Thursday, April 14, 2016

L is for Low Carb Grilled Cheese



I love grilled cheese sandwiches. My favorite kind is made with Velveeta and sandwich bread (and don't turn your nose up, because you KNOW you like Velveeta, even if it isn't cool to admit it). I don't like fancy shmancy grilled cheese (I have too many food rules for that), but I do like them made with "real" cheeses, like smoked gouda, pepper jack, and sharp cheddar, and I like different breads, too.

If you are trying to watch your carbs, however, grilled cheese sandwiches have to go by the wayside.

Or do they?

Here's the pin:
http://kirbiecravings.com/2015/08/
cauliflower-crusted-grilled-cheese-sandwiches.html

During last year's A to Z Challenge, I tried cauliflower bread sticks and found them, well, not very bread sticky, so my expectations were very low for this recipe.

First, the cauliflower had to be cut into small florets, stem removed. If you decide to make these, by the way, heed that "stem removed" thing, because when you get to the next step, you'll find the stemmy parts don't grind up in the food processor the same way the floret part does, and then you'll be sifting through a bowl of minced cauliflower with a chopstick, fishing out chunks of stem, or so I've heard.


Pulverized cauliflower

The cauliflower is then pulsed in a food processor until the crumbs are "half the size of a grain of rice," or my way, which is pulverize it until it doesn't look like cauliflower any longer. Then it is microwaved to remove much of the moisture. After it reaches a texture that is like someone "chewed it up and spit it back out," it is ready. Add an egg and parmesan cheese and Italian seasoning, then form the mixture into four squares on parchment or a silpat and bake at 450 degrees until lightly browned and crispy.





Shaped into "bread" slices.

According to the recipe, you now have four slices of cauliflower bread.

According to me, you have four squares of cauliflower pancakes.


Kind of hash browny looking.

The recipe writer suggested finishing the grilled cheese in the toaster oven, using the broil setting, as she thought the cauliflower bread was fragile. I decided if this stuff wanted to pretend to BE bread, then it could just be cooked on a griddle. I sprayed the griddle with a little cooking spray, laid a square on the griddle, covered it with white cheddar cheese, then covered it with another square. And I had no problem flipping them over and browning the other side.


Sideways picture and I don't care.

Another sideways picture and I STILL don't care.

I cut them neatly into triangles (because that's the ONLY way to cut a grilled cheese sandwich), one for my husband and one for me.


Well, it LOOKS kind of like a grilled cheese....


They were...interesting.

They weren't bad. In fact, they were pretty good, although I obviously didn't use half as much cheese in the middle as was used in the pin. 

But they weren't grilled cheese.

And I really like grilled cheese.

My husband's assessment said it best, "If you have been on a low carb diet and are DYING for a grilled cheese sandwich, then this might satisfy your craving. Otherwise, it's just an interesting way to eat cauliflower.

Interesting? Or PINteresting?



Int

16 comments:

  1. i love grilled cheese too and make them for the family on occasion for dinner - of course various kind but i don't think too fancy - although just recently i did grilled cheese sandwiches using chocolate bread yes a dark bread with chunks of chocolate (it was on sale at my supermarket I had to come with something with it)- it was good. :)

    i am curious when you grind the cauliflower was that raw?. I've seen many cauliflower substitute carbs recipes i have only cooked it a few times to swap out mashed potatoes to resemble mashed potatoes. nobody complained.

    so was this a win? i guess not being that "they weren't grilled cheese and you really like grilled cheese" ...at least you don't have cauliflower everywhere :)

    ReplyDelete
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    1. I'm too picky for the chocolate bread mixed with cheese.
      It was raw cauliflower. It gets cooked in the microwave. I made cauliflower cheesesticks last year for the challenge, and the cauliflower was steamed first, then squeezed through a ricer. It was a disastrous mess!
      It was really good, unless you are dying for a grilled cheese.

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  2. You know I love the idea of a grilled cheese with the bread slathered in butter. Which is why I probably haven't eaten one since I was a kid. I like cauliflower a lot roasted but not sure as a substitute for bread. Once I made a pizza crust with polenta (last year for P)
    and I had the same response as your husband - if you were gluten free and dying for pizza, maybe, just maybe.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. I don't eat them very often, but they're SOOOO GOOOOOOD!

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  3. I made a cauliflower pizza crust... kinda what the hubs said. and no velveeta. Its not the taste its the texture. creeps me out.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The cauliflower bread sticks or bread or pizza crust all have the same problem, and that's the texture.

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  4. (Sorry deleted first comment to fix typo.) I would have never thought of using cauliflower. I like my grill cheese too so I'm probably like you in that I might like it but it wouldn't really substitute for a true grill cheese.

    @WeekendsInMaine
    Weekends In Maine

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, just eat a grilled cheese. But it's a good way to eat cauliflower, although a lot of work.

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  5. Very interesting. Not a huge cauliflower fan so I would agree that these are no substitute for the real deal. I love me my grilled cheeses too!

    ReplyDelete
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    1. I love cauliflower, especially roasted. And yes, it's no substitute. Just different.

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  6. Hm. I'd fugeddabout the cheese, WAY fugeddabout the cauli, and just have TOAST!

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    1. By the time you left out the cauliflower and the cheese, I agree!

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  7. definitely sounds like an interesting way to eat cauliflower! I like cauliflower but I don't know that it would satisfy my craving for grilled cheese... I say take a walk on the wild side and have some bread... It's not going to kill us, after all. It's just a grilled cheese sandwich, right?? Or so I tell myself... :)

    Michele at Angels Bark

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It doesn't satisfy a grilled cheese craving at all, but it was pretty good. Will I ever make it again? Hmmmm, maybe.

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  8. Can't imagine going through all that trouble. I would just eat a bread grilled cheese or some roasted cauliflower. but then I am not on a no carb diet.

    Finding Eliza

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    1. I love roasted cauliflower, except that you get so little yield from a big cauliflower after all that moisture is roasted out!

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