Cauliflower is one of my favorite vegetables and it’s been a while since it’s played a double-feature on my dinner table.This week I’m cooking up Pork Chops with Roasted Cauliflower and Onions. And with the extra cauliflower I prepare, tomorrow’s dinner will be a snap with Curried Cauliflower Latkes.

Cauliflower is an interesting alternative to potatoes, with its greater texture and bolder flavor. It’s also less starchy, with a higher water content, so it’s lighter in your belly. For an easy side dish I simply cut florets and roast them in the oven with a touch of butter and a pinch of salt. As long as you don’t crowd the pan, and have the oven at a high enough temperature (400 degrees Farenheit), the florets turn golden on the outside without being overcooked on the inside.

And for a beautiful variation on regular cauliflower, check your farmers market for a beautiful light-green variety of cauliflower called Romanesco, whose florets have wild and jagged conical shapes. It tastes the same, but looks like a work of art!

Dinner #1: This Pork Chops with Roasted Cauliflower and Onions recipe is a quick, balanced one-pan meal. In our family, pork chops are a favorite. That makes it easy for me, because pork chops are such a quick cut of meat to cook. Because they’re white meat they’re low in fat. But because their flavor is so mild, I like to serve them with something really flavorful on the side. Here, the pork chops soak up the cauliflower sauté’s pan juices for a luscious taste. (When you make this dish, remember to double the cauliflower recipe so you have extra for the cauliflower latkes the next night.) And don’t worry if some extra sautéed onions make their way into the latke recipe—they’ll impart even more flavor to the latkes!

Dinner #2: In this Curried Cauliflower Latkes recipe I’m using a combination of potatoes and cauliflower for texture, and curry spices supply the assertive flavor. Serve a few of these patties with Greek yogurt, which offers a cooling balance to the spicy curry. Mix together a simple salad of fresh greens  to serve on the side and you have a complete, meatless meal!

Find more ways to cook once, eat twice in Colombe Jacobsen-Derstine’s weekly columns. And cook better along with Colombe in her how-to videos for Better TV!

Try more cauliflower recipes!

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Categories: Cook Once, Eat Twice | Tags: Cauliflower, Pork Chops, Quick and Easy, Vegetables
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