Tuna and cauliflower bake

While on holiday I was served a cauliflower bake with sausage, tomato and three different kinds of cheese. It was to die for and I have made it several times since we got back home. The original recipe is however for a pasta bake and someone cleverly swapped the pasta for cauliflower. It worked a treat. 

Trying to be equally clever, I decided to make the same swap when making this tuna bake. I would say that it worked, even if it wasn't a life changing event to eat it. It could have done with more flavours. Although, saying that... We had the leftovers the following day and the subtle Mediterranean herbs had matured overnight and it was much nicer. Perhaps this is a dish to make one day and eat the next. Either way, it was one of those meals where I could almost feel my waist shrinking as I ate it.

Perhaps that's not surprising, considering the original was a Pinterest recipe by Slimming World. Not that I know how Slimming World works, but the recipe claimed to be syn free and that sounded good to me. I'm forever watching my weight and I'm currently trying to maintain a ten-ish kg weight loss, excess that I shed two years ago. Cutting things out of my diet and believing the latest high fat - low (or no) carb craze is not my thing. Everything in moderation is more suitable for me and a high fat diet makes me feel ill. Each to their own, just don't try to make me change.

I eat everything, pasta as well, but I pick my moments. Pasta is one of those things I could quite easily live on and find it hard to stop piling it onto the plate. Once it is on the plate, I will eat it. With that in mind, I try to swap it if it doesn't really matter. Some meals have to be served with proper pasta, others work really well with alternatives. Cauliflower is a great alternative and luckily I like it.

We eat a lot of vegetables, but it tends to be the same stuff. Every so often I try to insert something new and work out different ways to use it. The most recent addition to our fridge is turnip, a very plain and rather boring root. I'm yet to discover a glorious dish featuring the newcomer. As it happens, it was handy to have a couple of turnips in the drawer when the cauliflower head was too small for the bake. Turnip wedges had to fill the gap and they worked well as fillers. I don't think they would have been impressive as a complete swap, but dotted around the tray, they were fine.

Should you want to try this waist-shrinking bake, here is the recipe I used (tweaks included):

1 cauliflower head, cut into small florets

1 large turnip, cut into wedges

1 tin tuna in water, drained

1 onion, roughly chopped (I used red)

1 garlic clove, finely chopped or 1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 tin chopped tomatoes

1 pepper, roughly chopped

1/2 leek, sliced

1 fish stock cube, crumbled

splash of Worcestershire sauce

parsley & dill

salt & pepper

grated cheddar for sprinkling

fresh parsley for serving

1. Prepare and boil the cauliflower and turnip. Leave a little bite, so it doesn't go to mush in the bake.

As I was watching the vegetables boil, I realised that I should have baked them with seasoning instead. I considered draining them and shoving them into the oven, but decided against it because I was lazy. The result would probably have been better if I had gone with my instinct.

2. Prepare the onion, leek and pepper, as well as garlic, if you are using a clove.

I was out of fresh garlic. Can you believe it? Luckily I had garlic powder.

3. Soften the onion, leek and pepper and add the chopped tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce and fish stock cube.

4. Cook until the sauce has reduced enough to pass the path test.

You know about the path test by now and if you don't, the picture is quite self explanatory.

5. Put the drained cauliflower and turnip back into the saucepan. Add the tomato sauce and tuna. Add herbs, salt and pepper. Mix carefully, not breaking the cauliflower florets.

6. Spread the mixture into an oven tray.

7. Sprinkle with cheese and bake in the oven until the cheese has melted and turned golden.

8. Sprinkle with freshly chopped parsley.

9. Dish up and enjoy.

I decided that a side salad was needed to provide an crunchy element.

One day I may make this again, but with pasta and a bit of mozzarella in the mixture, perhaps a bit of crab as well... and prawns... Although a fairly plain dish, I reckon it has potential and it can be jazzed up to a much better meal. Perhaps no longer a syn free Slimming World recipe, but if you have a lighter lunch, you may be able to afford an evening treat.

Feel free to try something with this recipe as a base and let me know how you get one and share your tweaks. I'm always keen to learn new tricks.