Whole Cauliflower in Tomato Sauce

I hate turning on my oven in the middle of summer. I hate it so much that for my birthday, I asked for a crock pot! And my wish came true (many times). I now am the proud owner of three different sized crock pots that will all come in handy this summer. The recipe here is for a crock pot, but I adapted it from this recipe here, which was originally for the oven. If you want to try it in the oven, I would recommend some cooler weather, or at least an amazing air conditioner!



Whole Cauliflower in Tomato Sauce
This recipe is: Gluten-free, Soy-free, Dairy-free, Nut-free, Rice-free
Time it took to make: 6 hours
Time it took to prep: 30 minutes

Ingredients
1 whole head of cauliflower, leaves removed.
1 15oz can kidney beans
1 15oz can sweet peas
1 28oz can of diced tomatoes
1 lb ground beef, browned (or other meat, or no meat!)
1 cup water


Ok, so I will admit I didn't measure all the spices when I threw them in there. I will list them here and attempt to put approximations. It all comes down to your taste buds, though!

A small palm full Black pepper
A small palm full Salt
3 pinches Rosemary (I dried my own, I do not know how the taste compares.)
3 pinches Basil
1 Bay Leaf
A small palm full Cumin

In a mixing bowl, pour in the can of tomatoes and mix all the spices into it.. Drain and wash the kidney beans and sweet peas and add to the mix. Add the browned meat and mix thoroughly.
Pour a little bit of the mixture into the crock pot. Place the cauliflower in the center and pour the rest of the tomato mixture around the cauliflower. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours.


We cooked up some pasta to put the Cauliflower in Tomato sauce on top of, but it could easily be rice, or even just plain by itself.


What I thought:
I enjoyed it a lot. It was packed with tasty vegetables and some good spices. I did end up adding a little more salt and pepper to it and thought that it could use more cumin as well. I omitted the oil from the original recipe to make it healthier, and am glad I did. It was very tasty and good for you.


What George thought:
He's too busy playing League of Legends to answer me right now, so I will make him write something here later. But he did scarf it down pretty quickly, with no complaints. Couldn't have been TOO bad! :P


What I would change:
I would ditch the water entirely and add 8 ounces of diced tomatoes instead. It was too watery, and would have been better with more tomato. I also would do it in a bigger crock pot... if a bigger crock pot existed.


Next thing on my birthday list? I nice fancy camera to take pictures of food with. Think it might happen? ;)