Cauliflower is the new steak

Because steak will never be the new cauliflower, I’ve been making this recipe for cauliflower steaks out of Bon Appetit magazine, as often as possible lately.

Often I tell people that, while I can eat anything with diabetes that I want as long as I cover it with insulin and exercise, etc., I generally avoid white foods, as these tend to be laden with quick-burning, simple carbs.

Of course the cauliflower stands in stark defiance of this rule. For example, if you eat a whole head of cauliflower* you have consumed only 146 calories. That is crazy. Also only 29 grams of carbs and a whopping 12 grams of fiber. For reference, one Clif bar has roughly 250 calories, 42 grams of carbs, and 5 grams of fiber.* As you can see, raw cauliflower is clearly the better cross-country road trip snack.

That’s a joke, but the cauli steak recipe really has changed the way I think about this Brassica. It’s buttery, rich, and delicious, and goes great underneath sauteed ground pork with sage, and I imagine underneath many other meat and vegetarian-based proteins. Plus, diabetically* speaking, the steaks and the accompanying puree both have an almost potato-like heartiness that I often miss, without delivering a big punch of carbs. And also it’s totally beautiful to look at before you eat it or serve it to your loved ones. Let me know your thoughts and variations if you try it out!

*https://www.nutritionix.com/i/clif-bar/cool-mint-chocolate/5b4f8589a9db904b1fcf24f1

*USDA, google sidebar

*As always, this is a made up word (but aren’t they all?) that you shouldn’t use in scientific papers or elsewhere.

Waffle Fries and Celery Root

February can be rough. The days are short, the weather is temperamental, winter closes us inside of its blue shutters…

But luckily, we have created several traditions to get us through, one of my favorite being, in atypical fashion, SUPERBOWL SUNDAY!

I, like many of you, went to a Superbowl party a couple weeks back and found myself so INSPIRED. Let me preface this by saying that in between the 2017 and 2018 Superbowls, I watched 0 minutes of football. So, it’s always a fresh experience for me. I couldn’t believe how physically strong the players were. I was also very captivated by how delicious the various party foods involving potatoes were. There were waffle fries (not from Chick-fil-A!), homemade potato chips (in three varieties!), and baked potatoes with gruyere. So, based on these two observations, I added two resolutions to my list for this year: 1) workout more; 2) eat more potatoes.

When I got home from the party, my blood sugar, despite a lot of extra insulin and monitoring, was above 200 mg/dl. I don’t like this – I don’t feel good when my bg is high and taking extra insulin before bed is a little frightening because of aforementioned nighttime lows. So I put the potatoes on the back burner, so to speak.

I did start moving more though. Yoga and walking have been good, along with a class or two at the student rec center. So with goal #1 underway, I got back to the potatoes.

Recently, I ordered a dish with shaved celery root when out at a restaurant. Between ordering and receiving my food, I forgot about this, and when it came I thought I was eating hashbrowns. Fancy hashbrowns, but still. So this weekend at the grocery store, remembering my positive celery root experience, I decided to branch out of my cooking rut.

If you’ve ever bought a celery root (also known as Celeriac), you know just how unappetizing it looks in its natural form. Celery root is, in fact, so ugly that I can’t believe we discovered it was edible. I can’t imagine being that first person to look at it and think, “I’m gonna eat that.”

But someone did and I’m glad.

It’s really a vegetable that you have to tackle – which goes well with the general metaphor of this post. I used this recipe from Bon Appetit for Celery Root Steaks with Tomatillo Salsa Verde as a basis.

Except I didn’t make the salsa because I planned to just pile my other food on top of the steaks.

Here’s a detailed play-by-play:

Scrub that thing! – I took my veggie brush and I scrubbed the root thoroughly, rinsing under cool water.
Peel it! – I took a carrot peeler and shaved off the rough skin (yes, even though I’d just scrubbed it), until it had a mostly smooth texture. Then I used the scooped end of the peeler to get out the fuzzy, radish like whiskers (ugh) near the end and smoothed once again over the top and bottom.
Preheat it! – I was already baking brussels sprouts, so my oven was on 450 degrees.
Slice it! – I sliced it into rounds, about a 1/2 inch in thickness, until I’d cut up about half of it. Then I cut it in half so I could lay it flat and cut half-moons of the same thickness.
Sauté it! – I added quite a bit of olive oil to a big cast iron skillet, set this to heating on the stove, and laid the slices down into it, turning it down to about 6. I let them sizzle on each side for about 5 minutes total, flipping impatiently. I think the recipe is correct – 4 minutes each side with only one flip would have given a better, golden brown to each.
Bake it! – About 10 minutes on high heat for a nice, tender texture (recipe says until it can be easily pierced with a fork or butter knife).

Pro tip: if the steaks are tender but you want more of a golden brown look, flip them over to serve; most likely they are browned on the pan side.

So, how do celery steaks stack up to potatoes, ounce for ounce?

1 cup celery root weighs in at 66 calories, 14 grams of carbs, and packs a powerful punch of 2.8 grams fiber, according to google.

Potato comes in at nearly double all of the above (except fiber): 116 calories, 26 grams carbs, 3.4 grams fiber, per cup.

So to me, diabetically speaking, Celeriac is the clear winner!

Oh and finally, Happy Valentine’s Day.

Recipes To Not Try

This was actually some really good purple soup that I made the other day…couldn’t really tell you how though.

Hello Dear Readers,

Sometimes living with type 1 diabetes means that you have to experiment with certain substitutions and switches in your diet in order to achieve better blood sugar control. Often I use romaine lettuce instead of tortillas, make ‘pasta’ out of raw zucchini, or I eat lentils instead of rice.

But sometimes adventurous substitutions can go too far.

I got onto pinterest so I could follow my officemate’s cooking interests. She is an amazing chef who cooks “Rainbow in My Tummy” style food for the kids who participate in the programs where we work and she also regularly tells me about the professional grade cakes, soups, and vegetable dishes she makes. I actually have many friends who are excellent chefs and who’ve managed the art of following recipes to such an extent that they can now improv successfully.

I don’t think I’m there yet.

On pinterest, people have boards full of ‘recipes to try.’ I would like to offer you what might be the first in a series of blog posts called:

Recipes To Not Try

I’m Sure It Will Be Good Soybean Hummus

Ingredients:

1 can soybeans (minus a few bites)
garlic powder (shake it)
chili powder (a shake)
olive oil (just whatever amt happens to splash into the container)
lime (a squeeze)
salt (some)

Step 1: Dump all that into a hand-blender approved container and blend on low or high, just whatever feels right at the time.

Step 2: Blend until viscous

Serves: not even your worst enemies

Because here is the thing with soybeans: even though at first, when blended up, you might be tempted to call this soy hummus ‘creamy’ the truth is that it’s slimey, and that even throwing it into the trash is a disturbing experience.

So tack this up onto you dispinterest board and don’t assume, like I am oft to do, that you can just ‘wing it’ yet again (or if you do, let me know so I can add it to my own virtual tackboard).