Cali’flour Kitchen: 125 Cauliflower-Based Recipes for the Carbs You Crave + Win a copy!

ABRAMS Books sent me Cali’flour Kitchen in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I’ll never relish a radish or turn up for turnip, but cauliflower I could eat all day. Raw, riced or roasted; in a cookie or a crust — there’s exponential potential for this vegetable for every meal and diet. Whether it’s soups or skillets or sweets you’re after — or maybe just the cauliflower pizza crust that Amy Lacey’s Cali’flour Foods turned into a multi-million dollar business — there’s something for everyone in Cali’flour Kitchen: 125 Cauliflower-Based Recipes for the Carbs You Crave. Dairy-free? Check. Gluten- and Grain-Free? Check and check. Keto? (Nods yes.) Keto friendly (Nods again.) Paleo, Vegan and Vegetarian? Yes to all three. Many are a combination of most of the above, making for a wide variety of dishes suitable for myriad diets. 

The recipes are organized by the type of dish: sauces, spreads and cheeses; breakfast and brunch; sandwiches and toasts; soups and salads; cauliflower rice, and so on. When you turn to the recipes themselves, they’re clearly labelled gluten-free, grain-free, etc. and and further organized by these categories in an index at the back of the book. Photographs are bright and simply styled, making each dish look do-able for everyday cooking.

I have a sweet tooth, so I started with Nana’s Chocolate Chip Cookies. They’re pillowy soft and melt in your mouth and each of us (including my daughter’s friend who was over one day for a playdate) went back for seconds and thirds. You can’t taste the cauliflower but you can definitely smell it. (If there’s any way around that, I haven’t found it.)

 

Amy includes three cauliflower pizza crust recipes: the cali’flour pizza crust here with just three ingredients (cauliflower, cheese and egg), a plant-based crust and a paleo crust. I can’t speak for the latter two, but the basic one here in Amy’s Margherita and Pepperoni Pizzas and Strawberry Honey Pie couldn’t have been easier or quicker to make and tasted soooo good. I could happily snack on the crust alone.

Next, Amy’s Cream Cheese Salmon Sushi Rolls (with veggies instead of salmon). A quick and easy dish to make that feels fancy, even without the chopsticks. Will make again and again.

And finally, The New White Bread, which actually turned out like bread! (I don’t know why I’m so surprised. Maybe because the “dough” was more like a lighter-than-air batter.) As happy as I was with the texture, none of us were too thrilled with the taste. I love cauliflower but the cauliflower flavour in the bread was overpowering. (The cauliflower flavour in the pizza crust was more subdued.) I’d be willing to try it again with garlic and butter or Amy’s Roasted Garlic Cream. Or made into croutons for a salad.

Other recipes I’d like to try include:

• Cauliflower Leaf Pesto
• Everything Bagels
• Blueberry Pancakes
• Chive and Cheddar Biscuits
• Cauliflower Steak with Roasted Cauliflower Leaves
• Buffalo Cauliflower
• Caramel Apple Pie 😋😋

What about you? Where would you start?

GIVEAWAY!

Thanks to ABRAMS Books, I have a copy of Cali’flour Kitchen to share with one of you! To enter to win, name two recipes from the book that you’d like to try in the comments below.

For another entry, follow try small things on Facebook, share this post (you’ll see the share buttons below) and tell me your Facebook name in the comments below. 

And feel free to tweet the following once per day and leave the url for your tweet in the comments below (one entry per tweet). Make sure you’re following try small things and ABRAMS Books for your entry to count.

#Win Amy Lacey’s “Cali’flour Kitchen: 125 Cauliflower-Based Recipes for the Carbs You Crave” from @trysmallthings! CAN 8/6  https://wp.me/p4xBed-7pQ #califlourkitchen

The contest is open to Canadian (excluding Quebec) residents 18+ and ends at 11:59 p.m. EST on August 6, 2019. The potential winner (chosen at random) must respond to prize notification within 48 hours and provide the correct answer to a skill-testing question, otherwise another winner will be selected.

Good luck, everybody!

Update August 8, 2019: Congratulations Nicole C!