3BM Cooks: Cauliflower Risotto

Ok, so we know that it's only been a few days since we posted our last cauliflower recipe. We're also aware that it's only a couple of weeks since we tweeted about cauliflower-topped Paleo Shepherd's Pie. And, we know that we're sort of bordering on being able to rename the blog The Cauliflower Chronicles, but this recipe is just too great not to share.

 

It may not be pretty, and it may sound like it's going to taste like some sort of weird health freak dish, but believe us when we say that risotto made from cauliflower is mindblowingly great. Especially when you consider that it's basically just a bowl of vegetables...

 

For a super simple bowl of comfort that isn't going to blow the bikini diet, you will need:

 

serves 2

 

1 cauliflower

1 onion diced

2 cloves of garlic (crushed)

1 stock cube (best quality you can find, in HK that means Oxo cubes...)

1 cup of boiling water

2 teaspoons of white wine vinegar

A couple of handfuls of chopped mushrooms (we used portobello)

A couple of handfuls of cooked, shredded chicken

Salt & pepper to taste

Olive oil

Basil

Parmesan (optional but yum)

Truffle oil (optional too, but may have a heavy hand in this dish's awesomeness...)

 

Preheat the oven to 180 C, whack your chopped mushrooms in a baking tray and sprinkle with salt and pepper and a drizzle of olive oil. Pop in to bake.

 

 

While your mushrooms are cooking, break the cauliflower into florets and put through a blender or grate until you get a fine rice-like consistency.

 

 

Heat the a little olive oil in a pan and fry off the onions and garlic for a couple of minutes until they're transparent and softening. Throw in the cauliflower rice and cook for another couple of minutes.

 

 

Dissolve the stock cube in the cup of boiling water and pour a quarter in with the rice. Stir and let it absorb for a minute. Repeat with the next couple of spoonfuls of stock until the rice is becoming tender and losing some of its bite (not too much though, you don't want mush).

 

Add it the white wine vinegar and the last of the stock before cooking down for a final minute. 

Take the mushrooms out of the oven and stir into the risotto together with the shredded chicken, parmesan (if you're using it) and salt and pepper to taste.

Top with a sprinkle of parmesan, a bit of chopped basil and, if you're feeling very naughty, a drizzle of truffle oil.

Enjoy, with a glass of wine and a good boxset. Cauli-tastic!

3BM Kitchen: Wheat-free Pizza

Whether you have boring food allergies, you're trying to be a bit more health-conscious or (like us) you're just trying to find amazing new ways to stuff your face with junk without adding said junk to your trunk, today's recipe is for you - pizza but not as you know it... 

This is a pizza with a base cunningly whipped up without flour, yeast or sugar. Based on a recipe from Cloudy with a Chance of Sprinkles (a lifestyle and Paleo cooking blog), this is the 3BM take on the Coconut Flour Primal Pizza. 

To be perfectly honest, although this recipe does tick all the wheat-free, low-carb boxes we still don't think we've struck skinny junk nirvana just yet. While we've found coconut flour (a by-product of coconut milk production and a great flour substitute) to be great for cooking sweet things, we're not sure it works so well in savoury dishes. Despite being loaded with all our toppings, the coconutty flavour was still discernible and the base was a bit too spongy and cakelike for our taste. Having said that this is still a pretty scrumptious supper and a good one to try on days when you feel like being bad without beng truly terrible...  

You will need:

For the base 

(makes 1 medium sized pizza we used twice these quantities for our two pizzas)

• 1/2 cup of coconut flour
• 2 cloves of garlic (crushed)
• 1/2 tsp of baking soda
• pinch of sea salt
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup of unsweetened almond milk
• Coconut Oil

For the toppings

Courgette, Ricotta, Mint & Lemon

• 2 courgettes (zucchini)
• small tub of ricotta
• handful of mint (chopped)
• zest of one lemon
• salt and pepper
• olive oil

Fig, Parma Ham & Goat's Cheese

• tomato puree
• 2 figs (quartered)
• 4 slices of Parma ham
• log of goat's cheese
• salt and pepper
• scattering of rocket leaves
• olive oil (or truffle oil if you're feeling extra naughty like us)

Directions

First up, get your oven nice and toasty - set it to about 180 C while you prep and make your dough. Next, line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper and lightly brush it with a few dabs of coconut oil.

Now chuck your coconut flour, baking soda, salt and garlic into a big mixing bowl and give it a bit of a stir. Crack in your eggs and fold into the dry ingredients before adding the almond milk and giving the lot a final stir. You should have a sticky dough by this point. spread this on your greaseproof paper in a circular shape.

Pop your base into your pre-warmed oven and have a glass of wine while it cooks for about 20 minutes. At this stage you're supposed to flip your base, I was too scared to give the flipping a go so just pulled my browned base out of the oven and started piling on the toppings.

There's no great art to topping your pizzas, just get everything on them pronto and get those bad boys back in the oven, you're going to be getting pretty peckish by now. For the courgette pizza leave off the mint - you'll sprinkle this on just before you serve it and for the fig and ham pizza keep back half the rocket which you'll also be wanting to scatter post-cook, pre-serve. 

About ten minutes later, or when everything's looking suitably bronzed and bubbly, whip your pizzas out of the oven and onto plates for everyone to gobble while exclaiming how clever you are (and possibly scraping the toppings off the base surreptitiously because they aren't too keen on Hawaiian Tropic flavoured pizza...)