Cauliflower Tots

There is one thing that is constant with my kids and it’s that they love tator tots.  There is no faster way for them to get to the dinner table than me saying “tator tots”!  This may also be true for some of the grown ups in my life…heh heh.  As you all know, I am obsessed with getting my kids to eat more vegetables.  So I did the “unthinkable” and replaced their precious potato with cauliflower and rolled my own tots.  The kids just thought it was a flavored tot and did not realize it was completely made out of a vegetable. They loved the dish but I have to admit, cutting cauliflower is my least favorite culinary task.  It was like Elsa making snow in the middle of my kitchen, little white bits all over my counter.  However, over the last few years “riced” cauliflower (aka. grated cauliflower) has become more accessible and making cauliflower based dishes more common.  In fact, I just bought a huge bag of “riced” cauliflower from Costco. For those of  you who do not have access to “riced” cauliflower or just happen to have a ton of cauliflower, you can make it with a grater or a food processor. Note, if you are using store bought cauliflower “rice” is not as finely grated as you need it to be. The best way to handle this is to microwave it for 1 min, let it cool and then squeeze the water out as instructed below. When making these tots, I do recommend making extra and freezing what you don’t eat.  This way you will always have some cauliflower tots on hand!  Enjoy!

Cauliflower Tots Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of drained “riced” cauliflower (see directions below)
• 1/2 cup of chopped onion
• 1/4 cup of dairy free cheese (I used Daiya or Trader Joes’ vegan cheese)
• 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
• 1 teaspoon of dried parsley
• 1 teaspoon of fresh garlic
• 1 egg (This recipe works well with a flax egg replacer for your vegan option.)
• olive oil spray

Directions:

1. Make sure you properly drain your cauliflower, the best way to do this is to wrap your cauliflower in a cheese cloth and squeeze it out. I like to place the cauliflower in the center, then gather the ends and continually twist the ends till very little liquid comes out. Note: if you use frozen “riced” cauliflower, you must make sure to properly defrost it first. 
2. Once you finish removing most of the liquid from the cauliflower and remove the cauliflower from the cheese cloth and set it aside in a bowl.
3. Lightly spray the center of your non-stick pan, please remember safety first and do not spray it around open flames.
4. Heat up the non-stick pan over medium heat and lightly sauté the chopped onions.
5. When the onions are clear, turn off the flame and remove the heat.
6. Let the onions cool down before we start the tot mixture.
7. Once the onions cool, retrieve the bowl with the cauliflower and mix in the onions, dairy free cheese, nutritional yeast, sea salt, garlic, dried parsley and egg (or vegan egg replacer).
8. Once all the ingredients are mixed well together, I use a tablespoon to measure my tot amount.
9. Bake in oven at 400F, till golden brown (approximately 10min).
10. Once it its golden brown, remove from (and turn off) the oven and let it cool before serving.
11. Feel free to serve it with my homemade tomato jam!

Note: If you reheat pre-made tots from a frozen state, it will take approximately 20 min at 400F.

This recipe makes approximately approximately 20 tots.

A generous 10 tot per serving!

Cauliflower Tots

http://www.ceglutenfreefoodie.com

Clean Eating Gluten Free Foodie

Vegan Option (use a vegan egg replacer)

Dairy Free

Peanut/Tree Nut Free

Soy Free

Grain Free

Top 8 Allergen Free (with egg replacer)

21DF: 1 1/4G 1/2B (1/4R for egg or 1/4O for flax egg)