If it looks like a cheesy hashbrown and tastes like a cheesy hashbrown, it must be a cheesy hashbrown, right? Right. Unless it’s actually cheesy cauliflower cakes.
Hey, I wasn’t trying to trick my family. Really, I wasn’t. I was planning to be completely up front and honest about the platter of cauliflower on the table. Is it my fault they just assumed I’d fried up some hashbrowns? And would you believe, when I told them that in fact, there were no potatoes in these – only cauliflower – some of my boys didn’t even believe me? Then my pickiest boy helped himself to seconds. Who am I to argue?
I’ll admit that as hard as I’ve tried, cauliflower is still not at the top of my favorite vegetables list. We all eat it steamed or roasted, but our reactions are usually something like “eh” when it comes to eating cauliflower fixed in those ways. When I found this cauliflower cake recipe and decided to play with it, I was hoping it would at least be just a little better than “eh.” To my surprise, I found myself unable to stop nibbling as I was cooking these for our dinner. These are way, way better than “eh.” I mean, my pickiest boy ate seconds. That is worth stating twice.
I believe these will be a part of our normal veggie rotation. Not only are they tasty, they’re quite easy to put together.
Cheesy Cauliflower Cakes (adapted from this recipe)
- 1 head cauliflower
- 2 large eggs
- ¾ cup shredded cheddar or Colby jack cheese
- 2 Tablespoons dried minced onions
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- Palm shortening or expeller pressed coconut oil for frying
- Cut cauliflower into florets.
- Boil for about 10 minutes or until tender.
- Drain.
- Mash with a potato masher. (I found that this created what looked like shredded potatoes.)
- Stir in eggs, shredded cheese, minced onions, and salt until well combined.
- Melt 1-2 Tablespoons of palm shortening or coconut oil in a skillet.
- Scoop 2 Tablespoons of mixture into the melted oil, pressing down into a cake.
- Fry over medium heat until brown and crispy - about 2 minutes on each side.
- Serve right away.
- Makes 12-15 cakes.
- (To save time, you can skip forming these into cakes and simply fry them up in a skillet in a big batch like you would do with hashbrowns. )
Even if you don’t like cauliflower, you’ve got to try these. Pretend they’re hashbrowns if it helps. It worked for us!
