This one is actually quite amazing! Who would believe you could make a dessert out of cauliflower? Carrots, courgettes, yes but cauliflower?! This recipe came out of a kitchen faux pas, a mistake which will serve me well in the future: I accidentally made cauliflower meal, or cauliflower flour! Many low carb blogs and recipe sites use cauliflower rice in abundance, as do I, and they advocate a way for mincing, or “ricing” the cauliflower in a powerful blender, such as a Vitamix or a Bullet. It never worked for me, and this particular time when I tried to rice cauliflower in my beloved Vitamix blender, I ended up with what looked like thin, white soup, or milk.. Instead of just throwing it all out, I poured it through a sieve lined with a tea towel. After letting the water drain through the cloth, and then squeezing and squeezing out as much liquid as I could, I ended up with what looked like moist almond meal or coconut meal! I decided to incorporate it in to something that would resemble a Rice Pudding, and this is what I came up with. It gives all the satisfaction of a custard pudding, and the added cauliflower gives it a body that is reminiscent of rice pudding, the ultimate comfort food. I buy my saffron in Middle Eastern shops here in London, better value and quality than in the supermarket.

Ingredients:

300 grams cauliflower florets, raw

4 tablespoons double ( heavy) cream

2 eggs

2-3 tablespoons sweetener (I use Xylitol, but you can use Spenda, Stevia, a mixture of them all, or one of your choice)

2 pinches saffron threads

Butter for greasing

Method:

Preheat oven to 200 C. Butter a small (approx 15 x15 cm, or 15-20 cm diameter) ovenproof dish.

In a small saucepan, gently warm the cream, remove from heat and stir in the saffron. Leave to infuse for 20 mins. Meanwhile, place the cauliflower florets in your blender with enough water to just cover the florets. Blitz for a few seconds (depending on your machine) until there are no cauliflower pieces anymore, and the contents of the blender resembles watery soup. Place a clean tea towel in a sieve or colander and pour the mixture through. When most of the water has drained through, start to squeeze out as much liquid as possible with your hands – you should end up with roughly 100 grams”dry” of cauliflower meal, depending on how moist your cauliflower was to start off with. Important: if too much liquid is left, your pudding will end up too soggy.. ( If you end up with more than 100 grams, simply use what you need and save the remainder in the fridge).

In a bowl, whisk the eggs, add the sweetener of your choice and lastly, pour in the cream, making sure you scrape any saffron strands off the sides of your pan in to your egg mixture. Stir in the cauliflower meal and pour the mixture in to your prepared oven dish. Bake in the centre of the preheated oven for about 30 mins ( a toothpick inserted in the pudding should come out clean, but take care not to overcook). Remove from oven, let cool slightly. Serve with cream, if desired.

Serves 2-3.