Sacred Geometry on a Plate

Who knew that the most beautiful meal would come from the simplest ingredients? Join me as I share my latest culinary creation that's equal parts stunning, delicious, and sustainable – a roasted Romanesco cauliflower dish that might just change your relationship with vegetables forever.

The star of this show is Romanesco cauliflower – nature's sacred geometry in a vegetable with its mesmerizing fractal patterns. Unlike its plain white cousin, this variety boasts a buttery flavor that will make you wonder why you ever settled for ordinary cauliflower. By slicing it horizontally instead of vertically, you'll create flower-like discs that roast to perfection with just olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Beneath this vegetable masterpiece lies a velvety Cannellini bean puree, whipped up in minutes with minimal ingredients. Alongside this I served what I'm calling, the Over the Rainbow, Magic Carrot Salad.  

The best part? This entire meal generates zero food packaging waste while delivering maximum nutrition and flavor.

Whether you're a seasoned plant-based cook or simply curious about elevating your vegetable game, this episode offers a perfect balance of practical cooking technique and creative inspiration. Try it once, and I promise you'll be seeing vegetables in an entirely new light. And stay tuned for our next episode focused entirely on homemade hummus – because once you experience how easy and delicious it is to make from scratch, no on should ever ever buy it in a plastic container again!

Here's a quick recipe:

• Preheat the oven to 375°F

• Slice the Romanesco cauliflower horizontally into discs rather than vertical steaks for a much more beautiful presentation.
•  Toss w/olive oil, salt and pepper and roast for approximately 25 minutes
• Make the simple Cannellini bean puree by processing half a can of all organic Cannellini beans, a dent of garlic, the juice of half a lemon, a pinch of S & P and warm in a pan. 
• Slice the Rainbow Carrots into ribbons using a vegetable peeler. Then I added minced jalapeño and thinly slieced shallot rings for additional flavor and texture. Shower with a nice sprinkle of salt and toss to incorporate all the ingredients.  I dressed this w/the juice of one line, a splash of Japanese rice vinegar, mirin and a scant Tbls of Tahini

• The entire meal produces zero food packaging waste and is highly nutritious!

MINDFUL MEALS & SUSTAINABLE LIVING - The Art of Living an Elevated Lifestyle

Chapters

• 0:00 Introducing the Romanesco Masterpiece
• 1:50 Recipe Breakdown and Cooking Instructions
• 4:15 Creating the Rainbow Carrot Salad
• 6:40 Final Dressing and Serving Tips
• 9:15 Closing Thoughts and Next Episode Preview

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hi, my friends, I want to describe the most beautiful dinner I have made recently and that was a roasted Romanesco cauliflower on a bed of very simple cannellini bean puree, which I made in my mini little food processor with some lemon juice, definitely a dent of garlic and half a can of cannellini beans. I'm telling you, this is it. The Romanesco cauliflower is what looks like sacred geometry, it looks like the cone. Very beautiful. I'm telling you, once you eat this, you will never eat a white cauliflower again, and I'm a cauliflower fanatic. This, it's really buttery, it cooks off really easily and rather than cutting it like in stakes, like vertically, I cut it across so that they came out like discs, like little flowers, flattened flowers. But then and I put, I roasted it Very, very simple. I'll get into it in a little bit more detail, I'm just laying the ground for you. Then I also made this carrot salad because I used rainbow carrots, so it's like over the rainbow magic carrot salad. And again, why would I ever use just plain orange carrots, except at work? I don't think she's going to, she's not really a carrot eater, but this is the greatest meal I have made in the longest time. Took no time at all, absolutely no food packaging waste. Really nutritious and you'll feel great after it. So let me get started again in a little more detail about this fabulous dish. Just one minute.

Speaker 1: 1:51

Thanks for joining me for another episode of Recipes for Survival, mindful Meals and Sustainable Living. Okay, my friends, this is so funny because I'm sitting here thinking I really want to lay this out like a recipe for everybody. And when I first started well, hardly first started, but when I first was doing recipes for survival and I was only writing my recipes or whatever I was doing, my friend was like Dee, you never really give us a recipe, that's you, elise. Anyway, I am going to try to lay this out as a simple recipe for you because I think everybody should try it. Again, I'm making Romanesco roasted Romanesco cauliflower sliced across horizontally sliced across horizontally, the hemisphere, you might say on a bed of white cannellini bean puree with this magic over-the-rainbow carrot salad. So we will start as simple as we will start with a 375 degree oven.

Speaker 1: 3:12

Please preheat your oven and, if you're like me, take everything. I have to take everything out of the oven. I have one little. You can roast it in anything. You can just put it, even on aluminum foil. If you don't think you have the right pan, put it in a pot, put it in a pan, just you want to be. And then on a cutting board, you're simply going to take the Romanesco cauliflower and slice it across like the hemisphere so that you get flat discs rather than planks, the way they show with white cauliflower steaks and no wedges here, and then I'll certainly have a picture for you.

Speaker 1: 3:58

And then in your, however, you're going to roast it. You're just going to put I wish you would use salt of the earth You're going to do a little olive oil, salt and pepper, put it in the oven. I don't even maybe 25 minutes, but you want to definitely look at it. Let's say 25 minutes, so like 10, 12 minutes into the roasting or baking at a high heat. You don't really have to do it at 425. 375 will be fine. You'll look at it. You might want to turn it around a little bit, shake it up a little bit, but this should be done by 25 minutes. And while that's baking or baking, you're going to, if you would like to make the cannellini bean puree which I only used, I used for myself half a can of cannellini beans, a dent of garlic and the juice of half of a lemon and some salt of the earth, put that in the food processor and then I put that in a pan and got it really nice and warm.

Speaker 1: 5:13

And then I saw these carrots because I use Imperfect Foods, the delivery because I use Imperfect Foods, the delivery absolutely gorgeous. You've got to see these and anywhere I've looked for the rainbow carrots that's what they're called. They're just exquisite and don't I can't if anybody listens to Recipes for Survival and you buy carrots in a bag, no one, please. I should hope no one is buying carrots in a plastic bag. We got that right.

Speaker 1: 5:47

So when you have these beautiful carrots whether you use all orange ones, no, no worry, whatever, you're just gonna use a good all-organic carrot you certainly peel it and then with your peeler, whatever peeler you have I think a Swiss peeler is less than three dollars whatever your peeler. And then you're gonna make what they call ribbons and you're gonna collect that in a serving bowl and then, once you've and be very careful, because once it gets very thin, you don't, you can only get certain amount. You'll figure that out to get the ribbons and once you have all that done, you're going to sprinkle it with some salt and that begins to break down, so that the carrots will get softer. It breaks down their cellular walls, the salt, and it'll start to bring out some, you know, like they'll hydrate a little bit. And then here's, oh, what I did. Also, because I happened to have it around a small jalapeno pepper which I finely diced, and one shallot I went through, so I had rings on top of the carrot, the ribbons, the carrot ribbons, and then the dressing. I'm so dumb that I didn't write it down, but honestly, I think this is exactly what I did Lime juice, lime juice, juice of a lime.

Speaker 1: 7:34

I think everybody should have those little squeezers that's a nice thing the citrus squeezers, the juice of one lime, and then some rice vinegar, splashes of mirin, a little good splash of mirin, and then I did put a tablespoon of tahini. I am telling you, forget, of course, so much about it. It was really delicious the next day, but within some time, it didn't take long, it got really soft and just really easy and beautiful to eat with the roasted Romanesco cauliflower. And I'm telling you, my friends, that's it.

Speaker 1: 8:31

I will have some pictures on somewhere I don't know Instagram, maybe on the podcast. I don't even know what I'm doing, but I think what I'll do is certainly post the pictures of the meal and a link to the podcast, and if there are any questions, you should know how to reach me now. On Instagram, of course, and it's now I finally got it to be Donna R Goldman 1, because I had to use a fake name for a long time. Anyway, you can find me on Instagram and then, of course, d at recipes, the number for survivalcom. Thanks very much. And next week, the next episode is going to be all about hummus, because no one should be buying hummus in a plastic container. I'll leave you with that. Thanks so much. Talk to you soon and eat well, my friends, and keep a good force field around us. Much love.