Cauliflower Archives - Noble Pig

Santa Snack Board + VIDEO

Cathy Pollak — Thu, 05 Dec 2019 22:59:56 +0000

This Santa Snack Board is the perfect holiday centerpiece for every gathering this season. Not only is this healthy snack board festive and fun, it uses simple ingredients everyone loves. This Santa Board transports easily, feel free to take it along to every celebration this season.

Santa Snack Board Recipe

Your holiday appetizer list just got easier with this adorable Santa Snack Board. Place this among your most decadent holiday dips and right next to the mini crab cakes and watch this tray of veggies disappear. It’s just too cute not to eat!

Make this board at home and transport it anywhere! Just place the finished snack tray on several sheets of heavy duty aluminum foil and wrap them up and over the top tightly. This will keep any of the veggies from moving out of place. This board can easily be put together in twenty minutes and would be the perfect job for young ones to help out with preparation.

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I’m sharing this absolutely adorable holiday recipe from my sweet friend Maegan’s new book, Beautiful Boards. If I could recommend any book for you to buy as a gift and for yourself, it would be this one. The time and creativity Maegan put into this book just blows my mind. There are ideas for boards for every holiday, special occasions, seasons, sports, game night and meals. The best part – they are guides. You can easily substitute items for what you already have and get the same beautiful results. Each board created by Maegan is really the perfect inspiration for whatever occasion you might be celebrating. I promise you’re going to love-love this book.

Looking for other appetizer board recipes? Try these:

Santa Snack Board Ingredients

plain hummus
black olives
tomatoes
red bell peppers
mozzarella balls
cauliflower florets
broccoli florets
club crackers

Expert Tips

Use the right-sized board with a lip to hold everything in place. This is the exact board I used.
I used an 8.5″ diameter plate for the hummus.
Purchase already cut florets for the cauliflower and broccoli for time-saving reasons.
Mini mozzarella balls are preferred, but regular sized mozzarella balls also work fine.

I hope you get a chance to make this adorable snack board over the holiday season.

Pick up a copy of Maegan’s book, Beautiful Boards today! You will not be disappointed with all the creative ways you can make an appetizer or a meal board for your family. And there’s a picture with every recipe.

Santa Snack Board

Course Appetizer

Cuisine American

Keyword Holiday Appetizer, Santa Snack Board

Prep Time 20

Total Time 20

Servings people

Calories 70kcal

Author Cathy Pollak

Ingredients

16 oz (454 g) plain hummus (store-bought or homemade)
1 can (6 oz) large pitted black olives, divided
30 cherry or grape tomatoes, divided
3 large red bell peppers, cut into strips, reserving 1/2 top of a pepper
1 container (8 oz or 227 g) mini mozzarella balls, drained and patted dry
2 bags (12 oz or 336 g) cauliflower florets
1 bag (12 oz or 336 g broccoli florets
club crackers

Instructions

Evenly spread hummus onto a round white plate with a lip around the edge. Place plate in the center of a 20 x 13 - inch board (51 x 33 cm).
Press two olives for Santa's eyes, a tomato for his nose and the 1/2 top of a bell pepper for his smile onto the hummus.
Layer red bell pepper strips, starting from the top of the plate up to the top-right corner of the board to look like Santa's hat.
Add a row of mini mozzarella balls (regular size works too) to the top edge of the plate and a small pile of mozzarella balls to decorate the top of Santa's hat.
Arrange the cauliflower for Santa's beard, mustache and eyebrows.
Place remaining black olives, except for one, at the bottom of the board, around the cauliflower beard to look like Santa's belt. Stack 1-3 club crackers at the very bottom center of the board with the remaining olive cut in half and the halves pressed together in the center of the cracker to resemble Santa's belt buckle.
Divide the remaining tomatoes on either side of Santa's cauliflower beard, filling in from the olives up to the middle of the board.
Add the broccoli to the top left of the board and fan the club crackers along the right side of the board.

Notes

Nutrition information is for 2 tablespoons of store-bought hummus only. This does not include any vegetables or crackers included in this board.

Nutrition

This recipe has been reprinted with permission.

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The post Santa Snack Board + VIDEO appeared first on Noble Pig.

Baked (Low Carb) Parmesan Cauli-Tots

Cathy Pollak — Sun, 10 Feb 2019 13:00:57 +0000

Crispy, cheesy and tasty, these Baked (Low Carb) Parmesan Cauliflower Tots are the answer to a healthy dinner side dish everyone in the family will love.

Cauliflower Tots

I have to admit I was a little skeptical at the idea of what cauliflower tots might taste like. As we all know, it can be really challenging to swap out potato for another vegetable and still make it taste delicious and satisfying. Carbohydrates are so hard to replace in the yummy department. And quite honestly I had to play with the recipe many times to get it just right taste and texture wise. The end result are these very delicous Baked (Low Carb) Cauli-Tots. I promise you’re going to love them.

Are Cauliflower Tots Healthy

Since cauli-tots are made with cauliflower and not potatoes, they are most definitely a healthy alternative to traditional tater tots or French fries. In fact, recipes replacing potatoes with cauliflower as one of its main ingredients contain about forty-five percent fewer calories than their counterparts. Yay for this!

I highly suggest you also give my Old Bay Cauliflower Salad, Mini Cauliflower-Boursin Souffles, and my Cheesy Cauliflower Ranch Bites a try. You will love every bite of these recipes and save yourself a boatload of calories, without the loss of a delicious, comfort food, dish. And you definitely won’t feel guilty about eating more than a handful of these cauli-tots.

These mock tater tots are also a great way to get your picky vegetable eaters to try something different!

Are Cauliflower Tots Keto Friendly

Not all cauliflower tots are keto friendly, especially if they are covered in bread crumbs or dredged in any type of all-purpose flour. However, this version of low carb tots is very keto friendly, with each tot only having 0.5 grams of net carbs. Amazing, right? You can definitely eat a few more than planned with those types of stats. Trust me, you definitely won’t miss the potato, and unlike many other cauliflower recipes, you can’t actually taste much of the cauliflower. It’s a win-win.

A food processor is needed to get the cauliflower into the right consistency for tot making. It will be almost paste like.

How Are Cauliflower Tots Made

cauliflower is steamed
mixture of egg, Parmesan, cream cheese and other seasonings are combined
cauliflower and egg mixture is combined in a food processor
tots are formed using a #50 scoop and placed on a baking sheet with Parmesan sprinkled on top
baked in the oven for 30 minutes

Use Parmesan cheese that looks likes this to sprinkle on top of the formed cauli-tots.

Can Cauliflower Tots Be Made In The Air Fryer

I did try making this particular recipe in the air fryer and quite honestly they were not as good as when they were baked in the oven. The air fryer took about fifteen minutes to get them brown, but the texture was just too mushy. However, the air fryer is great for reheating the next day and takes about five minutes at 390 degrees F.

The tots come out the oven perfectly golden brown and crispy around the edges. I promise you are going to be craving these bite-sized tots!

What Can I Serve With Cauliflower Tots

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What Equipment Do I Need To Make Cauliflower Tots

A food processor (11 cup capacity). This gets the cauliflower into the the proper consistency.
A #50 scoop is essential to making the perfect sized cauliflower tots. The dough is very sticky, making it difficult to handle by hand.

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Baked (Low Carb) Cauli-Tots

Crispy, cheesy and tasty, these Baked (Low Carb) Parmesan Cauli-Tots are the answer to a healthy dinner side dish everyone in the family will love.

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American

Keyword Baked Low Carb Cauli Tots

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 30

Resting Time 5

Total Time 1

Servings tots

Calories 31kcal

Author Cathy Pollak

Ingredients

1-1/4 lbs cauliflower florets
1 large egg, beaten
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (green can)
2 oz cream cheese, softened
1 tbsp avocado oil
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp coarse ground black pepper
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese, chopped slightly

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
In a large pot, fitted with a steamer basket, steam cauliflower until it is fork tender, but not mushy. Let cool 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a medium sized bowl, mix together egg, grated Parmesan cheese, cream cheese, avocado oil, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder and pepper. It will be very paste like. Set aside.
In the bowl of a food processor (at least 11 cup capacity) add steamed cauliflower and Parmesan paste. Process until mixture is fully combined. Mixture will be very sticky and there should not be any large pieces of cauliflower visible.
Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Using a #50 scoop, scoop out cauliflower mixture and run a knife across the back to compact mixture, making it flat on one side. Repeat until all of the mixture is used. (Should make about 40 tots, so eight rows of 5 tots each.)
Place store-bought shredded Parmesan on a cutting board and chop it slightly as the shreds can be a little long. (see picture above). Sprinkle some on the top of each tot, pressing it in slightly. Some will fall around the base of the tot when you do this and that's good. It forms a nice crunchy little base.
Place tots in the middle rack of the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Place a piece of parchment on top of the tots and bake for another 15 minutes. Tots should be nice and golden brown with a slight crunch, but will still feel slightly soft as these are not potatoes.
Let sit for five minutes before serving. Serve with your favorite dipping sauce.
These reheat great in the microwave, oven, air fryer or deep fryer.

Nutrition

As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.

The post Baked (Low Carb) Parmesan Cauli-Tots appeared first on Noble Pig.