid smoke (optional)
  

Using a small sauce pot, I brought about 1 cup of water up to boil. To this I added a few dashes of salt, onion powder, marjoram, and ginger, a few grinds of black pepper, and the garlic. Next I added the carrots and cauliflower and cooked until all the vegetables were soft (about 10-15 minutes). The carrots were added mostly because I was afraid I didn't have enough cauliflower, but they added a really good sweetness. Halfway though I added a really small drop of liquid smoke. I really like the taste of grilled cauliflower, so I figured this would mimic it well...you could grill the cauliflower first to get the same effect.

I added all the veggies to my food processor, plus a little bit of the cooking liquid and blended. I added a small amount of sour cream and blended some more. If I didn't have sour cream on hand, I probably would have added a little bit of butter and milk. Finally, I salted and peppered to taste.

Salmon Seasoning
I did a really simple seasoning for the salmon. I started by putting a little olive oil, lemon juice, and soy sauce onto the fillet. In terms of spices, I made up a mixture of seasoning a while ago that consisted of:

• onion powder
• chili powder
• ginger
• lemon pepper seasoning (basically salt, dried lemon, and black pepper)
• Adobo (basically salt, garlic, black pepper, and thyme)
• cayenne pepper
• black pepper

I didn't really make this in any specific proportions...probably close to 1:1 for all the ingredients except the cayenne. I covered the salmon with the mixture, let it sit about 5-10 minutes before cooking. I pan seared it today, but cook however you choose (e.g. pan sear, grill, bake, or broil).

I served the salmon and cauliflower puree with Kashi pilaf.

A side note about the pilaf...I really like it a lot, but it's usually hard to find. It often is stocked with the oatmeal and cereal if they have it all. I ended up finding it at Whole Foods (in the cereal aisle) after ordering a bunch directly from kashi.com.