cauliflower "popcorn"

I honestly love popcorn. As a kid I'd melt a bunch of butter and have my popcorn swimming in it. Deliciously slathered! Ah, the good old days. I of course went the microwave route which was the only option I knew as a kid. Side note, does anyone remember the days of popcorn that was different colors? You'd have a bag of green, blue or purple popcorn. Did I make this up?


While, popcorn is oh so tasty, overloading it with butter and eating the whole bag was probably not the healthiest of options. As an adult I've gone from bags to making my own in a pan with some coconut oil. The problem is that my brain and my taste buds love popcorn but my tummy feels bloated. It's like I have a baby growing inside me the next day and while I haven't gotten into that story of my life, kids are not even close to being on my mind. I love the taste but hate the belly bloat. What to do?

Enter in cauliflower!! Oh, I'm not going to lie and say this tastes exactly the same as popcorn because it doesn't but it's is pretty fanastical. My stomach feels fine after eating it and I feel pretty guilt free considering I just ate a whole bag of cauliflower.

You can make it with a head of cauliflower but I went the frozen route and it worked just fine. Whenever I buy a head of cauliflower and dice it up on my cutting board, I end up with pieces everywhere and that annoys me. So, I take out a frozen bag of cauliflower, mix in some olive oil, pop it in the oven and ta-da - a crunchy cauliflower treat!

This is so darn easy.

Ingredients:

Head of Cauliflower (or frozen bag)
Olive Oil (1-2 tbsp)
Salt (1/2 tsp or to taste)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut up cauliflower into medium florets, add olive oil & salt and mix well.

Spread parchment paper onto a rimmed baking sheet and spread out cauliflower evenly.

Bake for 1 hour (more or less depending on how crispy you want your cauliflower) shaking every 20 minutes.

Note:

Play around with how much oil or salt you want. It will depend on how much cauliflower you have. I used about 1-2 tbsp for a 16 oz bag of cauliflower and I went salt free because the first time I tried it with 1 tsp of salt it was too much for me. I think it's good without but you'll need to play around depending on your taste-buds.

Pop in a movie, or in my case an episode of Blacklist, and enjoy.