Twice Baked Cauliflower Take 2

Improvise. That's the word of the day. I had a head of cauliflower and hadn't decided what I'd do with it. Remembering how wonderful the twice-baked cauliflower is that I posted a few months ago, I looked at the list of ingredients and didn't have everything. When I made it months ago I'd adapted it from the recipe over at Kalyn's Kitchen. This time I had about 1/3 cup of sour cream, but no Parmesan. I had about 2 ounces of cream cheese, but no green onions. So, I improvized. The mother of invention, so they say.

This is the dish that is kind of like mashed potatoes, but it's made with cauliflower. You mash it up, kind of like you would with mashed potatoes, but it's not as smooth. Then you add in the fixins, like bacon, sour cream, etc. What I did have was: bacon, a tad of cream cheese, a bit of butter, and buttermilk (I often add buttermilk to my mashed potatoes, so my thinking went along that this would be a good addition to cauliflower too). So, here's an adjunct recipe for twice-baked cauliflower. You can use whatever cheese you have - I happened to have a nutty, but mild white cheese with truffles in it. I hadn't planned on cooking with this cheese, but it was beginning to grow some mold on the outside, so figured I'd best use it pronto. It was delicious. We had seconds it was so good.

Twice-Baked Cauliflower Take 2

1 whole cauliflower, cut into large florets

3 slices bacon, thick-cut, minced

4 ounces cheese, your choice, shredded, divided use

1/3 cup sour cream

2 ounces cream cheese

3 tablespoons buttermilk

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the cauliflower. Cook until the cauliflower is just tender when you poke the stem with a knife. Drain and set aside.

2. Meanwhile, fry the bacon until brown. Drain on paper towels and set aside.

3. Mash the cauliflower until it's relatively smooth, but will still have small pieces visible. Save some cheese to put on the top. Add all the other ingredients and stir until combined. Pour into a small casserole dish and top with remaining cheese. (This can be eaten at this point, but it's best if you bake it for just a few minutes, or pop it in the microwave to heat it up completely.)

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 515 Calories; 46g Fat (78.5% calories from fat); 16g Protein; 12g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 114mg Cholesterol; 590mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 1/2 Lean Meat; 1 Vegetable; 1/2 Non-Fat Milk; 8 Fat.

To view a PDF recipe, click title at top.