Roasted Cauliflower and Beet (No Added Fat)

It's been a while since I made tasty roasted cauliflower and I had a head of cauliflower peeking out at me from my refrigerator. I am presenting beets at the somanycooks show this weekend and thought it would be fun to make a roasted beet and cauliflower dish. I was amazed at the the deep color - perfect for white cauliflower!


Ingredients

• 1 head cauliflower separated into florets
• 2 medium beets, tops and bottoms removed and then the remainder peeled and cut into 1/2" cubes
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed so skins loose but with skins otherwise left on
• 2T (more or less as desired for moisture level) Coconut aminos (or soy sauce)
• 1t (or more as desired) dried herbs; I used a spice grinder with a variety of Italian herbs
• 1/4 t salt
• 1t lemon juice

Process

1. I put the cauliflower, beet, and garlic on a baking tray, tossed with coconut aminos and herbs, and put in my toaster oven on its convection setting at 400°F for 15minutes; for regular ovens, I'd go with 20-25 minutes.
2. I transferred the ingredients to a metal bowl, looked for the garlic and pressed down, and mixed in the salt and lemon juice.

That's it! I served with brown rice cooked with baby lima beans and cucumber slices.

 

Results

We all enjoyed the meal, even my daughter who doesn't love beets. I was very happy with the bright color and of course taste of the main course. Other than being careful about not staining the deep beet roots (I immediately washed the cutting board in cold water and luckily had no juice coming onto my counters but I would have wiped any immediately), this was quite easy and required little effort!

Ideas for the future

This was a nice main course! Here are a few thoughts about additional ideas.

• I bet mixing red and golden beets would be attractive.
• I was originally going to air fry some seitan and mix into the dish, but my air fryer is also my toaster oven and I didn't have enough time to run it twice, though it would really only be for maybe 5-6 minutes of air frying. I should try adding seitan or maybe tempeh.
• I really like citrus and bet mixing in fresh tangerine pieces when serving would be nice - maybe along with a bit of olive and rosemary needles.
• I also like lemony beets and perhaps should try adding a lemon marinade before roasting.