Cream of Cauliflower Soup

I bought a huge head of cauliflower from Whole Foods the other day and was trying to figure out what do with the rest of it before it went bad. I was thinking of making the cauliflower puree, but decided to try something new.

Ingredients

• A head of cauliflower (probably equivalent to 1.5 - 2 bags of cauliflower)
  
• 1/2 cup of diced onion
  
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
  
• 1/2 cup of milk
  
• 1/4 cup of yogurt (although sour cream would work too)
  
• 1 tablespoon of butter
  
• 1 tablespoon of flour
  
• salt, black pepper, white pepper, parsley, ginger
  
• 1/2 cup of water
  
• 1/4 cup of grated romano/parmesan
  

I chopped the cauliflower up into small pieces and added these pieces to a pot of boiling water. I added about 2 tablespoons of salt, a few grinds of black pepper, garlic, and a teaspoon of ginger. I let this boil until completely soft (the frozen stuff works well because it gets tender really fast). Once this was done, I threw the cauliflower in the food processor and blended it until it was smooth...unlike in the cauliflower puree, a thinner consistency isn't a bad thing, so I added a bunch of the water from the pot to make it easier to get the puree smooth.

I next sauteed the onions in the butter (in a large pot), and once the onions were translucent, I added the flour and combined. I turned down the heat, added the milk and yogurt and whisked together. I next added the cauliflower puree and some water to get to the right consistency. Last I mixed in a pinch of white pepper, a few dashes of parsley and the grated cheese.

From YummyFood

Black Bean Enchiladas

This is a recipe I make pretty often; it is pretty quick and I generally have all the ingredients on hand. This makes about 6 enchiladas.

Ingredients:

• 1 can of black beans (mostly drained)
• 1/2 a medium onion (diced)
• 1/2 a bell pepper (diced)
• 1/2 a zucchini (diced)
• 1 hot pepper
• 1 can of of tomato sauce
• 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil
• 3 tablespoons of flour
• cilantro, salt, black pepper, cumin, chili powder, Adobo
• 6 corn tortillas
• shredded cheese

I started by sauteing the onion, zucchini, and bell pepper (I actually used a cubanelle pepper). Once these were softened, I moved them to one half of the ban, and then added the black beans to other side, with most of the water drained out. I seasoned the black beans with a little salt, black pepper, cumin, chili powder, and about a teaspoon of chopped cilantro. I let the beans heat and soften up over medium heat.

I heated the vegetable oil in a sauce pan, and added a diced hot pepper to the oil. Once the pepper was cooked, I added the flour and stirred to make a roux. I cooked the roux until it was light brown, stirring constantly. To this I added the tomato sauce, chili powder, cumin, black pepper, Adobo, and more cilantro, stirring until well combined and heated.

Once the enchilada sauce was ready, I mixed the veggies and beans together, added a few spoonfuls of the enchilada sauce, and added a few sprinkles of shredded cheese. Assembly is easy: first I heated the corn tortillas in the microwave; next, I put a few spoonfuls in the middle of the tortilla, folded each side, and then flipped it over on the plate. Once several were assembled, I topped with the sauce and some more cheese, and then broiled the enchiladas to melt the cheese.

From YummyFood