Recipes4Survival,

I pan seared lightly dusted silken tofu slices with unbleached flour & Salt of D Earth in a saute pan w/olive oil tamari sauce. I made some sushi rice and topped this with fresh scallions and gomasio. Gomasio is a Japanese condiment of sesame seeds, seaweed & sea salt. OH, The four brown blobs between the tofu slices is Hoisin sauce – YYUUMM.

I also made Bunashimeji – commonly known as Beech Mushrooms. They are just adorable.  Brown topped white stemmed mushrooms. I cut the bunch in half, put them on a sheet of aluminim foild, threw in about a half dozen garlic cloves, tamari, a small pad of butter, & a good splash of Old Grouse! I balled the foil up and put it under the broiler for about 15-20 minutes.  I served these on top of the sushi rice, again with the scallions and gamasio.

roasted Japanese mushrooms

I know the title of this entry sounds sO boring but I must admit, I’m happily full and each dish was really flavorful.  I must also add, all ingredients are organic and I doubt I spent $4 to feed myself – two dishes.

CHA!

It’s Friday. I’m hOMe from yoga. My mind is clear and reaDy to tackle the list of e-mails to follow up on as long as my arm but of course I was starving.

I could have opted for pouring some organic tOMato soup into a pot from out of a cardboard box but something inside said, NO, make yourself a soup. I’ve got a half a head of organic cauliflower, 4 or 5 heads of garlic, 2 small yukon gold potatoes and vegetable broth left over from the tOMato soup I made for Alex last week.

Healing ingredients

I’ll also highlight the healing aspects of the ingredients in this velvety cauliflower & garlic soup.

So there you have the ingredients, now here’s what I did.

First I cut the cauliflower into chunks that look like individual…flowerettes, keeping some of the stem. Put these into a steamer basket in a heavy bottomed pot with water that comes to just below the bottom of the steamer basket.  I also threw the 2 small yukon gold potatoes into the steamer.  This steamed for a good 20 minutes, then I turned the heat off and let it continue to cook another 10 minutes or so.

While the cauliflower & potatoes were steaming I went at cleaning up and preparing the garlic for roasting in a small sauce pot with oil.

inner green stem removal

If you’re new to cooking and not so comfortable with a knife, leaving the inner green ’stem’ in a garlic dent if FINE.  Many cooks don’t remove it. Those that do remove the green ’stem’ say it can heighten a bitter taste in what you’re cooking.

To roast the garlic use the whole cloves that are slightly cracked from the initial smash to get the skin off added to about a 1/2 C of organic, cold pressed olive oil. Cook over a medium heat. You want to see little bubbles. Don’t let the oil get to hot. A gentle simmer is great.

Roasted garlic & infused, seasoned oil

While the garlic was roasting I pureed the steamed cauliflower & potatoes in my ordinary blender, no fancy Cuisinart.  I sliced the potatoes into 1/4″ discs when I added them to the blender.  I blended the veggies in two batches adding about a cup of vegetable broth. This would become the base of the soup along with the organic vegetable broth I’d add to the roasted garlic roux.

With the garlic roasted and garlic infused seasoned oil and the cauliflower & potato puree, I began to make the roux.  This is simply done by mashing the roasted garlic cloves, adding the garlic infused seasone and a small hand-full of unbleached flour.

Garlic roux

I added about a 1/2 C of the vegetable broth to the roux to create the creamy stock for the soup, then I began to add the cauliflower & potato puree, alternating between adding stock & puree.  Stirring all the while.

MMgOOd and you’ll feel great too and boy oh boy did I have a LOT from just a half a head of cauliflower.