Eating a special diet can be challenging when it comes to introducing your family to new food or having to watch others eat old favorites of yours. A great way to feel like you are in control still is to get adventurous in the kitchen, creating new recipes to try. As someone who is new to a grain free diet, Kristin shares her post on overcoming cravings and finding a new recipe to love.
I’ve recently embarked on a grain free diet. Over the course of the last few years, my eczema has flared up tremendously, getting subsequently worse with each pregnancy. Removing wheat from my diet helped – for a short period of time. But then the dry, itchy, flaky skin came back with a vengeance. Worse than ever before. After talking to a handful of people and searching google for answers, I thought that it was time to try a grain free diet. I was pleasantly surprised to see how much it has helped.
Unfortunately, I do miss eating grains. Not only have I removed grains from my diet, but high starch foods as well, which means…no potatoes. Sigh. Dinner time can be a bit depressing for me, watching my family eat sourdough breads and fermented grains while my portions are not quite as ample. Thus, I whipped up a batch of roasted cauliflower. Amazingly delicious, salty, and creamy, without the grains and dairy.
Some great ideas to add to the dish: bacon, chili powder, nutritional yeast or pretty much any fresh herb that you have on hand.
Roasted Cauliflower
feeds two hungry people
- 1 head of cauliflower
1/4 cup of butter or oil of choice
3 cloves of garlic
few pinches of sea salt and fresh ground pepper
1 tablespoon fresh herbs – I used thyme from my plant
sprinkling of dried oregano
Preheat oven to 450* F
Heat butter/oil in a large oven safe skillet while chopping cauliflower into florets.
Toss the florets in the butter until coated, sprinkle with salt and pepper then place in oven for 10 minutes.
While the cauliflower is roasting, chop the garlic.
After 10 minutes, remove cauliflower, add garlic pieces and toss. Return to oven for another 10 minutes.
When the time is up, remove the skillet from oven carefully, and toss the florets. Sprinkle with another pinch of salt and pepper and roast for 10 more minutes or until browned.
Once the cauliflower is brown and tender, cool slightly and serve with fresh thyme and dried oregano. Enjoy this with a giant caesar salad, cobb salad, or as a side dish with your favorite supper.
I cannot get enough of this. Pretty much every other day I enjoy some roasted cauliflower with my lunch. Especially with a nice green salad. Makes me almost forget that I miss grains.
Are you on a grain free diet? What do you like to enjoy as a side dish?
Kristin Jukes blogs at The Seasonal Family about the changes of life as a family from season to season. After the birth of her and her husband’s first child in 2008, she began to slowly change their families diet to one high in whole foods. With various food allergies, many of the recipes are wheat free, egg free, peanut free and refined sugar free. Now, a mommy of two little ones, her site content continues to expand to cover crafting, homeschooling while striving to be a Godly wife and mother.
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We are currently on a grain free diet ourselves due to my husbands awful flare-up of eczema. We believe it is related to Candida and are taking measures to control it. One of my husbands favourite meals involved roasted cauliflower. We make a soup with it. We just use a basic chicken broth (home made) fry onions and garlic with curry and throw it all in the pot with the roasted cauliflower. Roasting brings out such a wonderful flavour to the cauliflower. Yum!
mm Andrea, that soup sounds extremely scrumptious! I’m going to have to try it 🙂
You mention adding garlic twice. When should I add it?
Thanks for that Melissa! I fixed it 🙂
Cauliflower loves curry, too.
http://www.tallgrasskitchen.com/roasted-curried-cauliflower
I’m not on a grain-free diet, but I admire you for having the courage and determination to do it for the benefit of your health!
I have gone flour and sugar free since January 1. I can’t seem to get enough of the veggies! Especially broiled asparagus (in olive oil, salt and pepper), broiled Kale chips (in olive oil, salt and pepper), broiled fresh broccoli (in olive oil, salt and pepper)….seeing a trend here? 🙂
Going to have to try the roasted cauliflower next – perhaps a new favorite!
I LOVE roast cauliflower. I make up big batches and freeze them in individual portions so that I always have it on hand. I pretty much eat it everyday as a side dish with lunch or dinner, sometimes both! :0)
I like to coat mine in a mix of lemon juice, olive oil, puree’d garlic and seasonings.
Try sprinkling g on fresh parmesan cheese… mmmmm! I also love “cauli-mash,” with steamed cauliflower, cream cheese and parmesan cheese.
I am gluten and casein intolerant. I do not eat grains, except for wild rice when I stuff a chicken. I limit starchy vegetables to an occasional sweet potato or acorn squash. And I also do not use any sugar but use stevia when I sometimes make muffins using almond flour. I make a “bread” using eggs and a little almond flour and Italian herb mixture that I altered from a recipe in Dr. Mercola’s first recipe book, Just What The Doctor Ordered. I make it in a jelly roll pan and cut into 9 or 12 pieces. I also make some muffins occasionally using almond flour from the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. I substitute coconut milk for cow milk in cooking. I use avocados liberally in salads and in protein shakes made with Standard Process’s whey protein. Sometimes I throw in a tablespoon or so of almond butter. This increases my fat intake and helps fill me up. Homemade chicken and beef broths make a base for soups and gravies, etc. Even with these limitations I can come up with a variety of tasty meals.
If you are not already following the GAPS diet, I would recommend it. I have been on it for 6 months and plan to continue it the full 2 years. It has helped so much and I recently started adding a some acupuncture treatements with it to help my body while i am rebuilding a new gut and finally able to digest healthy foods that have left my body malmourished my entire life. Good luck! lora
Something for those skin problems (which I’ve had for 20+ years) and that’s really showing very positive effects: NO NIGHTSHADES! That’s no tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, eggplant, etc.
Roasted Cauliflower is incredible! I love it so much. I have been dying to try the recipe for pizza made with a roasted cauliflower base. Has anybody tried that?!
We love cauliflower pizza here. I call it Crepes Italiano because my hubby will eat it as long as he doesn’t know there is cauliflower in it and as long as he doesn’t think of it as pizza…
Thanks for sharing your experience with cutting out the grain to help exzema. It is so interesting for me to read about it getting worse after each pregnancy because that is my experience too (well after 1 pregnancy). I’m pretty sure in my case it is yeast overgrowth in my system because we had a LONG battle with thrush too that was only resolved with cutting out grains and sugar. Love the roasted cauliflower though. It makes not eating potatoes easier.
I roast cauliflower like this, then top it with marinara sauce and a dollop of Greek yogurt. Delicious!
I currently eat grain-free, after being on GAPS a couple years ago (yeast overgrowth). After coming off GAPS and resuming regular grains, I realized how much better I felt NOT eating them! I have accumulated a couple “Paleo” style cookbooks mainly for ideas on what to make for side dishes. A great one to look into is Well Fed by Melissa Joulwan. Her zuchinni noodle recipe is out of this world, really garlicky and simple too. She also has a good “homefries” recipe made with jicama. Our meals have really centered around an assortment of vegetables now for side dishes. I like to roast asparagus with olive oil and garlic…or roast beets, squash etc. I have also made mashed turnips or mashed cauliflower with roasted chicken. I wish you well in your eczema!
Looks awesome! Will have to try. Also good is – bake a whole head of Cauliflower with your favorite mustard rubbed all over it. I have made this and added shredded cheddar over the mustard when it is almost done. Both are really tasty.
Kristin!
Wow, that recipe is so easy and delicious. I made it yesterday and my fiance commented on the aroma while it was cooking and then raved about the flavor. We’ve been eating cauliflower regularly, but this recipe is by far the best. I shared a link to your post on my blog for my patients who are looking for good recipes. Thank you!
Kara
Just love roasted anything. This recipe looks simple and delicious. We make a similar dish with curry. Always a win at the table.
Have a wonderful week.
Hugs,
–Amber
All roasted veggies are good to me! It really is the easiest way for me to incorporate veggies in our meals.
I just read a blog about Cod liver oil helping with eczema. If you would like the blog name let me know and I will look it up.
I’m making this tonight! It looks so good.
I’m going to make this tonight! It looks so good. Thanks for sharing.
I just read a blog about Cod Liver Oil helping with eczema,Cant think of the name of the blog right now but if you want the name let me know and I will look it up. People have had good results with it.
WOW!!! This was soooooooo good and soooooo easy to make! During the last 10 minutes I threw some sliced cremini mushrooms into the skillet….deLISH. Thank you so much!
I tried this recipe yesterday it was off the charts good, I did half butter half oov I am really into this roasting veggie. Next time I will do a medley of my favorite veggie, can’t wait. I did put a little chopped up cooked bacon, yum. Thank you