Cauliflower tots ride wave as healthy comfort food
There is no question that cauliflower has been having a long, popular moment. I was already a cauliflower fan, even a cauliflower lover, mostly favoring sliced and broken chunks of cauliflower tossed with a generous amount of olive oil, sprinkled with a liberal amount of salt, and roasted to a deep caramelized brown in a fairly high oven. My family can eat a baking sheet of that before dinner even hits the table.
But geez, once people started realizing you could “rice” cauliflower — e.g., chop it into tiny rice-sized pieces — it blossomed into a true “thing.” It can be used in stir fries, pizza crusts, risottos, meatloaves — anywhere regular rice might appear, cauliflower is edging its way in.
Now, cauliflower is taking over your tater tot! The same general concept — finely chopped and cooked cauliflower bits — is showing up in the form of caulitots.
To start with, these are just plain delicious. (The cheese does not hurt.)
Second, they are just plain fun.
Third, if you are among those parents wondering how to get more vegetables into your kids' bellies, you may have found a go-to solution.
You might even want to enlist a kid or two to help you form the tots.
Here are some variations I'm going to try adding to the tots in the future: minced chives, chopped parsley, a pinch of garlic powder, or chili powder or paprika. But if you make them just as they are below, I'll probably see you at the next Cauliflower Fan Club meeting.
• Katie Workman has written two cookbooks focused on easy, family-friendly cooking, “Dinner Solved!” and “The Mom 100 Cookbook.” She blogs at http://www.themom100.com/about-katie-workman. She can be reached at Katie@themom100.com.