Layered Cauliflower Bake - Rakott Karfiol

This Layered Cauliflower Bake - Rakott Karfiol is one of my favorites. I just can't get enough of it! And knowing how healthy it is I can eat it guilt free!

Some benefits of Red Rice

Red rice is enriched with antioxidants and magnesium, which help in curing and preventing many diseases. Plus, it also contains selenium, which helps fight against several infections.

Red rice is also a great source of fiber, so, it eases the bowel movement and boosts digestion. This fibre and bran in red rice can make you feel satiated for long and you’re less likely to indulge in junk or binge eating after having red rice. All in all, it is weight-loss friendly.

The bran present in red rice helps reduce cholesterol levels. In fact, its cholesterol-reducing properties are identical to those of some Chinese medicines with the same purpose.

Since, it is a rich source of calcium and magnesium, it makes for a great food to boost bone density and prevent bone-related diseases.

About microwaving

There are a lot of misconceptions about microwaving. How it's damaging the food, depriving it from most nutrients. This could not be further from the truth.

Nutrients can be lost few ways. For instance, cooking food high temperatures breaks down nutrients. Also, when cooking using water, the water-soluble vitamins like Vitamin C and B will dissolve in the cooking water. This is not a problem if this water is consumed, like in soups. But if water is drained, it will be all lost.

With baking or other dry heat method would have minimal vitamin losses including vitamin C. However, due to long cooking times at high temperatures, nutrients are broken down.

Microwaving is an easy, convenient, and safe method of cooking. Short cooking times and reduced exposure to heat preserve the nutrients in microwaved food.

Microwave-oven technology has been improved by the use of low power. With the utilization of low-power techniques, studies showed equal or better retention of nutrients for microwave, as compared with conventional, reheated foods for thiamin (B1), riboflavin (B2), pyridoxine (B6), folacin (B9), and ascorbic acid (Vitamin C).

In summary microwaving is a safe cooking method that preserves most nutrients due to short cooking times. It also saves time and energy.

I usually use microwave as part of the recipe. For instance, this recipe would need to have longer baking time, part par-microwaving it would reduce the total baking time.

Layered Cauliflower Bake with Red Rice and Eggplant

Serves 6

Ingredients

1 cup or red rice (may use wholegrain)

¼ cup of olive oil

1 large onion

2 cloves of garlic

2 eggplants, around 700 g

1 tbsp paprika powder

1 tsp ground caraway seed

1 can (400 g) of chopped tomato

1 large head of cauliflower or two small ones.

Sauce ingredients:

1/2 cup Vegan sour cream

2 tbsp Nutritional yeast

1/2 cup soymilk

Instructions

Cook rice covered with a bit short of 1 cup of boiling water. Add salt to taste (around 20- 30 minutes).

Heat olive oil. Add chopped onion and sliced garlic. Cover and fry it low medium for 10-15 minutes.

In the meantime, peel eggplant with a potato peeler. Using a blender’s grater function grate the eggplant (might use grater without blender, but that’s more challenging). Sprinkle with salt and rest for 15 minutes. Sour water should move out from eggplant.

Note: a lot of nutrients are in the peel of the eggplant. You can try to leave it on and grate, but that's even more challenging.

Take the onion off heat, let it cool. Add paprika powder, stir then heat it up again while adding 2 tbsp of water. Add caraway seed, stir then add can of chopped tomato. Stir well, add ¼ cup of water, cook for another 5-10 minutes.

Using your hand gently press some water out from the eggplant. Then, add it to the onion and paprika mix.  Stir and cook it under cover for around 10 minutes.

Microwave the cauliflower for 7 minutes. Then cut them in to small florets.

Mix sauce ingredients in a bowl.

Layers of Layered Cauliflower Bake - Cooking with Marchi

Now let’s layer the bake.

Note: each layer should be spread out evenly!

In a baking tray, first lay down half of the cauliflowers. Then half of the rice. Next, pour and distribute all the paprika eggplant. Next up is the second half of the rice. Distribute evenly the second half of the cauliflower and finish off with the sauce. Be sure to cover all the cauliflower. Sprinkle salt and ground pepper on top.

Bake it in convection oven 180 degrees covered with a silver foil for 30 minutes and then uncovered for 15 minutes.

Let it rest and serve with some gherkins or cucumber salad.

Six portions of Layered Cauliflower Bake - Cooking with Marchi

Layered Cauliflower Bake - Cooking with Marchi