Cauliflower to the Rescue!
 

I was having a really bad craving for something starchy the other night. Had already picked up some cauliflower and thought....hmmmm, it's sort of ricey when it's overcooked. So, I boiled it, drained it, threw parmesan cheese, basil, butter, pepper, and bacon into it, gave it a good stir and Voila! It was like mashed potatoes! My husband couldn't believe it was low carb and said it tasted better than potatoes!

I'm just so thrilled to make this discovery, and now I see from looking at some recipes, that it's already been discovered! Couldn't help tooting my own horn a bit, though!

Only thing was, I ate significantly more than a cup of this stuff. Dr. Atkins book said "If you are hungry, eat!" So I did. No weight gain either! This is so cool!

PS - I'm currently on Day 6 of Induction

I love cauliflower and I'm glad you tried mashing it with a bunch of yummy stuff. I've only ever had a cheese sauce and butter over it. I must give your version a try. Mind you, it gives me a lot of gas, I'd have to be careful not to eat more than a wee bit at a time!

LOL Thanks for sharing! Everyone at work who saw my bacon and cheese and butter laden dish was like, "heh, I thought you were on a diet" They were positively aghast when I told them it was cauliflower and bacon, cheese, and butter were my friends again!
Oh, I also put a bunch of freshly ground black pepper in it. No salt, though, because the cheese and bacon have plenty of that! I want to try it next with some roasted garlic added! I know it's wacky to be so thrilled about a certain food, but it was just so satisfying after so many days of tuna salad! LOL

Whats the carb count for cauliflower?

4.11 per 100 grams, however much that is. I don't do much counting, but cauliflower is on the list for Induction, so I figure it's fine.

Do any of you weigh things by grams? I certainly hope I'm not supposed to be doing that!

It's nice with some cream cheese mixed in with it as well, I've also heard of people grating cauli and using it as a rice substitute not tried this myself yet tho.

What I love doing is making pork fried rice with it. You grate the raw cauliflower using a chopper or food processor. Cook your meat and take it out of the pan. Then fry the cauliflower for a while. After a bit mix in your meat, other veggies, soy sauce, what ever you would normally put in chicken or pork fried rice.

I really don't like the taste of cooked cauliflower - does the faux rice taste of it?

Have you tried the recipe on the Atkins website for cauliflower with Indian spices? It's divine. :)

It's also great if you bake it for 15 min after adding some grated cheese and sour cream . I also add garlic and bacon . Spinkle some of the grated cheese on top, parmesan works well.

I tried the cauliflower all mashed up with everything (except bacon) on/in it. We love it! In fact, DH says I should serve it to company and not say a WORD about low carb; it's just gourmet! LOL

Jude

I must admit that prior to Atkins, I tried never to eat cauliflower. I think it is the smell of fresh cauliflower that bothered me. So I bought some frozen and wow, I was impressed with what you can do with it. Tonight I drizzled butter and some sour cream over my mashed califlower and it was yummy.

After reading this thread last night I ran to the freezer and found a long lost bag of cauliflower!!! Steam it, mashed it and then added some real Butter and Parmesan Cheese!!

Oh My - that was a treat!!!

Lady, I will try the pork fried rice you mentioned. Haven't had a pork chop in years, ya know, cuz it was "fatty" *sheesh* What a great idea!

RoseTattoo, I adore Indian spices and frequently make my own curry powders. I added curry to chicken salad y'day. Thanks so much for adding it to cauliflower idea - it's nice to have spicy foods to liven things up a bit!
And, Bumpy, I love the cream cheese idea, too, thanks!

Not to worry; it's probably impossible to eat enough cauliflower to make you gain weight! :clap:

Karla

I too am in love with the cauliflower version of mashed potatoes. Mu hubby says he could eat it every night. It is a great way to get your veggies in!

Hmm strange that it an induction food as it can be high in carbs. I made cauliflower cheese last week, and it was so nice I wolfed the whole lot! only a small cauliflower ;) but that meant my carbs were way over my 20g on induction..

so medium head 5"-6" of cauliflower is 30g of carbs

So for those guys on induction or whatever please be careful - and don't do what I did :D

SarahWeb - Remember you can subtract the fiber count form the total amount of carbs. A small head of cauliflower has 13.78 carbs, but 6.63 g of fiber. That means a net carb of 7.15. Rememebr you only have to stay under 20 NET carbs each day. A head of cauliflower is low carb, very filling and packs alot of nutricion.

those results came from fitday itself.. does that mean I am getting it wrong :( I.e. I pulled down the menu from fitday and added it to my daily menu and it gave me that 30g figure?

I am just going by my total carbs I only subtract fibre when adding new foods (being in UK that is)

Fitday doesn't deduct the fiber.

I love Cauliflower!! But it makes DH & I fart!

oh great so I have been doing it wrong - again :(

Thank you all for letting me know I am off to see if I can get this right

Last time I was LCing, I tried this, i took frozen cauliflower, boiled it, then mashed it up and added sourr crea,. cream cheese, and some butter and garlic, and It just tasted like piecey cauliflower and prettty awful too!
I was thinking fresh must work better so I think im gonna try that...

Also, would putting it in a blender with the infredients work better?

The "Cauliflied Rice" is excellent! Don't expect it to taste exactly like fried rice, but it's a darn good substitute and very nutritious. You can barely taste the "cauliflowery" taste.

Just grate the cauliflower, brown little chunks of meat and add an egg, which you scramble into little pieces. I add some garlic and/or onion at this point too. When the egg is cooked, dump in the grated cauliflower and fry for a few minutes until it starts to get brown. This is really tasty!

Y'all must be some hungry people - this thread is going great! :)

Karla, yes, that is probably true, and thank goodness! But, what about the other stuff, butter, bacon, cheese? I've been conditioned for so long that these things were "bad" that it's hard now to switch over.

Arie, great idea, but what to do with the whites?

I have tried that recipe and love it!!! I will have to make it again soon, there are so many varieties of flavors you can make.. its wonderful

I posted a recipe a while a go for all kinds of left overs.. you can use the whites there... :)

Mix them with whole eggs and make an omelette, scramble, egg foo yung or use them in cauliflied rice. Tou can also whip them till stiff and fold them into the cauliflower after you've added the yolks.

Karen