Today, I learned that there are vegetables other than peas, corn, lima beans, and spinach that are not totally useless when frozen. Specifically, when using it in a soup, frozen cauliflower can be awesome.

I found a recipe this weekend for a Moroccan salad called Zaalouk that can be made with cauliflower, and I thought to myself “damn, those look like fine soup ingredients.” So I tried it out, and I’ll be damned if it wasn’t a fantastic, healthy (if you’re into that sort of thing), vegan (if you’re into that sort of thing) soup.

Cauliflower Zaalouk Soup

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, minced fine
8 cloves garlic, minced fine
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp paprika
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 12 oz bag frozen cauliflower
3 c chicken broth
1/2 c parsley or cilantro, chopped fine

In a 2 to 4 quart sauce pan, heat the oil over medium heat, and add the onions, garlic, and salt, and saute for about 5 min, till the onions are translucent. Add the spices and cook for another minute. Add the tomato paste and saute for another 3 or 4 minutes, or until the tomato paste turns a deep brick red. Add the cauliflower and toss to coat.

Add the chicken stock, jack the heat up to medium-high, and bring to a boil. Once it boils, reduce the heat to a simmer and simmer till the cauliflower is very tender, about 15 minutes. Use a stick blender or regular blender and puree the soup till it’s very smooth.

Allow the soup to sit off the heat for about 5 minutes. This will allow it to cool to a point where it’s edible (it’s currently cauliflower-flavored lava), then stir in the herb of your choice and serve with crusty bread.

Edit: I know I marked this as vegan, but used chicken broth. Apologies. If you wanted it to be vegan, just use vegetable broth or water. The chicken broth I used was homemade and mostly for texture. The flavors of the ingredients are more than strong enough to make up for using water.

halfbakedidea asked: 32.

One thing I’ve lied about:

Ohio has (or at least, had in the late ’90s, who knows with budget cuts these days) a program called PSEOP, wherein if you’re a public high school student and you can get accepted at a public university, the state will pick up the tab, and the credits you get there count towards HS graduation.

So that’s the backstory. I got accepted to Ohio State in 1997 as a HS junior, and I placed into calculus. The school I went to was a typically jocky school (which was hilarious because our sports teams universally sucked when I was there), so I was a bit ashamed by my gifts. For most of my first year at Ohio State, nobody knew I was still in high school.

Senior year, I took honors physics and started the same thing, until the professor called me into his office one day and constructively chewed me out for lying, though he never called me on it publicly. I never made a big deal about “not being in high school,” so I was able to slowly drop the lie.

I still appreciate Dr. Mainland for that.

Made this for me and the wife tonight with scheduled leftovers. Crazy easy to make. The only specialty equipment you need is a deep oven safe dish with a tight fitting lid, like a cast iron dutch oven, or stone rice pot, or old school casserole.

Serves 4 (or 2 + leftovers)

Chicken Biryani

1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 1/2 cups plain, full fat yogurt*
1 stick cinnamon
2 whole cloves
2 green cardamom pods (or pinch ground cardamom)
1/2 tsp each ground cumin and coriander
1 tsp ground mace OR 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 Tbsp canola oil
2 small green chiles, cut in half
1 tsp salt
2 cloves garlic and 1/2” piece of ginger, pureed together into a paste**
1/2 cup chopped cilantro

2 cups dry basmati rice
1/2 cup raisins (golden raisins are preferable)
1 cup french fried onions (yes, the ones out of the can)

* Full fat is best here. Low Fat is OK, but it’ll end up grainy. Fat Free will NOT work, and neither will Greek Yogurt, because it doesn’t have enough moisture to steam the rice

** Either in a food processor, mortar and pestle, or do what I do and find the local Indian market and buy it premade in the jar.

Mix everything listed before the rice together in a bowl and let marinate for at least an hour — up to overnight would be fine

Place the rice in a bowl and cover with at least an inch of water and let it sit for an hour to soak.

Preheat oven to 350 F

Fill a large (at least 4 quart) pot at least halfway with salty water and bring to a boil. Add the rice and raisins and boil heavily for 5 minutes, then drain.

In the large vessel discussed earlier, put the meat (and the marinade) in the bottom, and make sure it covers the whole bottom and is a nice, flat layer. Add the rice on top and make sure the meat is totally covered, and the layer is level. Top with the onions, cover tightly with the lid, and put in the oven for 30 min.

When the time is up, test the rice … if it’s done, the meat underneath will be as well. If it’s not, put it back in for another 10 min and repeat.

Fluff the rice with a fork, then gently fold everything together. Remove the cinnamon stick, cloves, and optionally, the chiles.

Raita Salad

2 cucumbers, peeled, seeded, and cut into thin half moons
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup yogurt
1 tsp curry powder (or garam masala, or equal parts whole mustard seeds and whole cumin seeds)
1/2 c cilantro

In a strainer in the sink, toss the cucumbers with the salt and let sit for 15 - 25 min to draw out some of the excess moisture. Rinse and drain well, then toss together with the yogurt, curry, and cilantro.