Very Versatile Vegetables

ב"ה

A while back, among the plethora of diet books I've read, I read a book about Okinawa and the diet the people there eat. According to the book, the best foods to eat for weight loss are foods that have a high water content. Or, put differently, the best foods for losing weight are those that have low calorie counts for high volume. Most of these foods are fruits and vegetables. This also is the theory behind "Volumetrics"

In case you haven't figured this out yet, I'm a big fan of Cauliflower. Cauliflower is very low in calories (only about 144 calories per Medium Head -- about 575 grams), high in fiber (14 grams per medium head), and 11 grams of protein per medium head. So I decided to make use of a head of cauliflower to help fill me up deliciously.

I took a head of cauliflower and steamed it until it was nice and soft. After it cooled, I pureed half the cauliflower with 1/2 cup of unsweetened Almond "milk". I put this puree in a pot, added another cup of the Almond "milk", spiced it up (I like curry spices, but choose your own). Then I sauteed a bunch of mushrooms with a bit of shallot and garlic (I let the garlic sit for 1/2 hour after I dice/mince it) -- I had frozen mixed mushrooms and a few other kinds of mushrooms that I get at our local H-Mart. When the mushrooms (and shallots and garlic) are soft, I put them in the puree plus "milk". I cooked them all through. This made a good "cream of mushroom" soup (I used it last week with Shirataki macaroni to make a casserole).

Now you may be wondering what I did with the other half of the cauliflower. Well, I'll tell you. I took a large can of Fire Roasted Tomatoes, added spices (I used 1 teaspoon each of turmeric, paprika, coriander, 1/2 teaspoon cumin, and a squeeze of brown mustard) and added the second half of the cauliflower (pureed with nothing else). I also added one coarsely grated apple, one grated carrot, and veggies (to about 1/4 of the mushrooms from before, I added two sliced carrots, two mini sweet potatoes cut into chunks and one zucchini, quartered lengthwise and but into chunks. After this stewed together on a low flame for a while, I added two packages of shirataki macaroni

This came out great and is very filling (and low in calories and high in nutrition).