Cauliflower "Cheese" Spread: or Naan Pizza Revisited

There is something so beautiful about dining alfresco.   Authors Note: I realized that I use "beautiful" far too often, even though it always seems to be perfectly appropriate for what I'm attempting to describe.  From hence forth, I'll try harder to use other adjectives...

There is something so divine about dining alfresco.  The fresh air and sunlight make the flavors stronger, enhancing the subtleties, the sweet or tangy or peppery or smokey.  It makes you eat slower, appreciating and enjoying the simple act of sharing a meal, sipping on wine, and conversing.  Even if the background noise is the motorcycle traffic to New Hope rumbling by.  Time seems to slow, you relax, and instead of just eating, you are dining.  You, along with the meal, are transformed - its like a religious experience, or at least, its one of the closest things I've experienced to one.

After Tuesday's Gravity Hill shopping spree, I had a summer squash and that purple head of cauliflower sitting on my counter, just begging to be chopped and cooked and created into something.  As I was driving home from work - windows open, fresh cut grass and barbecue smells blowing through my hair - I knew that tonight was a backyard dinner night.  One of my favorite summer-night outdoor meals is naan pizzas (which happens to the subject of one of my first ever posts).  Naan is the perfect means of highlighting fresh summer produce - its thick enough to handle a pile of vegetables and other toppings, but airy enough that isn't heavy and dense like a traditional pizza dough can be.  Its the ultimate veggie vessel.  So in the end, the decision on what to do with my squash and cauliflower really was a no-brainer.

Normally when I make these pizzas, we use canned pizza sauce and no cheese - or rather, optional cheese for those who partake.  I usually use minimal sauce, mainly because it tends to be too sweet and, well, canned tasting (you know what I'm talking about....don't you?).  Tonight, however, I did two things differently: I skipped the canned sauce and roasted up some grape tomatoes (yes, people, the roasted tomatoes are back!), and I made a cauliflower "cheese" spread.  Now I know what you might be thinking, but trust me.  I've made a ricotta substitute for vegan lasagna before using blended up tofu and cauliflower before, but decided to just use the cauliflower this time and see what happened.  It ended up working pretty well, although I wouldn't necessarily call it a pizza cheese substitute - it had the consistency of hummus, but added the saltiness and creaminess that you'd normally get from cheese.  Topped with roasted tomatoes, sauteed mushrooms with garlic and onions, and fresh basil, and eaten alfresco with a big glass of red wine - divine.  While I do think that the recipe needs a little tweaking, its definitely going to become a staple on my naan pizzas from now on.

Cauliflower "Cheese" Spread
1 head cauliflower florets, chopped
olive oil
non-dairy milk
salt and pepper

+ Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Place cauliflower florets in a medium baking dish.  Drizzle with olive oil and lightly salt and pepper.  Bake for 30 minutes, or until cauliflower is soft.
+ Place roasted cauliflower in a food processor.  Add a splash of olive oil.  Blend, then slowly add milk until desired consistency is reached.  Season to taste.  To serve, spread on naan as a base, then add sauce and toppings.

Fixed Oven, Naan Pizza, & Brussels Sprout Love

Me playing the vital "light holding" role in fixing the oven.

THE OVEN IS FIXED! THE OVEN IS FIXED!
After weeks of an oven-less existence, the element finally came today in the mail.  In celebration of such a momentous and much-awaited day, I broke in the oven by baking up some naan pizzas. 

Having a working oven is a wonderful thing.

I love naan.  For those unaware of the beauty of naan, it's an Asian flatbread, most commonly used in Indian cuisines.  While it's perfect for scraping up the last bit of palak paneer, it also makes a phenomenal pizza crust.  It can hold up to lots of sauce and toppings, and gets a little crunchy on the outside when you bake it, while still retaining a soft, chewy inside.  

Naan pizzas are a staple in the Confoy household.  Not only are the quick and easy, but they allow the variety to gives everyone what they want.  Since half of the family doesn't eat dairy, and three-fourths don't eat meat, my lacto-carnivore brother often finds the dinners I make lacking in the things he enjoys the most - meat and bleu cheese.  But on Make-Your-Own-Pizza Night, he can stack as much prosciutto, salami, bacon, and bleu cheese on his naan as that leavened bread can handle.  

Me?  I like a base of roasted tomatoes, then some sauteed veggies.  Usually I go for onions, mushrooms, and yellow and green squash.  Tonight, I added some roasted brussels sprouts 1) because in a recent issue of her magazine, Martha Stewart put brussel sprouts on a pizza, and 2) I have been craving them (yes, I crave brussels sprouts.  Actually, I love brussels sprouts.  I know that they're the vegetable that everyone hates, but if you roast them instead of boiling them, they are the most delicious thing in the world.  Bobby Flay's Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pomegranate and Vanilla-Pecan Butter turned me on to the wonderfulness of sprouts).

Mmm, brussels spouts.

Basically, you all know how to make pizzas.  You can buy naan pre-made at the grocery store (the brand Fabulous Flats is great), and then just top it off with whatever you want.  Really, whatever you want.  Mozzarella and basil?  Steak and pineapple?  Shrimp and chocolate?  Not judgement here.  I'm leaving this one up to you.

Note: Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes, until toppings are warm or cheese has melted.