Fun with Florets: Baked Cauliflower with Mushrooms

I get a kick out of words, and I get an even bigger kick out of absurdly specific words. For example, “defenestration” – the act of throwing something or someone out a window – usually only comes up in conversations about Renaissance politics in Prague (or after watching this video).

The word “cete,” which I recently discovered while playing Words With Friends, refers to a group of badgers. I can’t imagine a situation in which I would have to use the word “cete,” but when it happens, I will be delighted.

“Floret” is another one of those too-specific words; it is rarely used, except by people whose job it is to write menus for fancy restaurants. It really only gets used in reference to broccoli or cauliflower. Of the two, broccoli is definitely more prominent in my diet; in fact, I can’t remember the last time I ate cauliflower… before today.

I wanted to invent a dish that would use up the mushrooms I had acquired last week in a misguided spur-of-the-moment grocery purchasing decision. I don’t particularly like mushrooms, at least not enough to make them the star ingredient in a meal, so I figured baking them into a cauliflower-combo dish would make the most of them.

Vegan Baked Cauliflower with Mushrooms
(makes four servings)


1 cauliflower
2 tbsp olive oil
5 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp sea salt
¼ tsp organic sugar
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
½ white onion, chopped
1 cup mushrooms, chopped
½ cup Daiya mozzarella-style shreds

First, I preheated the over to 350 degrees. While it was heating up, I got to break the cauliflower into florets. It was quite fun; I ended up getting carried away and breaking it up into smaller and smaller cute little pieces that I decided to call florettes.

Then I just dumped all the ingredients in a big bowl together and mixed them up as best I could. I wasn’t sure about the proportions at all. I was nervous that five cloves of garlic might be too much (although “too much” is not really in my garlic-related vocabulary), and I wasn’t sure what the sugar would do. I’ve started adding sugar to soy sauce and mustard when I make sauce for grilled veggies, but it might not work the same way when combined with vinegar and garlic.

It was a risk. Worst case scenario, I would just defenestrate the whole thing. I was hoping it wouldn't come to that.

I spread the mixture into a glass baking dish, like so:

… and baked it for 40 minutes, checking on it and giving it a stir every ten minutes or so. After 40 minutes, I pulled it out of the oven, sprinkled on the Daiya cheese, and stuck it back in for a few more minutes.

The Daiya melted all over it and it tasted so good. The mushroom and balsamic combination worked out well, the sugar didn't get in the way, and it definitely wasn't too garlicky.

The florets were flavorful and stayed fenestrated (which, I imagine, is the opposite of defenestrated), so I count it as a success.

Stellar Stuffed 'Shrooms

A wise woman named Shirley Conran once said, "Life is too short to stuff a mushroom." I couldn't agree less.

Our friend Micah was coming to Tigh Vino for dinner, and I wanted to contribute to the meal. I decided to crack open The 30 Minute Vegan, a cookbook my friend Saloni had mailed me for my birthday (my birthday isn't until the 28th, but I have the self control of a Mexican jumping bean so I opened her present as soon as it arrived).

The 30 Minute Vegan is by Mark Reinfeld and Jennifer Murray, and it includes "over 175 quick, delicious, and healthy recipes for everyday cooking." I immediately liked it. I wanted to be a 30 minute vegan! So I got started.

Perusing the recipes in The 30 Minute Vegan made me excited, but it also made me kind of embarrassed. Most of the recipes require fancy things that I don't own, like spirulina, nutritional yeast, and something called mung spouts. I didn't really have any interest in finding out what mung spouts were (just saying "mung spouts" aloud makes me want to never eat food again), but things like cumin, basil leaves, and coconut oil seem like must-haves.

Saloni is one of those people who has a special sense about seasonings and spices when she cooks, like Ratatouille. I hope I can convince her to come out to Santa Barbara and teach me how to use The 30 Minute Vegan properly. By then, I'll have bought some fancy ingredients.

My eye landed on a recipe for Stellar Stuffed Mushrooms. Not only do I love the word "stellar," I also love stuffed mushrooms. Mark and Jennifer (the authors of the cookbook and, I assume, successful 30 minute vegans) suggest a pretty elaborate stuffing recipe. I decided to alter it to better fit my slacker lifestyle. For the stuffing, I used:

2 slices whole wheat bread
1 cup spinach
1/2 medium sized yellow onion
2 garlic cloves

First, I pre-heated the oven to 450 degrees. I put all the ingredients (and the stems from the mushrooms) in the food processor until they looked stuff-in-able. I had bought about a pound of cremini mushrooms at the Isla Vista Coop to stuff. I greased a cookie sheet with olive oil and laid them all out on it, then overstuffed them with the mixture.

After baking for 15 minutes, the mushrooms looked like this:

Everyone loved them. The best part about the 'shrooms (what makes them "stellar") is that they are so healthful. The only possible unhealthy part of the recipe is the olive oil with which I greased the pan, but that hardly counts.

I ate them with some carrots and parsnips that Emily had prepared. Please be advised that the photo below does not represent the amount of food I ate for dinner, by any means:

There were so many mushrooms that I ate some for lunch and dinner the next day as well. I had some leftover stuffing, too, so I refrigerated it to spread on crackers later as a snack. I severely altered the recipe from the cookbook, but once I purchase some fancy ingredients, I think I could be quite a successful 30 minute vegan.