Fry

Mind Blowing Mushrooms& Cauliflower

by:
January 18, 2016
0
0 Ratings
Photo by kali Hamm
  • Serves 4 as a starter
Author Notes

A beautiful winter vegetable dish; delicious, warming and comforting but not too heavy and a touch of freshness, which is where the lemon zest comes in. I wanted to make it dairy free and added soy toasted pumpkin seeds rather than croutons for some added nutritions and crunch. The miso in the puree, as well as also being very good for you, gives a delicious depth of flavour, with the unami sweet and salty hit rounding out the puree perfectly.

It’s a quite a simple quick dish to make but would recommend serving with some greens to make more a main course or you could serve it as a starter for a dinner party. Add a drizzle of truffle oil to take it up that notch and really blow your guests away ;).

I used my nutri bullet for the puree.. such a handy little machine! Easy, compact and powerful. If you don’t have one a good food processor or blender will also work just fine. I would try to make it nice an smooth though, the contrast in textures between the puree, mushrooms and seeds is really nice.

I’d say this dish feels decadent while actually being really good for you, nice bonus I’d say.. I hope you enjoy as much I have this past week, when I’ve made it no less that 4 times this week! Testing, photo shoots and dinner parties.. A hit every time :) —Kali

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • Cauliflower puree
  • 1small head of cauliflower - cut into 1cm slices
  • 200 milliliters almond milk, or milk of choice
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 heaped teaspoons yellow (shinshu) miso
  • 50 milliliters olive oil, plus extra to drizzle
  • a pinches sea salt
  • a pinches white pepper
  • Mushrooms
  • 1 tablespoon mild coconut oil
  • 600 grams mixed mushrooms
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 teaspoon good quality red wine or sherry vinegar
  • 15 grams fresh chopped parsley,
  • 10 grams fresh chopped oregano
  • Pinch sea salt or truffle salt
  • Pinch black pepper
  • sprinkle red chilli flakes
  • 25 grams toasted pumpkin seeds
Directions
  1. First steam the cauliflower in the milk, place the cauliflower and bay leaf in a medium pan, cover with the almond milk and gently bring up to a simmer, cook for about 7 minutes until the cauliflower is tender, it should soft but not mush.
  2. While the cauliflower is cooking prep the rest of your ingredients. Slice the mushrooms, chop your herbs.
  3. Heat a large fry pan, add a little coconut oil, then the mushrooms, you may need to do this in batches. You don’t want to overcrowd the pan. as the mushrooms will start to sweat. Grate in your garlic just before the last mushrooms are almost finished, cook until the garlic just starts to become golden. Transfer your mushrooms to a bowl with a tsp of vinegar, the herbs and seasoning. Set aside.
  4. Once the cauliflower is cooked, drain, saving the liquid. Add to a high speed blender with the miso, olive oil. Add a little milk to start and keep adding until you get the desired consistency. I like mine nice and smooth, you’ll need about 100ml.
  5. When you’re ready to serve, heat through the mushrooms and the cauliflower in separate pans. Divide the cauliflower between four plates, top with the mushrooms, a drizzle of olive oil, or truffle oil if you like. Sprinkle with a little chopped parsley, chilli flakes and add pumpkin seeds for crunch. Breadcrumbs or croutons will also work nicely. Voila, a stylish easy dinner..

See what other Food52ers are saying.

  • littlelemon
    littlelemon
  • mochai
    mochai

2 Reviews

littlelemon March 13, 2022
This was delicious! Really nice to have a wintery, satisfying meal that's completely vegan. I had baby leeks, so I cooked those too (separately), topped the cauliflower with the leeks, then the mushrooms. Easy meal, though my cauliflower took longer to steam. I used a large head.
 
mochai May 4, 2021
OMG Beware the miso! I would say this would taste best with plain old milk (to me the almond milk was too watery) and skip the miso and put a bit of parmesan instead. I unfortunately used very good quality 1-year old miso and my "heaped teaspoon of miso" was measured with a plain flatware teaspoon.. and a heaping probably turned out to be 3-4 teaspoons. I thought I was fine since my cauliflower was a big one (filled my Vitamix). Anyway... I had to throw it away (compost bin, at least) and I didn't even want to have it in the house, it smelled so bad. It had a weird artificial vanilla extract perfume and aftertaste... I think the cauliflower puree + mushroom + pepitas is a good combo, but next time I will go full cow on the cauliflower puree.