Purple Cauliflower Roasted Garlic Hummus

Cauliflower and I didn't have a good relationship until a few years ago, when I made a Pinterest-inspired attempt at a cauliflower crust pizza in college, and it turned out surprisingly really good. Before that, my understanding of cauliflower only existed in those veggie party platters, with the assortment of carrots, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, and then the "white" broccoli as I had called it, paired with some sad version of a ranch dressing dip. Since the pizza crust experiment, my love for cauliflower has expanded tremendously, especially when it is drizzled with olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, and roasted in the oven until slightly crispy.

Although, I'm pretty much convinced I will eat any vegetable when it is prepared this way!

I have this boring grocery store system where I tend to hover to the same areas, grabbing the same kinds of food, each and every week. Especially when grocery shopping in the tiny and crowded grocery stores in NYC, it's usually best to have a game plan so you can run in and out as fast as you can. Lately though, I've been all about expanding my tastebuds and making weekly dinners more interesting, so I'm trying to try out a new ingredient or vegetable or cooking style as often as I can. When I saw this purple cauliflower while in the winding checkout line at Trader Joes, I knew I had to have it! (I'm very drawn to dramatic colors, you see.)

The hummus in this recipe is so flavorful with the roasted garlic, and it is healthier than chickpea based hummus since it uses cauliflower. Also, it is purple! I mean how fun is that? It's pretty easy because you can roast the garlic and cauliflower at the same time, then throw everything into a processor or blender and eat it immediately or refrigerate for later. I prefer the latter, and then serve it with pita chips or veggies for dipping.

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Purple Cauliflower Roasted Garlic Hummus

Ingredients:

• 1 large head of cauliflower, roughly chopped
• 1 head of garlic
• 1/4 cup tahini
• 1/4 cup water
• juice of half a lemon
• 3 tbsp. olive oil
• 1/2 tsp. paprika
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper

Directions: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Peel off most of paper from garlic and slice 1/4 inch off the top of the head of garlic. Drizzle with olive oil and wrap in foil. On a large baking sheet, spread out cauliflower and drizzle with olive oil and salt and pepper. Roast garlic and cauliflower in preheated oven for 40 minutes, flipping cauliflower halfway through.

Remove garlic cloves from outer paper wrapping. Combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Spoon onto a plate and drizzle with more olive oil, top with salt and pepper, and a little bit of cauliflower.  

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Roasted Grapefruit with Granola, Honey, and Yogurt

I'm convinced that Tuesday's back after a three-day weekend are quite possibly the most difficult days, especially when it was a very relaxing and fun weekend. Did everyone else have a lovely weekend and Valentine's? We went slightly out of character this year and kind of did a lot for Valentine's. On Saturday we went to the Lower East Side and ate at Hearth. Everything was amazing from the wine to the bread and butter to the swiss chard to the mushrooms. The mushrooms!! We are still talking about those mushrooms. In fact on Sunday morning we woke up and were all, Remember those mushrooms last night? Yeah. The head chef was on Chopped and Top Chef and was a finalist on Iron Chef and he actually came out of the kitchen and was talking to the people at the table next to us and I kind of freaked out inside. I wanted to get a photo with him or shake his hand or just stand up and yell These are the best mushrooms I have ever had! I didn't but all I can say is, thank you Marco Canora and thank you Kyle for letting me have that unforgettable food experience.

The only downside to our Valentine's dinner was the fact that it was the coldest outside that I have ever experienced in my life. It was in the single digits Saturday night and with the wind chill felt like it was in the negatives! I'm not sure what the point of anything is when it is that cold. We had on one thousand layers and the only thing you could see on both of us were our little squinty eyes peeking out of thick scarves and beanies.

On Sunday we got to be regular Willy Wonkas, or Oompa Loompas (sp?),  at Voila Chocolate where we wore red aprons and made our own truffles and chocolate lollipops and bark. It was so much fun, but now we have so much chocolate at home and not enough free calories to consume it all. So much fun!

After all of the eating this weekend, on Monday I went to a spin class and then came home and wanted something healthy for breakfast. I recently relapsed on my grapefruit addiction and love the idea of serving it warm and roasted with good granola and greek yogurt. It is healthy and delicious and surprisingly filling! I suggest segmenting the grapefruit before roasting with a knife so it is easier to eat afterwards.

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Roasted Grapefruit with Granola, Honey, and Yogurt

Ingredients:

• 1 large grapefruit
• 1 heaping tablespoon brown sugar
• a pinch of ginger
• 1/4 cup of good granola, (I recently fell in love with Sweet Home Farms granola!)
• 1 large dollop of vanilla or plain greek yogurt
• a drizzle of honey

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Slice grapefruit in half, and cut off a thin sliver of the bottom half so fruit will stand upright on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with brown sugar and ginger. Bake in oven for 10-15 minutes, or until tops are soft.

Serve with a dollop of greek yogurt, honey, and granola!

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This post features granola from Sweet Home Farm. Make sure to check out their site and great recipes here!

Lemon Buttermilk Cake with Black Pepper Buttercream Frosting

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Isn't it a beauty that Valentines this year fell on a three day weekend with Presidents Day? I had mostly forgotten about it too until I was at work Friday and wondering why there weren't any meetings/work things scheduled for Monday. What a lovely surprise! It's also the perfect excuse to celebrate Valentine's over the course of the weekend rather than just one day (and by that that I simply mean..food, chocolate, cake!)

We are experiencing yet another major cold front (although, no snow! yet..). Something about single digit weather but it actually feels like negative something weather with wind chill. Walking outside last night reminded me of stepping into the huge freezers when I worked at a restaurant in college. An overwhelmingly chilling blast of icy air!  It's really not too bad though, and I'm still grateful for the fact of how mild this winter had been overall.

Maybe I'm sending the wrong message with a lemon cake for Valentines? Haha. I tend to associate lemons with sourness or bitterness or the "when life gives you lemons..." saying. But there was a time a couple of weeks ago when Kyle and I were discussing food (as usual) and we discovered we both loved lemon desserts! We never knew this about each other, and it was cool. Like, even though we've been together nearly 8 years, there's still things to find out about each other. Thus, this lemon cake for love day.

I went a bit crazy and did some research prior on what flavor pairings worked well with lemon, and black pepper was one of them. I then wondered if black pepper frosting was a thing (I had heard of cayenne pepper with chocolate before), and found some instances where it was a thing (mostly in Devils food cake). So this is how this frosting came about. I will say it tasted a bit strange on its own, but when paired with the sweet, citrusy, and tangy lemon cake it worked well. If you decide to omit the black pepper though, the frosting is fantastic either way!

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Lemon Buttermilk Cake (makes one 8-inch cake)

• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 2 tsp. lemon zest
• 2 tbl. lemon juice
• 2 large eggs

for the buttercream:

• 1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper (optional)
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tbl. milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 stick butter, softened

Directions: Preheat oven to 350. Prepare an 8-inch pan with grease and flour or line with parchment paper.

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In a small bowl, mix together buttermilk, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Set both aside.

In a stand mixer with paddle attachment, combine butter and sugar on medium speed until smooth. Add eggs and vanilla, one at a time, continuing to beat until smooth. Take turns adding flour mixture and buttermilk/lemon mixture, in 2-3 batches. Stir on low until all ingredients are mixed and batter is smooth.

Pour into pan and bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes, then flip out onto a cooling rack.

To make the buttercream: Combine all ingredients in a mixer and whisk together until smooth. Add more milk/confectioners sugar to taste, or to get the preferred texture.

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