Crispy Cheese Cauliflower

Sydney Mike's Note:

The original of this tempting recipe came from Jean Carper's 'EatSmart' column in the 9-11 Feb 2007 issue of the USA Weekend paper.

• Total Time: 20 mins
• Prep Time: 5 mins
• Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 1 tablespoon olive oil , spray
• 2⁄3; cup parmesan cheese , freshly grated
• ½ teaspoon ground cumin
• 1⁄8; teaspoon cayenne pepper , to taste
• ¼ teaspoon salt , to taste
• 1⁄8; teaspoon pepper , to taste
• ½ large head cauliflower , cut into bite size pieces
• 2 eggs , beaten
• ½ cup parsley , finel chopped
• 1 lemon , cut in wedges

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
2. Spray cookie sheet with olive oil.
3. In a shallow dish, combine cheese, cumin, cayenne, salt & pepper.
4. Dredge cauliflower pieces in egg, then in cheese mix.
5. Put on cookie sheet, & spray with oil.
6. Bake 15 minutes.
7. Remove to serving plate, & sprinkle with parsley.
8. Serve with lemon wedges.

Reviews

[Marie]

I am giving this 5 stars even though I think some improvement can be made. I will definitely add some garlic salt next time and omit the salt. Also one egg should be plenty as others have reviewed. It also needed more of the olive oil spray than I used because the cauliflower came out a little dry. A great idea and very tasty and a recipe which I will be tweaking a little further. Thanks very much for posting.

[Sweet Baboo]

This goes directly into my "Best of the Best" cookbook! I knew I would like this recipe because I already like sprinkling roasted cauliflower with parmesan cheese before serving, but the addition of the spices, and the method of adding the cheese to make it crispy, takes this humble vegetable over the top. Thanks to reviews, I shook the cauliflower pieces and egg in a plastic bag to coat, then I put them in a lidded tupperware container with the breading ingredients and shook together until evenly coated....this worked very well, and clean-up was easy. I didn't serve with lemon (forgot) but didn't feel there was anything missing in flavour. The little touch of heat from the cayenne was perfect!

[IngridH]

We liked this dish! The coating really brought a lot of flavor to what can be a very bland vegetable. This was very easy to make, and great for a weeknight dinner. I have to admit, I especially loved the bits of crispy coating that stuck to the sides of the pan- yum!